Research Focus -Long-acting injectable drug delivery platforms -Hydrogel materials in drug delivery and biomaterial applications Drug formulation and delivery Garry is a current Royal Society Leverhulme Trust Senior Research Fellow. Our Biofunctional Nanomaterials group research the design, development and formulation of self-assembling hydrogel platforms for healthcare applications based on peptides and peptide-like molecules. Our peptides have the ability to form hydrogel structures when triggered specific physiological stimuli (e.g. pH, temperature, enzymes). They have huge potential within the fields of drug delivery and biomaterials with the group's focus primarily on the development of sustained release drug delivery systems e.g. long-acting injectables to improve adherence to medicines, antimicrobial biomaterials and drug delivery systems with the ability to cross biological barriers. Using peptides provides a unique ability to tailor the peptide sequence to desired functional properties biocompatibility, biodegradability, mechanical strength, drug release and functionality. Our work is funded (£3.1 M) by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), the Medical Research Council (MRC), the Wellcome Trust, the Royal Society, the Leverhulme Trust, Innovate UK and Intertrade Ireland alongside successful applications to Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL, Grenoble) and the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) for neutron scattering beam time. Our most recent work relates to the development of an injectable in situ forming peptide hydrogel implant for sustained drug delivery. EPSRC, MRC and Wellcome Trust support has allowed this to be developed primarily for use in HIV/AIDs and combined contraception but this system is also showing promise for use in conditions with medication adherence and drug delivery issues (e.g. ocular use, cancer, tuberculosis, malaria, antipsychotics).