Dr Craig Bell
Affiliate Research Fellow of School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences
School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences
Researcher biography
Dr Craig Bell is an Industry Fellow with the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, and the Centre for Advanced Imaging. Since obtaining his PhD in 2011, he has been the recipient of two international fellowships, a prestigious Newton International Fellowship (2013-2014) funded by the Royal Society, and the NHMRC CJ Martin Early Career Fellowship (2014-2018). He has contributed scientific articles to various leading journals in his field, and is the co-inventor on two patents. His current research focus is on the development of degradable polymer devices for imaging and tracking of disease and cellular processes by using a tool-kit of controlled polymerisation techniques along with polymer and molecular coupling methodologies. The incorporation of degradable moieties into these constructs not only allows for enzymatic and hydrolytic degradation for complete body clearance of these constructs but also allows for tracking of these devices in vivo upon degradation to help elucidate cellular processes. Dr Bell currently engages with Aegros, a membrane fabrication and human serum fractionation company based in Sydney.
Book Chapter
Houston, Zachary H., Bell, Craig A. and Thurecht, Kristofer J. (2018). Hyperbranched polymers as nanocarriers. Encyclopedia of polymer science and technology. (pp. 1-27) Hoboken, NJ USA: John Wiley & Sons. doi: 10.1002/0471440264.pst159.pub2
Journal Articles
Balaji, Arunpandian, Prior, Amber R., O'Reilly, Rachel K., Dove, Andrew P., Thurecht, Kristofer J. and Bell, Craig A. (2024). Biodegradable mPEG-b-poly(MDO-co-vinyl esters) block copolymers as a viable nanocarrier platform with tuneable disassembly. Polymer Chemistry, 15 (12), 1152-1165. doi: 10.1039/d4py00049h
Balaji, Arunpandian, Bell, Craig A., Houston, Zachary H., Bridle, Kim R., Genz, Berit, Fletcher, Nicholas L., Ramm, Grant A. and Thurecht, Kristofer J. (2023). Exploring the impact of severity in hepatic fibrosis disease on the intrahepatic distribution of novel biodegradable nanoparticles targeted towards different disease biomarkers. Biomaterials, 302 122318, 1-18. doi: 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2023.122318
Huda, Pie, Humphries, James, Fletcher, Nicholas L., Howard, Christopher B., Thurecht, Kristofer J. and Bell, Craig A. (2023). Click‐on antibody fragments for customisable targeted nanomedicines – site‐specific tetrazine and azide functionalisation through non‐canonical amino acid incorporation. Chemistry–Methods, 4 (2). doi: 10.1002/cmtd.202300036
Athukoralalage, Sandya S. A., Bell, Craig A., Gemmell, Anna C., Rowan, Alan E. and Amiralian, Nasim (2023). Recent advances and future perspectives in engineering biodegradable face masks. Journal of Materials Chemistry A, 11 (4), 1575-1592. doi: 10.1039/d2ta08019b
Pizzi, David, Humphries, James, Morrow, Joshua P., Mahmoud, Ayaat M., Fletcher, Nicholas L., Sonderegger, Stefan E., Bell, Craig A., Thurecht, Kristofer J. and Kempe, Kristian (2022). Probing the biocompatibility and immune cell association of chiral, water-soluble, bottlebrush poly(2-oxazoline)s. Biomacromolecules, 24 (1), 246-257. doi: 10.1021/acs.biomac.2c01105
