Dr Arno studied Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Technology at the University of Padova (Italy) from 2006 to 2011. She undertook her final year project at King’s College London, sponsored by an Erasmus scholarship, on the development of fluorescent therapeutic peptides. She then moved to the UK in 2012 to take up a PhD in Pharmaceutical Chemistry at King’s College London under the supervision of Prof. Robert Hider and Dr Sukhi Bansal. Her doctoral work focused on the development of peptide-like drugs for the treatment of pathologies linked to a dysregulation in iron metabolism. After her PhD she took up a Research Fellow position at the University of Warwick, investigating the biological interactions of polymeric nanoparticles and 3D scaffolds in vitro and in vivo with Prof. Andrew Dove. In 2018, the group moved to the University of Birmingham and she took up a Group Leader role in the Dove group, leading the Biomaterials research strand.
Dr Arno started her independent career at the University of Birmingham as a Birmingham Fellow and Assistant Professor in Polymeric Biomaterials in July 2020, jointly between the School of Chemistry and the Institute of Cancer and Genomic Sciences. She was then promoted to Associate Professor in August 2024.
Email: m.c.arno@bham.ac.uk
Office: Molecular Sciences Building, 233
Education
2012-2015: PhD in Pharmaceutical Chemistry
Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, King’s College London, SE1 9NH
2006-2011: MSci in Pharmaceutical Sciences
University of Padova, Italy
Academic Positions
August 2024-Present: UKRI Future Leaders Fellow and Associate Professor in Polymeric Biomaterials
School of Chemistry and Institute of Cancer and Genomic Sciences, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, B15 2TT
July 2020-July 2024: Birmingham Fellow and Assistant Professor in Polymeric Biomaterials
School of Chemistry and Institute of Cancer and Genomic Sciences, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, B15 2TT
September 2018-July 2020: Group Leader in Biomaterials Chemistry
School of Chemistry, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, B15 2TT
April 2018-August 2018: Research Fellow
School of Chemistry, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, B15 2TT
March 2015-March 2018: Research Fellow
Department of Chemistry, University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL
International Experience
June 2018-September 2018: Visiting Academic
Centre for Advanced Imaging, Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, The University of Queensland, Australia
September 2015-November 2015: Visiting Academic
University of Akron, USA
September 2014-November 2014: Visiting PhD student
Vifor Pharma, Chemical and Preclinical Research and Development, Switzerland
Selected presentations and lectures
- ACS Symposium ‘Polymers for Biomedical Applications’, virtual, 2025. Invited speaker
- Advanced Functional Polymers for Medicine, Utrecht, The Netherlands, 2024. Invited speaker
- IUPA Macro World Polymer Conference, Warwick, UK, 2024. Invited speaker
- International Symposium on Porous Organic Polymers, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, 2024. Invited speaker
- Nottingham Polymer Symposium, Nottingham, UK, 2024. Invited speaker
- MIBio, Cambridge, UK, 2023. Invited speaker
- Advanced Functional Polymers for Medicine, Nice, France, 2022. Invited speaker
- RSC Biomaterials Conference, Manchester, UK, 2020.
- 37 Australasian Polymer Symposium, Sunshine Coast, Australia, 2019. Invited speaker
- UNSW Polymer Symposium, Sidney, Australia, 2019. Invited speaker
- Women in Chemistry conference, Nottingham, UK, 2019. Poster prize
- CSIRO Polymer meeting, Melbourne, Australia, 2018, Invited speaker
- Centre for Advanced Imaging Seminar Series, The University of Queensland, Australia, 2018. Invited speaker
Awards
2024: UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship
2023: RSC Felix Franks Biotechnology Medal
2023: New Investigator Award
2022: ACS Rising Star Award (Bordeaux Polymer Conference)
2020: Birmingham Fellowship
2019: Birmingham International Engagement Fund
2019: RSC Competitive Travel Grant, Materials Division
2018: RSC Researcher Mobility Grant
Arno lab 