Andrew Hayles

Research Associate

College of Medicine and Public Health

place Bedford Park
GPO Box 2100, ADELAIDE, SA, 5001

Dr Andrew Hayles is a postdoctoral Research Associate in the Biomedical Nanoengineering Laboratory at the College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders University. He has a keen research focus on antimicrobial materials, integrating microbiology, materials science, and biotechnology to combat microbial threats. He has significant translational experience, having worked on industrial-funded projects to commercialize a patented surface modification technique to produce antimicrobial nanostructures on titanium implants. As an early career researcher, Dr Hayles has been involved in multiple diverse projects, involving plasma-polymer surface modification, responsive nanoparticles and coatings, and biologically derived bioactive thin-films. Of note, he has spearheaded a novel field of research focused on exploiting the material-pathogen interface to promote the outcome of antimicrobial drugs against adherent pathogens. In this field, he has published multiple first-author and corresponding author publications in reputable journals including Acta Biomaterialia, npj Biofilms and Microbiomes and Advanced Biotechnology. 

Dr Hayles has secured >$100,000 in competitive grant funding as lead investigator, including a Channel 7 Children’s Research Foundation Annual Grant (2025) and Flinders Foundation Health Seed Grant (2025).

 

Qualifications

2018 - BSc (Biomedical Science) - University of Adelaide

2023 - PhD (Medical Biotechnology) - Flinders University

Honours, awards and grants
  • Channel 7 Children's Research Foundation Annual Grant 2025 ($39,815) - 'Plasma-enhanced bioactive wound dressings for treating paediatric Epidermolysis bullosa'
  • Flinders Foundation Health Seed Grant 2025 ($24,200)
  • Flinders University EMCR Support Package 2024 ($50,000)
  • ANSTO Australian Synchrotron Merit Beamtime ($163,920 in-kind)
  • Vice Chancellor's Award for Doctoral Thesis Excellence 
  • Selected among the top 10 publications of 2022 in Nanomaterials (https://www.mdpi.com/about/announcements/6539)
  • Inside front cover of Advanced Materials Interfaces vol. 9 no. 12 (https://doi.org/10.1002/admi.202270065)
  • Invited speaker at Adelaide Dental Research Day 2022
  • Faculty of Science Outstanding Achievement Award (University of Adelaide)
Key responsibilities
  • Leading research into antimicrobial materials and microiological interfacial science.
  • Management of the microbiology laboratory for the Biomedical Nanoengineering research group
  • Supervision of HDR students