Fletcher, N. L., Prior, A., Choy, O., Humphries, J., Huda, P., Ghosh, S., Houston, Z. H., Bell, C. A. and Thurecht, K. J. (2022). Pre-targeting of polymeric nanomaterials to balance tumour accumulation and clearance. Chemical Communications, 58 (57), 7912-7915. doi: 10.1039/d2cc02443h
Ahmed, Salma E., Fletcher, Nicholas L., Prior, Amber R., Huda, Pie, Bell, Craig A. and Thurecht, Kristofer J. (2022). Development of targeted micelles and polymersomes prepared from degradable RAFT-based diblock copolymers and their potential role as nanocarriers for chemotherapeutics. Polymer Chemistry, 13 (27), 4004-4017. doi: 10.1039/d2py00257d
Janowicz, Phillip W., Houston, Zachary H., Bunt, Jens, Fletcher, Nicholas L., Bell, Craig A., Cowin, Gary, Howard, Christopher B., Taslima, Dewan, Westra van Holthe, Nicholas, Prior, Amber, Soh, Vanessa, Ghosh, Saikat, Humphries, James, Huda, Pie, Mahler, Stephen M., Richards, Linda J. and Thurecht, Kristofer J. (2022). Understanding nanomedicine treatment in an aggressive spontaneous brain cancer model at the stage of early blood brain barrier disruption. Biomaterials, 283 121416, 121416. doi: 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2022.121416
Kumar, Ashwani, Nothling, Mitchell David, Aitken, Heather M., Xiao, Zeyun, Lam, Mathew, Bell, Craig, O'Mara, Megan and Connal, Luke Andrew (2022). Simple synthetic route to a self-assembling enzyme-inspired transesterification catalysts. Catalysis Science and Technology, 12 (22), 6655-6659. doi: 10.1039/d2cy00744d
Wandel, Mary Beth, Bell, Craig A., Yu, Jiayi, Arno, Maria C., Dreger, Nathan Z., Hsu, Yen-Hao, Pitto-Barry, Anaïs, Worch, Joshua C., Dove, Andrew P. and Becker, Matthew L. (2021). Concomitant control of mechanical properties and degradation in resorbable elastomer-like materials using stereochemistry and stoichiometry for soft tissue engineering. Nature Communications, 12 (1) 446. doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-20610-5
Poli, Hamish, Mushtaq, Asim, Bell, Craig A., McGeary, Ross P., Grøndahl, Lisbeth and A, Anitha (2021). Optimisation of alendronate conjugation to polyethylene glycol for functionalisation of biopolymers and nanoparticles. European Polymer Journal, 155 110571, 110571. doi: 10.1016/j.eurpolymj.2021.110571
Simpson, Joshua D., Currin-Ross, Denni L., Ediriweera, Gayathri R., Schirra, Horst Joachim, Fletcher, Nicholas L., Bell, Craig A., Arno, Maria C. and Thurecht, Kristofer J. (2021). Cyanine-5-driven behaviours of hyperbranched polymers designed for therapeutic delivery are cell-type specific and correlated with polar lipid distribution in membranes. Nanomaterials, 11 (7) 1745, 1-18. doi: 10.3390/nano11071745
Pizzi, David, Mahmoud, Ayaat M., Klein, Tobias, Morrow, Joshua P., Humphries, James, Houston, Zachary H., Fletcher, Nicholas L., Bell, Craig A., Thurecht, Kristofer J. and Kempe, Kristian (2021). Poly(2-ethyl-2-oxazoline) bottlebrushes: How nanomaterial dimensions can influence biological interactions. European Polymer Journal, 151 110447, 1-9. doi: 10.1016/j.eurpolymj.2021.110447
