Mahdi Samapour

About me

I was born in Iran. I got my B.Sc. in Pharmaceutical Chemistry at Damghan University, and my M.Sc. in Quantum Materials, Energies & Technologies (QMET) at Khatam University. During my M.Sc. studies, I investigated the effect of the saffron extract on the aggregation of amyloid-beta peptides involved in Alzheimer’s disease.

Afterwards, I went to France to start my second M.Sc. at Sorbonne University in Materials chemistry. I conducted my M.Sc. thesis project in the LBM and BioCIS Laboratories and developed chemical ligation tools to access modified homeodomain proteins; for this project, I was awarded financial support from the Sciences and Technics Institute of CY Cergy Paris University.

Now, I’m a PhD candidate at University of Groningen and work on Smart Coatings.

About my research

Many industrial coatings lack responsiveness and recyclability. In this project, I aim to develop responsive bio-based coatings to be “smart” alternatives.

External stimuli (pH, ions, oxygen, or mechanical stress) can cause structural changes to the coatings and thus induce a visible color change. Moreover these coatings can act as a selective permeable membrane for chemicals or gases like H₂O, O₂ , etc.

The responsiveness of the polymer coatings can be tailored by modifying the assembly protocol and finetuning of the building block structures.

Taking advantage of the modularity of our coatings that contain hydrophobic polymers, peptidic motifs, and sensitizing units, I can easily design various types of novel responsive, and recyclable coatings.