News Library
The world's most famous table: 150 years of Periodic Law
Warwick colleagues select some of the most important elements to them from the Periodic Table, an idea first presented by Russian chemist Dmitrii Mendeleev 150 years ago this month.
Funded PhD studentships available in the Warwick Centre for Doctoral Training in Analytical Sciences
The Warwick Centre for Doctoral Training in Analytical Sciences is recruiting the next generation of analytical scientists. With the world-leading facilities and expertise in Analytical Science at Warwick and partner external facilities (e.g., Diamond, ILL, ISIS) at their disposal, our students will graduate with a unique combination of skills in exploiting synergies between different experimental methods, e.g., diffraction, electrochemistry, mass spectrometry, microscopy and NMR, and in harnessing the power of combining data collection with experimental design, statistical analysis and simulation. Research and training will be delivered from across physical sciences, engineering and manufacturing, statistics, life and medical sciences in close partnership with industry, with research areas including pharmaceuticals, agro-chemicals and additives, soft matter, biological systems, energy and functional materials.
How to apply: We invite applications from recent graduates with a strong first degree in any related discipline, including Chemistry, Engineering, Life Sciences, Mathematics, Pharmacy, Physics and Statistics. Studentships are available for UK citizens for September 2019 entry (full fees + consumables budget and minimum £14k stipend). EU students can apply for a limited number of stipends covering tuition fees. Applications are invited throughout the year.
Register your interest now
EPSRC PhD Studentships
Several studentship opportunities for PhD study are available in the Chemistry Department of Warwick University.
Collaboration with University of Virginia on blood plasma zinc dynamics
Collaborative work between the Blindauer group and the teams of Prof. Wladek Minor (University of Virginia), Dr Maksymilian Chruszcz (University of South Carolina) and Dr Alan Stewart (University of St. Andrews) has been highlighted in a press release entitled “Here’s How Your Body Transports Zinc to Protect Your Health“.
This relates to a recent joint publication which reports the first X-ray crystal structures of human and equine serum albumins bound to zinc. Serum albumin is the major carrier of zinc in the blood and is required for the effective systemic distribution of this essential nutrient. The new findings are published in the RSC journal Chemical Science. Full text of the open-access article is available here.
RSC awards for Warwick researchers
Prestigious RSC awards for Prof. Rachel O'Reilly, Dr Józef Lewandowski and PhD student Zoe Ayres.
Sensing Springtime
An antibody that senses one enantiomer of plant hormone abscisic acid (ABA) is characterised and published by Marsh and Napier groups in Chemistry and Life Sciences in PLOS ONE.
Open-shell complexes
Collaborative work from the groups of Chaplin, Unwin, Rourke, and Wedge (Warwick physics) exploring the organometallic chemistry of paramagnetic complexes of palladium(I) and platinum(I) has been published in Angew. Chem. Int. Ed.
Human protein and statin link
Collaborative research with Warwick Medical School and UHCW NHS Trust reveals new clues to widely prescribed therapeutics' actions in body. Simvastatin sodium salt and fluvastatin interact with human gap junction gamma-3 protein in PLOS ONE Press coverage in Health Spectator.
Insights on fibrils in Huntington’s disease
Collaborative work involving Lewandowski group was published in PNAS. The study led P. van der Wel (U. Pittsburgh) provides insights on structure and formation mechanism for huntingtin exon 1 fibrils implicated in Hungtington disease. Read more here.
Site-specific dynamics in a large protein complex
An Angew. Chem. VIP from Lewandowski group investigates the influence of different intermolecular interactions on protein dynamics. The paper presents first ever extensive site-specific relaxation measurements on a large non-crystalline protein-antibody complex in a few nanomole quantities. The study paves the way for direct characterization of dynamics in biologically important but sensitivity-limited samples of proteins within large complexes.
Cryopreservation in Chemistry World
A recent paper by the GibsonGroup in Chem Commun has been highlighted in the RSC Magazine 'Chemistry World'. The Gibson Group have a research program focussed on mimicking the function of Antifreeze Proteins which are found in Polar fish species. These proteins can slow the rate of ice growth, which has been identified as a challenge in the cryopreservation of donor cells and tissue for transplantation. In this work they showed a facile route to new cryoprotective polymers, using cheap, commodity polymer starting materials. These polymers were shown to have ice growth inhibition activity and to signficantly reduce the ice-induced damage during red blood cell freeze/thaw storage. In a second paper, the group also reported signficantly enhanced cryopreservation using poly(vinyl alcohol).
Read the Chemistry World article here
Read the Chemical Communications article here; Rational, yet simple, design and synthesis of an antifreeze-protein inspired polymer for cellular cryopreservation
Read our recent ACS Biomaterials Science and Enginneering paper here Glycerol Free Cryopreservation of Red Blood Cells Enabled by Ice Recrystallization Inhibiting Polymers