Bexis, Panagiotis, Arno, Maria C., Bell, Craig A., Thomas, Anthony W. and Dove, Andrew P. (2021). Thermally-induced hyperbranching of bromine-containing polyesters by insertion of in situ generated chain-end carbenes dagger. Chemical Communications, 57 (35), 4275-4278. doi: 10.1039/d1cc00821h
Simpson, Joshua D., Monteiro, Patrícia F., Ediriweera, Gayathri R., Prior, Amber R., Sonderegger, Stefan E., Bell, Craig A., Fletcher, Nicholas L., Alexander, Cameron and Thurecht, Kristofer J. (2021). Fluorophore selection and incorporation contribute to permeation and distribution behaviors of hyperbranched polymers in multi-cellular tumor spheroids and xenograft tumor models. ACS Applied Bio Materials, 4 (3) acsabm.0c01616, 2675-2685. doi: 10.1021/acsabm.0c01616
Kane, Alexandra M., Liu, Cheng, Akhter, Dewan T., McKeone, Diane M., Bell, Craig A., Thurecht, Kristofer J., Leggett, Barbara A. and Whitehall, Vicki L. J. (2021). Curcumin chemoprevention reduces the incidence of Braf mutant colorectal cancer in a preclinical study. Digestive Diseases and Sciences, 66 (12), 4326-4332. doi: 10.1007/s10620-020-06752-y
dos Santos, Aline Martins, Meneguin, Andréia Bagliotti, Akhter, Dewan Taslima, Fletcher, Nicholas, Houston, Zachary H., Bell, Craig, Thurecht, Kristofer J. and Gremião, Maria Palmira Daflon (2021). Understanding the role of colon-specific microparticles based on retrograded starch/pectin in the delivery of chitosan nanoparticles along the gastrointestinal tract. European Journal of Pharmaceutics and Biopharmaceutics, 158, 371-378. doi: 10.1016/j.ejpb.2020.12.004
Sivaram, Amal J., Wardiana, Andri, Preethi, S. S. Hema, Fuchs, Adrian V., Howard, Christopher B., Fletcher, Nicholas L., Bell, Craig A. and Thurecht, Kristofer J. (2020). Effect of chain‐end chemistries on the efficiency of coupling antibodies to polymers using unnatural amino acids. Macromolecular Rapid Communications, 41 (21) 2000294, e2000294. doi: 10.1002/marc.202000294
Ju, Yi, Kelly, Hannah G., Dagley, Laura F., Reynaldi, Arnold, Schlub, Timothy E., Spall, Sukhdeep K., Bell, Craig A., Cui, Jiwei, Mitchell, Andrew J., Lin, Zhixing, Wheatley, Adam K., Thurecht, Kristofer J., Davenport, Miles P., Webb, Andrew I., Caruso, Frank and Kent, Stephen J. (2020). Person-specific biomolecular coronas modulate nanoparticle interactions with immune cells in human blood. ACS Nano, 14 (11) acsnano.0c06679, 15723-15737. doi: 10.1021/acsnano.0c06679
Sivaram, Amal J., Wardiana, Andri, Alcantara, Sheilajen, Sonderegger, Stefan E., Fletcher, Nicholas L., Houston, Zachary H., Howard, Christopher B., Mahler, Stephen M., Alexander, Cameron, Kent, Stephen J., Bell, Craig A. and Thurecht, Kristofer J. (2020). Controlling the biological fate of micellar nanoparticles: balancing stealth and targeting. ACS Nano, 14 (10) acsnano.0c06033, 13739-13753. doi: 10.1021/acsnano.0c06033
Humphries, James, Pizzi, David, Sonderegger, Stefan E., Fletcher, Nicholas L., Houston, Zachary H., Bell, Craig A., Kempe, Kristian and Thurecht, Kristofer J. (2020). Hyperbranched Poly(2-oxazoline)s and Poly(ethylene glycol): A structure–activity comparison of biodistribution. Biomacromolecules, 21 (8) acs.biomac.0c00765, 3318-3331. doi: 10.1021/acs.biomac.0c00765
