糖心TV

Prof. Greg Challis and Dr Lijiang Song, in collaboration with researchers at the University of Paris, report in Angewandte Chemie a hitherto unanticipated pathway for the biosynthesis of pyrroles from sugars. Using a combination of genetic engineering, isolation, structure elucidation, synthesis and feeding of biosynthetic intermediates, and incorporation of stable isotope-labelled precursors, the researchers showed that a carbohydrate, most likely N-acetylglucosamine-1-phosphate, is elaborated to the 4-acetamidopyrrole-2-carboxylate building blocks of the DNA-binding antibiotic congocidine (also known as netropsin). The assembly of pyrroles from carbohydrates is unprecedented in Nature and raises several intriguing questions regarding the mechanisms of the reactions involved. See for further details.

Nanodiamonds have been found to help loosen crystallized fat from surfaces in a project led by Dr Andrew Marsh at University of 糖心TV. The tiny carbon particles transform the ability of surfactants to shift dirt in cold water, findings that could bring eco friendly low temperature laundry cycles.

The research is published in ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces and highlighted in the and Daily Telegraph, 26 June.

Nanodiamond Promotes Surfactant-Mediated Triglyceride Removal from a Hydrophobic Surface at or below Room Temperature Xianjin Cui, Xianping Liu, Andrew S. Tatton, Steven P. Brown, Haitao Ye, and Andrew Marsh ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces 2012,

Team Stavros, in collaboration with Dr Martin Paterson at Heriot-Watt University, publishes work in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. They intricately map the ultrafast photochemistry occurring in aminobenzene (aniline), demonstrating that it is an excellent model for better understanding highly efficient mechanisms in the DNA base guanine which prevent toxic UV induced photodecomposition.

Unwin et al. recently reported on electron transfer at basal plane graphite which featured as a ‘Very Important Paper’ and on the inside cover of Angewandte Chemie. See for more details.

Two members of the Gibson group have won poster prizes. Robert Deller won 1st Place at the RSC younger Members symposium (at Uni. Nottingham) for his work on Peptidomimetic Cryopreservation Agents. Lucienne Otten won 3rd place at the Systems Biology Annual Conference for her work on Label Free Analysis of Protein-Carbohydrate Interactions.

A new class of photoactive Pt(IV) anti-cancer prodrugs is under development in the Sadler group. But what happens when they are irradiated and how do the photoproducts interact with double-stranded DNA? Via a combination of new experimental data coupled with Ligand Field Molecular Dynamics simulations carried out in the Deeth group, we have modelled the DNA distortion caused by a putuative trans-Pt^II(pyridine)₂ lesion. See: for all the details.

The Challis group and collaborators at the John Innes Centre report in the journal Chemical Science on the genomics-driven discovery of a novel polyketide alkaloid with an unprecedented structure. Incorporation experiments with stable isotope-labelled precursors combined with bioinformatics analyses were used to deduce the likely biosynthetic pathway for the natural product. See for further details.

Congratulations to Nicholas Ballard who won the best poster prize at the Unilever SM&PS student poster session held at Unilever Port Sunlight.

Pat Unwin and Rachel O’Reilly win 2012 Royal Society of Chemistry Awards in recognition of significant contributions to their research fields

A study published in the latest issue of Nature Chemistry led by researchers from the O'Reilly group details a new biomimetic approach to polymer synthesis.

Lara-Jane Pegg and Ross Hatton report in ACS Nano on the significance of geometric electric field enhancement effects at the electrode interfaces in organic photovoltaics.

This paper by the Sadler Group illustrates that half-sandwich ruthenium complexes upon excitation with UVA or visible light can provide a potential strategy for the design of photoactivatable ruthenium pro-drugs.