Felix currently holds a Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship at McGill University. Working with Prof. Hanadi Sleiman, his work is centered on merging DNA nanotechnology with polymer chemistry to make robust, biocompatible materials for drug delivery. His research fuses chemistry, materials science and biology to develop new cancer therapies that will decrease the toxic side-effects of drugs.
Felix was born in Sydney, Australia. He comes from a diverse academic background, having completed a joint BSc/BA at the University of Sydney, with majors in chemistry, geophysics and archaeology. During his Honors year, he worked with Dr. Deanna D’Alessandro to generate porous, conductive polymers for integration into optoelectronic devices. For this work, he was awarded a full scholarship to conduct his PhD with Prof. Jonathan Nitschke at the University of Cambridge. Here, he designed discrete molecular architectures that were used to store small molecule payloads, ranging from natural products and steroids to metal complexes and interlocked machines.
Felix collaborates with groups in Europe, Japan and America, combining supramolecular chemistry with materials science to generate stimuli-responsive assemblies. His collaborations have investigated the structure of organometallic, metal-organic and oligomeric compounds: design principles learnt as a result have enabled the synthesis of ever-more topologically-complex materials for the generation of new optoelectronic, catalytic and delivery systems.
Felix has published eighteen peer-reviewed articles in some of the highest impact journals in chemistry. His research has been highlighted in Science, JACS, Nature journals and academic blogs. He has been recognized as a Scifinder Future Leader in Chemistry, has been awarded an ISMSC Travel Fellowship, and his presentations have won awards at the International Coordination Chemistry Conference, BP Day, and Chemistry Networks Event.
