Matthew Wylie graduated with a MPharm (1^st Class Honours) in Pharmacy from Queen’s University Belfast in 2013. After completing his Pre-Registration training year in community pharmacy and registering as a Pharmacist with the Pharmaceutical Society of Northern Ireland, Matthew returned to the School of Pharmacy at Queen’s University Belfast to study for a PhD in 'Preventative strategies against microbial contamination of medical devices and surfaces’. In 2015, Matthew took a four month break from his PhD to avail of an opportunity to act as a Research Associate on an Innovate UK ICURe research commercialisation project related to his PhD studies on stimuli-responsive antimicrobial technologies. He graduated in early 2018 and began his post-doctoral research within the School of Pharmacy’s Infection Control and Biomaterials research cluster which included a industry-academic collaboration and an EPSRC-funded research fellowship. Matthew was appointed as Lecturer in Pharmaceutical Materials Science in 2021.

Dr Wylie’s research is focused on medical device-related infection, the design of infection resistant materials and fundamental investigation of bacterial-surface interactions. A medical device-related infection is caused by the attachment and colonisation of sterile device surfaces (such as contact lens or orthopaedic implants) allowing the formation of biofilms which lead to infection in a patient. Due to the involvement of biofilm, medical-device related infections are a challenge to treat as they are more resistant to both host immune response and antimicrobial intervention. The interaction of bacterial cells and material surfaces is complex and bacteria possess numerous adaptive features to facilitate surface attachment and signal biofilm development to overcome and neutralise the effects of many surface-mediated and environmental antibacterial strategies. Matthew's research is multidisciplinary combining aspects of materials science, microbiology and chemistry to develop novel materials to combat against infection and provide alternative antimicrobial strategies to address the growing risk of antibiotic resistance.

Biomaterials

Hydrogels

Surface modification strategies

Ionic liquids / eutectic solvents

Bacterial-surface interactions

Triggered drug delivery