Prof. Fred Mclafferty officially opened the new FTICR laboratory at Milburn house.

Date:	Tuesday 20 July 2010
Time:	2pm to 6pm
Location:	MS01, Mathematics Institute
Open To:	Everyone
Cost:	Free
Summary:	Symposium to celebrate the award of honorary degrees to Professor Bob Grubbs and Professor Richard Lerner.   Programme: Chair: Professor Dave Haddleton 2pm Professor Bob Grubbs, California Institute of Technology 3pm Dr Andrew Dove, University of Warwick, Department of Chemistry 3:30pm Coffee Chair: Professor Greg Challis 4pm Dr Emma Anderson, University of Warwick, Department of Biological Sciences 4:30pm Professor Richard Lerner, Scripps Research Institute 5:30pm Reception

The latest Research Assessment Exercise (RAE 2008) confirms Warwick Chemistry as one of the best Chemistry Departments in the UK. An impressive 75% of its research activity was rated as either world-leading (4*) or internationally excellent (3*) according to a panel of independent experts.  With all its academic staff submitted for the RAE, the Department can now confidently boast of excellence across all its research clusters.

A precious metal which has never before been used in a clinical setting is being developed as an anti-cancer agent by University of Warwick researchers. The metal, osmium, is closely related to platinum, which is widely used to treat cancers in the form of the drug cisplatin. Most famously, the cyclist Lance Armstrong was treated with cisplatin for testicular cancer.

Now the researchers, based in the Department of Chemistry, at the University of Warwick, are working closely with Warwick Ventures, the university’s technology transfer office, to seek partners to help develop the potential of osmium through more extensive biological tests. The team will be presenting their work on 9 December at the national university technology showcase event, Bioversity.

Professor Peter Sadler, of the Department of Chemistry, explained: "Although cisplatin has been proven to be a very successful treatment; it is not useful for all kinds of cancer. It is also quite a toxic therapy, which can produce side effects and, from a clinical point of view, cells can also become resistant to platinum."

Osmium, with its special chemical properties, offers a new potential solution to an unmet clinical need. It has shown huge promise in treating several different types of cancer cell, including ovarian and colon cancers which have been developed and tested in the laboratory. The metal also has another advantage in that it is a much cheaper alternative to platinum.

Peter Sadler was invited by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT, USA) to give the 2008-2009 Davison lecture in chemistry. His lecture was entitled:  Using metal coordination chemistry to design new medicines.

The Davison lecture was named after prof. Alan Davison, an Englishman who invented cardiolite and who spend most of his career at MIT, becoming emeritus in 2005.

“Cardiolite® is now the leading cardiac imaging agent in the world. It is the only heart imaging agent FDA-approved to non-invasively evaluate the heart’s pumping ability (function) and gauge the amount of blood flow to the heart muscle itself (perfusion). Cardiolite® topped $2 billion (USD) in cumulative sales in 2004, and is the single largest royalty earner in the entire MIT portfolio, providing even more revenue than the royalties associated with Professor John Sheehan’s patents describing synthetic penicillin.”

 

 

The Macro Group UK met at Warwick Chemistry for their annual Frontiers in Science Meeting in Combination with the Young Persons Research Meeting.

148 delegates from all over the UK were attending the conference which made it the one of the largest and most successful meetings the Macro Group UK ever had of this type.

Dave Haddleton, Chair of the Macro Group UK said: "To have approximately 130 polymer chemistry students from all over the UK having such a great time scientifically and socially is fantastic for UK polymer chemistry and also for Warwick Chemistry and the University"

Chair organiser of the conference was assistant professor Andrew Dove from Warwick Chemistry.

Patrick Colver, a final year PhD student in Stefan Bon's group was one of the winners of the best poster prize.

Photos of the meeting can be found here