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Liam John Collard

Post-doctoral researcher
Researcher
Multifunctional Neural Interfaces with deep-brain regions
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About

Dr Collard is an interdisciplinary post-doctoral researcher working on the Nanobright project in IIT Lecce since 2019. He graduated with a 1st class honors degree in mathematics at the University of Leicester in 2013 and then completed a PhD with a thesis titled "Shape transformations in optically trapped particles and minimal surfaces: An experimental and theoretical study" at the University of Leicester in 2017. From 2017-2019 he worked as a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Nottingham school of physics working on Raman spectroscopy and lipid vesicles. 

In September 2019 he joined the European FET OPEN project Nanobright, aimed at developing a new generation of optical neural interfaces to bring plasmonics to the human brain. During the project he has been responsible for developing two bespoke optical setups designed to achieve spatially resolved plasmonic sensing at the tip of hair thin optical fiber. This resulted in two main peer reviewed publications in APL photonics (Editors pick, 2021), where a holographic method was used to finely tune the emission angle from an optical fiber and Small (2022), where he demonstrated spatially resolved, sub-cellular resolution plasmonic sensing at the tip of a fiber optic. A patent is also pending on the latter work.  Overall, he is interested in developing novel biosensers for the brain based on plasmonics, Raman spectroscopy, holography and optical fibers and more recently machine learning. 

Throughout his career, he has collaborated with researchers from a diverse range of scientific backgrounds and has assisted in the supervision of numerous undergraduate and postgraduate students. He has presented his work at numerous conferences (OSA, Optogen, MNE) and funding events (Medtech) and has also acted as a peer reviewer for Optica publishing group, Light science and applications and Elsevier.

Top Publications
2022
Zheng D., Pisano F., Collard L., Balena A., Pisanello M., Spagnolo B., Mach-Battle R., Tantussi F., Carbone L., De Angelis F., Valiente M., Liset D.L.P., Ciracì C., De Vittorio M., Pisanello F.
Toward Plasmonic Neural Probes: SERS Detection of Neurotransmitters through Gold Nanoislands-decorated Tapered Optical fibers with sub-10 nm Gaps
Advanced Materials
2021
Collard L., Pisano F., Pisanello M., Balena A., De Vittorio M., Pisanello F.
Wavefront engineering for controlled structuring of far-field intensity and phase patterns from multimodal optical fibers
APL Photonics, vol. 6, (no. 5)
2020
Faraj B.H.A., Collard L., Cliffe R., Blount L.A., Lonnen R., Wallis R., Andrew P.W., Hudson A.J.
Formation of pre-pore complexes of pneumolysin is accompanied by a decrease in short-range order of lipid molecules throughout vesicle bilayers
Scientific Reports, vol. 10, (no. 1)
2019
Collard L., Sinjab F., Notingher I.
Raman Spectroscopy Study of Curvature-Mediated Lipid Packing and Sorting in Single Lipid Vesicles
Biophysical Journal, vol. 117, (no. 9), pp. 1589-1598
2017
Collard L., Perez-Guaita D., Faraj B.H.A., Wood B.R., Wallis R., Andrew P.W., Hudson A.J.
Light Scattering by Optically-Trapped Vesicles Affords Unprecedented Temporal Resolution of Lipid-Raft Dynamics
Scientific Reports, vol. 7, (no. 1)
All Publications
2024
Collard L., Kazemzadeh M., Piscopo L., De Vittorio M., Pisanello F.
Data driven approaches to Raman imaging through a multimode optical fiber
Optogen 2024
Poster Conference
2024
Collard L., Kazemzadeh M., Piscopo L., De Vittorio M., Pisanello F.
Data driven approachs to Raman imaging through a multimode optical fiber
SPIE Photonics Europe
Report Conference
2024
Collard L., Kazemzadeh M., Piscopo L., De Vittorio M., Pisanello F.
Exploiting holographically end variance to transmit labelled images through a multimode optical fiber
Optics Express
Article in Press Journal
2023
Collard L., Pisano F., Zheng D., Balena A., Piscopo L., Kashif M. K., Pisanello M., de la Prida L. M., Ciracì C., Grande M., De Vittorio M., Pisanello F.
Holographic control of plasmonic fiber optics
Optogen 2023
Poster Conference
2023
Collard L., Pisano F., Zheng D., Balena A., Piscopo L., Kashif M. K., Pisanello M., de la Prida L. M., Ciracì C., Grande M., De Vittorio M., Pisanello F.
Holographic control of plasmonic structures on the distal facet of multimode optical fibers
META 2023, the 13th International Conference on Metamaterials, Photonic Crystals and Plasmonics
Report Conference
Awards and Achievements
2023
Collard L.
Outstanding reviewers of Light: Science & Applications (LSA) in 2023
2021
Collard L., Pisano F., Pisanello M., Balena A., De Vittorio M., Pisanello F.
Featured article in APL photonics