Zhang, Cheng, Liu, Tianqing, Wang, Wenqian, Bell, Craig A., Han, Yanxiao, Fu, Changkui, Peng, Hui, Tan, Xiao, Král, Petr, Gaus, Katharina, Gooding, J. Justin and Whittaker, Andrew K. (2020). Tuning of the aggregation behavior of fluorinated polymeric nanoparticles for improved therapeutic efficacy. ACS Nano, 14 (6) acsnano.0c02954, 7425-7434. doi: 10.1021/acsnano.0c02954
Akhter, Dewan T., Simpson, Joshua D., Fletcher, Nicholas L., Houston, Zachary H., Fuchs, Adrian V., Bell, Craig A. and Thurecht, Kristofer J. (2020). Oral delivery of multicompartment nanomedicines for colorectal cancer therapeutics: combining loco-regional delivery with cell-target specificity. Advanced Therapeutics, 3 (2) ARTN 1900171, 1900171. doi: 10.1002/adtp.201900171
Ediriweera, Gayathri R., Simpson, Joshua D., Fuchs, Adrian V., Venkatachalam, Taracad K., Van De Walle, Matthias, Howard, Christopher B., Mahler, Stephen M., Blinco, James P., Fletcher, Nicholas L., Houston, Zachary H., Bell, Craig A. and Thurecht, Kristofer J. (2020). Targeted and modular architectural polymers employing bioorthogonal chemistry for quantitative therapeutic delivery. Chemical Science, 11 (12), 3268-3280. doi: 10.1039/d0sc00078g
Pizzi, David, Humphries, James, Morrow, Joshua P., Fletcher, Nicholas L., Bell, Craig A., Thurecht, Kristofer J. and Kempe, Kristian (2019). Poly(2-oxazoline) macromonomers as building blocks for functional and biocompatible polymer architectures. European Polymer Journal, 121 109258, 109258. doi: 10.1016/j.eurpolymj.2019.109258
Simpson, Joshua D., Ediriweera, Gayathri R., Howard, Christopher B., Fletcher, Nicholas L., Bell, Craig A. and Thurecht, Kristofer J. (2019). Polymer design and component selection contribute to uptake, distribution & trafficking behaviours of polyethylene glycol hyperbranched polymers in live MDA-MB-468 breast cancer cells. Biomaterials Science, 7 (11), 4661-4674. doi: 10.1039/c9bm00957d
Offenhäuser, Carolin, Al-Ejeh, Fares, Puttick, Simon, Ensbey, Kathleen, Bruce, Zara, Jamieson, Paul, Smith, Fiona, Stringer, Brett, Carrington, Benjamin, Fuchs, Adrian, Bell, Craig, Jeffree, Rosalind, Rose, Stephen, Thurecht, Kristofer, Boyd, Andrew and Day, Bryan (2018). EphA3 pay-loaded antibody therapeutics for the treatment of glioblastoma. Cancers, 10 (12) 519, 519. doi: 10.3390/cancers10120519
Bexis, Panagiotis, Thomas, Anthony W., Bell, Craig A. and Dove, Andrew P. (2016). Synthesis of degradable poly(ϵ-caprolactone)-based graft copolymers via a "grafting-from" approach. Polymer Chemistry, 7 (46), 7126-7134. doi: 10.1039/c6py01674j
Bell, Craig A., Yu,Jiayi, Barker, Ian A., Truong, Vinh X., Cao, Zhen, Dobrinyin, Andrey V., Becker, Matthew L. and Dove, Andrew P. (2016). Independent control of elastomer properties through stereocontrolled synthesis. Angewandte Chemie - International Edition, 55 (42), 13076-13080. doi: 10.1002/anie.201606750
Bell, Craig A., Hedir, Guillaume G., O'Reilly, Rachel K. and Dove, Andrew P. (2015). Controlling the synthesis of degradable vinyl polymers by xanthate-mediated polymerization. Polymer Chemistry, 6 (42), 7447-7454. doi: 10.1039/c5py01156f
