Staff profile

I graduated with BSc in biochemistry from York university in 2020 and spent 2.5 years working at a biotechnology company in industry before starting a PhD in Professor Heddle’s lab. I’m interested in how biological molecules interact, how molecular machines work on a biochemical basis, and how this can be harnessed in biotechnology and synthetic biology to build new structures and systems.

My PhD research project is the design and construction of a DNA nanomachine for immune modulation, taking advantage of the structure of DNA and artificial exosomes to create nanomachines which can influence immune cells.

Journal Article

• Tools For Building Artificial Biological Nanostructures
  
  Bradford, T. S., Hutchings, S., Liston, J. D., Pakosz-Stepien, Z., Sanderson, A., Shaukat, A., Bentham, A., Lin, T., Stepien, P., & Heddle, J. G. (2026). Tools For Building Artificial Biological Nanostructures. ACS Nano, 20(22), 15801-15834. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.5c14315
• Precise Capture of Membrane Proteins Using DNA‐Origami‐Constrained Nanodiscs
  
  Stepien, P., Wilkens, G., Swiatek, S., Robles, M. Y., Swietlikowska, A., Hutchings, S., Ghilarov, D., & Heddle, J. G. (2026). Precise Capture of Membrane Proteins Using DNA‐Origami‐Constrained Nanodiscs. Small Structures, 7(4), Article e202500688. https://doi.org/10.1002/sstr.202500688
• Precise Capture of Membrane Proteins Using DNA‐Origami‐Constrained Nanodiscs
  
  Stepien, P., Wilkens, G., Swiatek, S., Robles, M. Y., Swietlikowska, A., Hutchings, S., Ghilarov, D., & Heddle, J. G. (2026). Precise Capture of Membrane Proteins Using DNA‐Origami‐Constrained Nanodiscs. Small Structures, 7(4). https://doi.org/10.1002/sstr.202500688