Biography

Michael Pycraft Hughes was born on Holy Island of the coast of Wales in 1970. He attended the University of Wales at Bangor for both his Master of Engineering (1992) and PhD (1995) studies, and has since worked in laboratories in the University of Glasgow (Scotland) and the MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston (USA). In 1999, he was appointed Lecturer in Microengineering at the Centre for Biomedical Engineering, in the School of Engineering at the University of Surrey. He has authored or co-authored over 60 journal papers, conference papers, and contributed book chapters, as well as a textbook (Nanoelectromechanics in Engineering and Biology, pub. 2002).

Research Interests

• Bioelectronics, including dielectrophoresis
• Laboratories on a chip
• Cellular bioelectrics applied to the study of cancer and drug effects on bactera
• Dielectrophoretic assessment of water quality
• Biosensors for the detection of pathogens
• Bioelectrics in tissue engineering
• Neural sensors
• Biomaterials for chronically implanted electrode devices
• Recording, analysis and decoding of neural signals in vivo
• The use of dielectrophoresis for the characterisation and manipulation of nanoparticles including carbon nanotubes.

Research Collaborations

I have collaborative links both within the university (including with the schools of electronics and physical sciences, biomedical and molecular sciences, postgraduate medicine, and the advanced technology institute) and external to the university (principally with DSTL).

Publications

Combined dielectrophoretic/electrohydrodynamic/evanescent-light-scattering biosensors for the detection of pathogenic organisms. KF Hoettges, A Cotton, NAE Hopkins, M McDonnell, MP Hughes. Engineering in Medicine and Biology (in press)

Water quality test based on dielectrophoretic measurements of fresh water algae Selenastrum capricornutum. Y Hübner, KF Hoettges, MP Hughes. Journal of Environmental Monitoring (in press)

Use of combined dielectrophoretic/electrohydrodynamic forces for biosensor enhancement. KF Hoettges, MP Hughes. Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics 2003 36 L101-L104

Assessment of multidrug resistance reversal using dielectrophoresis and flow cytometry. FH Labeed, HM Coley, H Thomas, MP Hughes. Biophysical Journal 85 2028-2034

Dielectrophoretic assay of bacterial resistance to antibiotics. J Johari, Y Hübner, J Hull, JW Dale, MP Hughes. Physics in Medicine and Biology 2003 48 N193-N196

Dielectrophoresis for Assessment of Drug Action. MP Hughes, KF Hoettges, FH Labeed, HO Fatoyinbo, Y Hübner. 15th International Bioanalytical Forum (Guildford, UK, 2003)

Dielectrophoretic assessment reveals major differences in the biophysical properties of the membrane and cytoplasm of MDR versus parental lines. FH Labeed, MP Hughes, H Thomas, HM Coley. Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer research (Washington DC, USA, 2003)

Dielectrophoresis of particles on the nanometer scale (Invited lecture. )MP Hughes. Annual Meeting of the American Physical Society (Austin, USA 2003)

Patent: Device for Dielectrophoretic Manipulation of Particles. MP Hughes, KF Hoettges, SL Ogin, R Wattingham. GB/0304720.6
Filed 28th February 2003