Hedir, Guillaume G., Bell, Craig A., O'Reilly, Rachel K. and Dove, Andrew P. (2015). Functional degradable polymers by radical ring-opening copolymerization of MDO and vinyl bromobutanoate: synthesis, degradability and post-polymerization modification. Biomacromolecules, 16 (7), 2049-2058. doi: 10.1021/acs.biomac.5b00476
Hedir, Guillaume G., Bell, Craig A., Leong, Nga Sze, Chapman, Emma, Collins, Ian R., O'Reilly, Rachel K. and Dove, Andrew P. (2014). Functional degradable polymers by xanthate-mediated polymerization. Macromolecules, 47 (9), 2847-2852. doi: 10.1021/ma500428e
Bell, Craig A., Jia, Zhongfan, Perrier, Sebastien and Monteiro, Michael J. (2011). Modulating catalytic activity of polymer-based cuAAC "click" reactions. Journal of Polymer Science Part A-Polymer Chemistry, 49 (21), 4539-4548. doi: 10.1002/pola.24896
Bell, Craig A., Bernhardt, Paul V. and Monteiro, Michael J. (2011). A rapid electrochemical method for determining rate coefficients for copper-catalyzed polymerizations. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 133 (31), 11944-11947. doi: 10.1021/ja205193f
Bell, Craig A., Jia, Zhongfan, Kulis, Jakov and Monteiro, Michael J. (2011). Modulating two copper(I)-catalyzed orthogonal "click" reactions for the one-pot synthesis of highly branched polymer architectures at 25 °c. Macromolecules, 44 (12), 4814-4827. doi: 10.1021/ma200649b
Jia, Zhongfan, Bell, Craig A. and Monteiro, Michael J. (2011). Rapid and highly efficient functionalization of polymer bromide end-groups by SET-NRC. Macromolecules, 44 (7), 1747-1751. doi: 10.1021/ma200148b
Jia, Zhongfan, Bell, Craig A. and Monteiro, Michael J. (2011). Directing the pathway of orthogonal 'click' reactions by modulating copper-catalytic activity. Chemical Communications, 47 (14), 4165-4167. doi: 10.1039/c0cc05478j
Kulis, Jakov, Bell, Craig A., Micallef, Aaron S. and Monteiro, Michael J. (2010). Kinetic analysis of nitroxide radical coupling reactions mediated by CuBr. Journal of Polymer Science, Part A: Polymer Chemistry, 48 (10), 2214-2223. doi: 10.1002/pola.23991
Lonsdale, DE, Bell, CA and Monteiro, MJ (2010). Strategy for rapid and high-purity monocyclic polymers by CuAAC "click" reactions. Macromolecules, 43 (7), 3331-3339. doi: 10.1021/ma902597p
Bell, Craig A., Sun, Qiao, Zhang, Hong, Smith, Sean C., Bernhardt, Paul V. and Monteiro, Michael J. (2010). Methyl acrylate polymerizations in the presence of a copper/N3S3 macrobicyclic cage in DMSO at 25 °C. Polymer Chemistry, 1 (2), 207-212. doi: 10.1039/b9py00315k
Bell, CA, Bernhardt, PV, Gahan, LR, Martinez, M, Monteiro, MJ, Rodriguez, C and Sharrad, CA (2010). Copper(II) complexes of a hexadentate mixed-donor N3S3 macrobicyclic cage: Facile rearrangements and interconversions. Chemistry: A European Journal, 16 (10), 3166-3175. doi: 10.1002/chem.200902611
Kulis, J., Bell, C.A., Micallef, A.S. and Monteiro, M.J. (2010). Ultrafast and reversible multiblock formation by the SET-nitroxide radical coupling reaction. Australian Journal of Chemistry, 63 (8), 1227-1236. doi: 10.1071/CH10092
Kulis, Jakov, Bell, Craig A., Micallef, Aaron S., Jia, Zhongfan and Monteiro, Michael J. (2009). Rapid, selective, and reversible nitroxide radical coupling (NRC) reactions at amibient temperature. Macromolecules, 42 (21), 8218-8227. doi: 10.1021/ma9014565
