PIKE RESEARCH GROUP

Alex completed his undergraduate degree at The University of Birmingham, England in 2021. He worked on his MSci project under the supervision of Dr Anna Peacock, researching and analysing DNA-peptide interactions for applications in synthesising mechanically interlocked peptide-DNA rotaxanes. He supports AFC Wimbledon and enjoys playing the saxophone and keeping fit in his spare time.

Sena Ozturk completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Kent, Canterbury in 2021. After getting her Bachelor’s, she continued onto a Masters at the University of Kent under the supervision of supramolecular chemist, Prof Jennifer Hiscock. Her research involved “Synthesis and study of potential fluorescent sensors and steps towards understanding a new class of SSAs”. She is now doing her Ph.D. under the supervision of Dr Sarah Pike, and is working on the development of responsive oligomers for functional applications. She also supports AFC Wimbledon, enjoys playing on her Nintendo SwitchTM, and reading. She is also enjoys writing about herself in the third person,

Moosa completed his MSci degree earlier this year. For his MSci project, he worked in the O'Reilly group, investigating click chemistry for use in DNA-templated synthesis. Moosa is now pursuing a PhD in the Pike group as a joint project student with Dr Chiara Arno, this project is funded by the The Centre for Doctoral Training in Topological Design (CDT). In his spare time, he likes watching football and supports Aston Villa. He also enjoys following cricket and playing video games.

Katie completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Birmingham in 2023. She worked on her MSci project supervised by Prof James Tucker researching the use of ferrocene nucleic acids to sense mercury. In her spare time, Katie is an avid dancer taking part in national competitions on both the university and open circuit. She also enjoys doing cross-stitching and calligraphy to relax.

Harry completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Birmingham. His Msci project was under the supervision of Dr Georgia Orton studying structure-property relationships of metal organic materials with flexible linkers. He is now doing a PhD in the Pike group, co-supervised by Dr Georgia Orton. In his spare time, he likes to write songs, eat vegetables, and dream about molecules. 

Maariyah is a fourth-year chemistry student at the University of Birmingham who is undertaking a MSci research project with the Pike Research Group in the academic year 2025-2026. Having previously completed a year 3 mini project in synthesising oligomers with stable secondary helical foldamer structures under the supervision of Dr. Sarah Pike, Maariyah was able to explore her career interests and found them to lie in the biopharmaceutical sector leading her to choose to work with the research group. Maariyah has successfully completed different internship programmes in different sectors across Chemistry, Physics and Engineering including those provided under the Enhancement Scholarship and Nuffield Research Placement schemes and is now looking to further her development in the research sector. She will now look to work on synthesising metallosupramolecular architectures for sensing. Maariyah likes to watch and play team sports including football and basketball and enjoys cooking in her free time.

​"Alice is a fourth year MSci Chemistry with Medicinal Chemistry and Drug Discovery student completing her Masters project jointly supervised with Dr Sarah Pike and Dr Georgia Orton. In her third year, Alice completed the Oligomers mini project created by Dr Sarah Pike which sparked a specific interest in synthetic supramolecular chemistry. In her spare time, Alice enjoys completing jigsaw puzzles, listening to music, and playing netball."