Two virtual reality videos have been released for this month's Stand Up To Cancer event which showcase research from the University of Warwick and are narrated by actress Olivia Colman and Stephen Fry.

Scientists at Warwick University have discovered an incredible new way of administering chemotherapy drugs which is more effective and safer for the patient.

Stand Up To Cancer is a joint fundraising campaign from Cancer Research UK and Channel 4, which aims to accelerate ground-breaking research, like that being done in Coventry, in order to save lives.

We are pleased to announce Ezat Khoshdel has been appointed as an Honorary Professorial Fellow in the department. Ezat has been a long-standing collaborator with the department with multiple projects over 25 years. Ezat has recently retired from Unilever where he was the inventor of over 150 patents, the largest number of any Unilever employee. Ezat will be more than happy to discuss ideas and work across the department and add to our impact activities. Ezat can be contacted on E.Khoshdel@warwick.ac.uk and will next be in the department on October 11^th when he gives a lecture to our new Polymer MSc cohort.

Dr Gabit Nurumbetov, Principal Scientist at Medherant Ltd - a spin-out of the University of Warwick which produces next-generation drug delivery patches - has invented a revolutionary device for testing transdermal drugs more quickly, efficiently and accurately. Dr Nurumbetov completed his PhD in the Department of Chemistry with Professor Stefan Bon then worked as a postdoctoral researcher in Professor David Haddleton’s group.

https://www2.warwick.ac.uk/newsandevents/pressreleases/warwick_grad_invents

The GibsonGroup report in Angewandte Chemie a new macromolecular ‘antifreeze’ which improves the cryopreservation of cells

A collaboration between the Fox, Scott and Gibson groups has been published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. The team were inspired by how small helical antifreeze proteins in Nature enable extreomophiles to survive low temperatures, where other species would not survive. Rather than using traditional peptide/protein chemistry, the team used self-assembled metallohelicates which have similar dimensions to a small alpha helix, and found some which were remarkably potent at stopping ice crystal growth ; a major technological challenge in applications from wind farms, to aircraft to cryopreservation. Modelling studies showed that the underlying activity could be linked the patches of hydrophobicity (water liking) and hydrophobicity (water hating).

Read the paper here

Antifreeze Protein Mimetic Metallohelices with Potent Ice Recrystallization Inhibition Activity

On Saturday morning (east cost US time, Saturday night in UK), a team of students from Edgecombe Community College (Carolina, USA), in collaboration with NASA and NC space grant, will launch a student-lead high altitude baloon, including an experiment based on the GibsonGroups innovative cryopreservation science.

The balloon will be launched to 60 to 100,000 feet, so high that the curvature of the Earth will be clearly visible. It will contain experiments to track movement, altitude humitity and more, but also 1 additional science experiment. The students, lead by Jillian Leary approached Professor Gibson to ask if the GibsonGroup's unique ice-growth inhibiting polymers, inspired by Natures antifreeze proteins, could be included as an experiment to see how cells respond to the harsh high-altitude envirnoments. The polymers are design to stop ice crystals growing, and enables cells, which would otherwise need large volumes of toxic solvents to survive being frozen and stressed. This technology has the potential to revolutionise regenerative and transplantation medicine.

The launch will be streamed live on facebook https://www.facebook.com/EdgecombeCC/posts/?ref=page_internal

Read more here https://www.edgecombe.edu/news/students-preparing-high-altitude-balloon-launch/

Several studentship opportunities for PhD study are available in the Chemistry Department of Warwick University.