Urbani, Carl N., Lonsdale, Daria E., Bell, Craig A., Whittaker, Michael R. and Monteiro, Michael J. (2008). Divergent synthesis and self-assembly of amphiphilic polymeric dendrons with selective degradable linkages. Journal of Polymer Science: Part A Polymer Chemistry, 46 (5), 1533-1547. doi: 10.1002/pola.22528
Urbani, Carl N., Bell, Craig A., Whittaker, Michael R. and Monteiro, Michael J. (2008). Convergent synthesis of second generation AB-Type miktoarm dendrimers using "Click" chemistry catalyzed by copper wire. Macromolecules, 41 (4), 1057-1060. doi: 10.1021/ma702707e
Lligadas, G., Rosen, B. M., Bell, C. A.., Monteiro, M. J. and Percec, V. (2008). Effect of Cu(0) particle size on the kinetics of SET-LRP in DMSO and Cu-mediated radical polymerization in MeCN at 25oC. Macromolecules, 41 (22), 8365-8371. doi: 10.1021/ma8018365?journalCode=mamobx
Urbani, Carl N., Bell, Craig A., Lonsdale, Daria, Whittaker, Michael R. and Monteiro, Michael J. (2008). Self-assembly of amphiphilic polymeric dendrimers synthesized with selective degradable linkages. Macromolecules, 41 (1), 76-86. doi: 10.1021/ma701993w
Bell, Craig A., Whittaker, Michael R., Gahan, Lawrence R. and Monteiro, Michael J. (2008). Outer-sphere electron transfer metal-catalyzed polymerization of styrene using a macrobicyclic ligand. Journal of Polymer Science Part A: Polymer Chemistry, 46 (1), 146-154. doi: 10.1002/pola.22366
Lonsdale, D. E., Johnston-Hall, G., Fawcett, A., Bell, C. A., Urbani, C. N., Whittaker, M. R. and Monteiro, M. J. (2007). Degradative chain transfer in vinyl acetate polymerizations using toluene as solvent. Journal of Polymer Science Part A-polymer Chemistry, 45 (16), 3620-3625. doi: 10.1002/pola.22101
Urbani, C.N., Bell, C.A., Lonsdale, D.E., Whittaker, M.R. and Monteiro, M.J. (2007). Reactive alkyne and azide solid supports to increase yield and purity of novel polymeric stars and dendrimers via the "click" reaction. Macromolecules, 40 (19), 7056-7059. doi: 10.1021/ma071121n
Bell, C. A., Smith, S. V., Whittaker, M. R., Whittaker, A. K., Gahan, L. R. and Monteiro, M. J. (2006). Surface-functionalized polymer nanoparticles for selective sequestering of heavy metals. Advanced Materials, 18 (5), 582-586. doi: 10.1002/adma.200501712
Conference Papers
Daniel, Sarah, Houston, Zachary, Fletcher, Nicholas, Bell, Craig, Atcheson, Nicole, Al-Najjar, Aiman, Howard, Christopher, Mahler, Stephen, Straw, Rod and Thurecht, Kristofer (2020). Canine PET/CT imaging with 64Cu-nanomedicines. SNMMI Annual Meeting, Online, 11-14 July, 2020. Reston, VA, United States: Society of Nuclear Medicine.
Baldwin, K., Bell, C. A., Blakey, I., Friese, M., Gentle, I., Schiller, T. L., Talbot, C. and Whittaker, A. (2006). SANS of four-layer polyelectroyte nanoparticles assembled using layer-by-layer deposition. Australian Polymer Symposium (APS), Rotorua, New Zealand, 5-9 February 2006.
Thesis
Bell, Craig (2011). Copper Catalysed Reactions for the Synthesis of Polymeric Architectures. PhD Thesis, School of Chemistry & Molecular Bioscience, The University of Queensland.
Patents
Monteiro, Michael, Whittaker, M. , Bell, C., Urbani, C. and Lonsdale, D. (2012). Dendritic molecules. US2012059173.