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University research


Since 1995, I have been collaborating with the University of Padua, Italy on biomedical research, and occasionally co-author scientific articles on biomedical research.

The research I carried out at Bristol University (1975-1985) involved metallography and structure of liquids. This work involved use of nuclear reactors/neutron sources in the UK, France and USA.


Research on green tea


This paper in Nature Medicine describes the powerful action of green tea in discouraging growth of new blood vessels essential to tumour invasion:

Garbisa S, Biggin S, Cavallarin N, Sartor L, Benelli R, Albini A. Tumour invasion: molecular shears blunted by green tea. Nature Medicine, 5 (11) (1999) 1216

Research articles


  1. Dingley D J, Biggin S. A comparison of the Kossel x-ray technique with the electron channelling technique. In Scanning Electron Microscopy: Systems and Applications. Inst. Phys., 1973, pp. 308-14
  2. Dingley D J, Biggin S. A ten-plate x-ray camera for the SEM. In Scanning Electron Microscopy: Systems and Applications. Inst. Phys., 1973, pp. 315-8
  3. Biggin S, Dingley D J. A general method for locating the x-ray source in Kossel diffraction. J. Appl. Crystallogr., 10 (1977) 376-85
  4. Biggin S, Dingley D J. Effects of internal strain and grain orientation on grain boundary cracking. NPL Report, 1977, 63 pp.
  5. Biggin S. Aspects of intergranular fracture of CuBi studied in the SEM. Proc. 9th Intern. Congr. Microscopy, Toronto, 1978, Vol. 1, pp. 600-1
  6. Dingley D J, Biggin S. Grain boundary structure, intergranular fracture and the role of segregants as embrittling agents. Phil. Trans. R. Soc., A295 (1980) 165
  7. Biggin S, Enderby J E. The structure of molten zinc chloride. J. Phys. C: Solid State Phys., 14 (1981) 3129-36
  8. Biggin S, Enderby J E. The structure of molten calcium chloride. J. Phys. C: Solid State Phys., 14 (1981) 3577-83
  9. Biggin S, Enderby J E. Comments on the structure of molten salts. J. Phys. C: Solid State Phys., 15 (1982) L305-7
  10. Enderby J E, Biggin S. Structural investigations of molten salts by diffraction methods. In G Mamantov (ed.), Advances in Molten Salt Chemistry, Vol. 5, pp 1-25, 1983, Elsevier (INVITED CHAPTER)
  11. Biggin S, Gay M, Enderby J E. The structure of molten magnesium and manganese chlorides. J. Phys. C: Solid State Phys., 17 (1984) 977-85
  12. Biggin S. Neutron diffraction studies of molten salts. Proc. 4th Internat. Symp. Molten Salts, May 1983 (Proc. 167th Meeting ECS, San Francisco, CA, USA), Electrochem Soc., Pennington, NJ, USA, Vol. 84-2, pp. 44-57 (INVITED)
  13. Biggin S. Neutron Diffraction Techniques for Molten Salts. In D G Lovering and R Gale (eds.), Molten Salt Techniques, Plenum Press, London, 1984, pp. 289-315 (INVITED CHAPTER)
  14. Biggin S, Enderby J E, Hahn R L, Narten A H. Hydration of the Cl- ion in neodymium chloride solutions determined by neutron diffraction. J. Phys. Chem., 88 (1984) 3634-8
  15. Biggin S, Blander M, Enderby J E. The structure of LiCl.AlCl3 melt. Proc. 5th Internat. Symp. Molten Salts, Oct 1985 (Proc. 168th Meeting ECS, Las Vegas, USA), Electrochem. Soc., Pennington, NJ, USA, Vol. 85 (INVITED)
  16. Biggin S. The Structure of Zinc Chloride Solutions. SISSA, Trieste, reprint, April 1986
  17. Parrinello M, Biggin S. Metalli liquidi (liquid metals). In G Chiarotti (ed.), Dizionario Enciclopedico di Fisica (Italian Physics Encyclopaedia), 1990 (INVITED)
  18. Garbisa S, Biggin S, Cavallarin N, Sartor L, Benelli R, Albini A. Tumour invasion: molecular shears blunted by green tea.Nature Medicine, 5 (11) (1999) 1216
  19. Cavallarin N, Sartor L, Benelli R, Albini A, Biggin S, Garbisa S. Abstracts VIII Metastasis Res. Soc., London, 24-27 Sept 2000
  20. Garbisa S, Sartor L, Biggin S, Salvato B, Benelli R, Albini A. Tumor gelatinases and invasion inhibited by the green tea flavanol EGCG. Cancer, 91 (4) (2001) 822
  21. Sartor L, Pezzato E, Dell'Aica I, Caniato R, Biggin S, Garbisa, S. Inhibition of matrix-proteases by polyphenols : chemical insights for anti-inflammatory and anti-invasion drug design. Biochemical Pharmacology, 64 (2002) 229-237
  22. Dell'Aica I, Caniato R, Biggin S, Garbisa S. New phytoweapons to curb leukocyte elastase, Drugs of the Future, Oct 2006, 31 (9) 827-85
  23. Dell'Aica I, Caniato R, Biggin S, Garbisa S. Matrix proteases, green tea, and hypericum: biomedical research catches up with folk medicine. Clinica Chimica Acta, 381 (1) (May 2007) 69-77

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