Lucas grew up in London and completed his Joint Honours MSci in Chemistry and Physics in Durham University (2017). During his Master’s, Lucas looked at forcefield (ClayFF, ClayFF-Mod, InterfaceFF and ReaxFF) validation and thermodynamic characterisation in systems with dynamic low salinity fluids between montmorillonite clay mineral layers. This project later turned into an investigation into the fluid’s viscous behaviour at low interlayer spacing and basal surface flow. Lucas then moved into biophysics with Matteo for his PhD at Durham, looking at the development of volumetric descriptors that account for both dynamics and electrostatics in a protein-protein dockin scenario. In this context, Lucas is the developer of JabberDock, a protein docking algorithm accommodating for local dynamics. He is also interested in the behaviour and dynamics of the transmembrane protein integrin, which is partly responsible for cancer metastasis.
Degiacomi research group 