神马福利影片

Professor Matthew Gibson has been awarded the 2021 McBain medal from the Society for Chemical Industry and Royal Society of Chemistry. This award is to "honour an early career researcher or technologist who has made a meritorious contribution to colloid and interface science." There were will be a special symposia late in 2021 where Matt will receive the medal and give a lecture.

Glycans (aka sugars, carbohydrates) direct many recognition and signalling processes in biology. Multivalency (presentation of lots of copies) is crucial to overcome glycans intrinsic low affinity, hence materials (polymers, particles, surfaces) which display them are appealing probes of function, or as new diagnostics (e.g. s). However, most studies use simple monosaccharides, which may not have selectivity or are only tested against plant proteins. In this work, we collaborated with teams from Bristol, York and Southampton - our collaborators developed a chemoenzymatic synthesis to obtainselectively fluorinated glycans based on lacto-N-biose. Fluorine is appealing as it is small, does no have significant effects on conformation, but can change hydrogen bonding patterns. These glycans were incorporated into our polymer-stabilised nanoparticle platform, and found to modulate the affinity towards 2 galectins -an important class of galactose-binding biomarkers. This work shows that unnatural glycan-functional nanoparticles could be deployed as biosensors.

Oxidative Addition of a Mechanically Entrapped C(sp)-C(sp) Bond to a Rhodium(I) Pincer Complex

By use of a macrocyclic phosphinite pincer ligand and bulky substrate substituents, researchers in the Chaplin group have demonstrated how the mechanical bond can be leveraged to promote the oxidative addition of an interlocked 1,3鈥恉iyne to a rhodium(I) center. The resulting rhodium(III) bis(alkynyl) product can be trapped out by reaction with carbon monoxide or intercepted through irreversible reaction with dihydrogen, resulting in selective hydrogenolysis of the C鈭扖 蟽鈥恇ond.

HOT article in Angew. Chem. Int. Ed.

Resistance has emerged to vancomycin, a last-resort antibiotic for treatment of MRSA. The VanSR regulatory system induces expression of resistance genes upon exposure; however, the mechanism of vancomycin detection was unclear. Through solution NMR and other biophysical methods, we reveal a direct interaction between vancomycin and the extracellular domain of VanS from Streptomyces coelicolor. The VanS-binding epitope within vancomycin was mapped to a region distinct from the binding site for Lipid II. In targeting a separate site, the effective VanS ligand concentration includes both free and lipid-bound molecules, facilitating VanS activation. This is the first molecular description of the VanS/vancomycin interface, and could direct engineering of future therapeutics.

The International Polymer Colloid Group (IPCG) was founded in 1972 as a global forum for the exchange of ideas and emerging research activities for scientists and engineers from both academia and industry who study or use polymer colloids.

It is a vibrant scientific international community who normally meet face-to-face every two years to discuss the latest global developments related to polymer colloid science (2013 Shanghai, 2015 New Hampshire, 2017 the Basque Country, 2019 Singapore).

As a result of the global COVID19 pandemic, prof. dr. ir. Stefan Bon came up with the idea to take the IPCG forum online with a series of weekly scientific webinars, called the i-PCG 2020 Webinars. Anyone who is interested in science can participate as audience member, or even better, as presenter. Expect to interact with the world top in polymer colloid, with expert participants from industry, academia and enthusiasts. All is free.

Chemistry World Today highlights Shipman Group Research into 'Synthetic strategy exploits fluxional nitrogen to deliver three chiral centres for the price of one'