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Dr Matt Baker is a Scientia Associate Professor in the School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences at the University of New South Wales.

Matt completed his DPhil in Physics at Oxford University as a John Monash Scholar studying the bacterial flagellar motor that makes nearly all bacteria swim. Subsequently Matt investigated protein transport in Oxford's Chemistry Research Laboratory and in the Department of Biochemistry. Upon his return to Australia, Matt focused primarily on how simple subunit interactions govern assembly of complex architectures, including the rotor () and filament () of the bacterial flagellar motor. The next question is how this complexity emerged. To begin addressing this, Matt's nascent group at UNSW looks at how ion selectivity changes using directed evolution (, ) to examine the evolutionary landscape that constrains the adaptation of the motor (). We then use this knowledge to examine potential applications of the flagellar motor elsewhere (, ).

Our group also investigates that in synthetic lipid bilayers (). These are essential at all scales of life, in bacteria to respond to osmotic shock and in mammals in the sense of touch and hearing and are involved in cancer progression and arthritis. In collaboration with , we probe membrane dynamics and interactions using novel DNA nanotechnology (Nanoscale 2019, ), with the ultimate goal to control membrane communication using de novo DNA nanotechnology.

Matt also has a love of radio: he was a Top 5 Under 40 Scientist in Residence at the ABC in 2015 and has continued since then asÌýtheÌýregular science presenter on , broadcast on ABC Local across Australia, and by producingÌýcontent for the , , Saturday Extra and on ABC's Radio National. He is currently a 'Resident Scientist' on - Sydney's First Nations Radio station and also on 's flagship weekend breakfast show with Kim Hill. He also has applied his data skills to journalism; he was Australia's inaugural in 2016 when he was embedded at the Sydney Morning Herald. Matt is active in Australia-China relations and has been an delegate and panel chair at the since 2015.

Currently our group consists of 5 PhD students, 4 postdocs and 2 Hons students working in roughly a fifty-fifty split across flagellar and in vitro lipid/DNA projects. At any stage we welcome applications for PhDs and Hons students. We have recently by the , so applicants interested in postdoctoral opportunities should get in touch.

A collection of links can be found on Matt's .

Matt teaches in the School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Science. He is co-convener of 3rd Year synthetic biology (BABS3200) focusing on DNA nanotechnology and directed evolution approaches, and he gives guest lectures into 1st Year Genes, 2nd Year Microbiology, 3rd Year Environmental Microbiology and 3rd Year Microbial Genetics.