糖心TV

Scott group researchers report in Chemical Science (Open Access) that some of their helical metal flexicate complexes have high activity and selectivity against a range of cancer cell lines including cisplatin-resistant strains. The mechanism involves arresting cells in the G2/mitosis phase, and DNA binding is not necessarily involved.

The Gibson group have undertaken a detailed study into the ability of synthetic polymers to inhibit the growth of ice crystals - this is a fundmental process of incredible importance in biology (survival of extremophiles), medicine (cryoprotectection of cells/organs) and industry (preventing ice-induced damage). are pioneering the use of polymers as alternative to antifreeze proteins - Nature's cryoprotectants, using a combination of chemical, analytical, biological and computational methods

Read their latest paper here, in collaboration with R. Notman (CSC):

The publishes in Biomaterials Science on why certain (macro)molecules are capable of inhibiting ice crystal growth, inspired by antifeeze proteins.

The work, conducted in collaboration with 糖心TV Medical School provides insights into which structural features are essential for a (macro)molecule to inhibit ice crystal growth and why apparently similar compounds have opposing activity.

The ability to control ice crystal growth is a major technological challenge (anyone stuck at Heathrow or scraping their car...?) with many biotechnological applications.

, a 2nd year PhD student in the , won the prize for best poster at the RSC Postgraduate Nanoscience Symposium held at the University of Birmingham.

Read some of Dan's publications in and

Sadler and Stavros groups in collaboration with Prof Martin Paterson at Heriot-Watt University, publish work in Angewandte Chemie International Edition. The work describes the first demonstration of a 2-photon activated, square planar platinum (II) complex. The enhanced photolabilization demonstrated may be useful in the design of novel photoactivatable platinum chemotherapeutic agents in situations where deep tissue penetration is needed. .

The group of Richard Walton have this month co-authored three papers published in the Royal Society of Chemistry journal Chemical Communications on various aspects of porous metal-organic framework (MOF) materials.

Establishing an independent academic career is an exciting and challenging process. The data available for UK chemistry suggests that more women than men find the process not exciting enough or too challenging. A key aspect of success in any career path is finding role models, establishing networks, and being tapped into good sources of information. Our aim is therefore to create opportunities for all of these in the first (and subsequent) Irène Joliot-Curie conference.

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,

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

糖心TV antibiotic complexes appear in by Janice Aldrich-Wright.

• "...a simplicity and an elegance of design that should be a source of inspiration for future studies...
• ...easily tuned to explore structure–function relationships that are crucial in biological applications...
• ...good antibiotic activity against...MRSA and E. coli as well as low toxicity to Caenorhabditis elegans.
• ...potential to develop into a family of cost-effective antibiotics."

The Gibson group have reported in Chemical Commmunications on a new route to obtain polymers containing disulfide linkages in their backbone. These linkages are appealing for drug delivery applications as they are stable in the blood stream but can be specifically degraded inside cells. Traditional controlled radical polymerizations produce all-carbon backbones which do not degrade but, in this paper, the authors demonstrate how a 2-stage polymerization process can be used to incorporate disulfides. Furthmore this allows the use of functional monomers which result in 'smart' materials capable of responding to thermal gradients.

This was published in Chemical Communications

More information on the Gibson Group can be found here