News
Graphene electrodes for structural control
Dr. Luke Rochford and Dr. Alex Ramadan from Prof. Tim Jones' group, in collaboration with Warwick Physics, publish in Advanced Functional Materials demonstrating the use of atomically thin graphene electrodes to control the structure of organic semiconductor thin films while improving their charge transport performance.
"Growth of large crystalline grains of vanadyl-phthalocyanine without epitaxy on graphene" Link
BonLab features on the cover of Materials Horizons
The manuscript entitled Control of vesicle membrane permeability with catalytic particles by the BonLab has been selected for the jan-feb 2016 cover of Materials Horizons, a premier scientific journal published by the Royal Society of Chemistry which features first reports of exceptional significance across the breadth of materials research at the cutting-edge interface with chemistry, physics, biology and engineering.
Prof.dr.ir. Stefan Bon, head of the BonLab, says: "We are absolutely delighted that our research has made the cover of Materials Horizons. Rong Chen and especially Ross Jaggers worked very hard in the BonLab to fabricate giant polymer vesicles which have membrane-embedded catalytically active manganese oxide particles, hereby using droplet-based microfluidics. We demonstrate that these colloidal particles can regulate the membrane permeability of the polymersomes upon their exposure to, and catalytic reaction with, small amounts of dissolved hydrogen peroxide. Not only can we trigger complete release whereby the vesicle gets destroyed through membrane rupture by the formed oxygen bubbles as illustrated on the cover, exposure to small amounts of dissolved hydrogen peroxide leads to temporary enhanced release until all hydrogen peroxide is consumed by the catalytic particles after which the membrane permeability restores itself to its passive characteristic value."
More on this can be read on the blog of the BonLab site.
The paper (open access) can be read here: http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/C5MH00093A
Could this finally end the agony of back pain?
As well as being reported in the Sun, Express, Metro and Daily Mail, the breakthrough ibuprofen patch will feature in a new ITV science show.
Barcoding Bacteria in Chemistry World
Recent work by the Gibson Group (Chemistry) and Fullam Group (SLS) has been highlighted in Chemistry World rsc.li/1m3uhx2 http://tinyurl.com/jlj2trg
Rachel O'Reilly Receives McBain Medal
Professor Rachel O'Reilly has received (8th December) the 2014 McBain Medal. This was awarded for her pioneering research in novel polymeric nanoparticles, responsive materials and controlled self-assembly. Read more about her groups work here
Researchers create World’s first ibuprofen patch - delivering pain relief directly through skin
Researchers at the University of Warwick have worked with Coventry-based Medherant, a Warwick spinout company, to produce and patent the World’s first ever ibuprofen patch delivering the drug directly through skin to exactly where it is needed at a consistent dose rate.
Part of the work was carried out by Matt Donald in a 2015 URSS project funded by the Materials GRP and also started as a URSS project in 2014 carried out by Matt Beech, both currently Yr 4 undergraduates.
They have invented a transparent adhesive patch that can consistently deliver a prolonged high dose of the painkiller ibuprofen directly through the skin. The University of Warwick researchers and Medherant have found a way to incorporate significant amounts of the drug (up to 30% weight) into the polymer matrix that sticks the patch to the patient’s skin with the drug then being delivered at a steady rate over up to 12 hours. This opens the way for the development of a range of novel long-acting over-the-counter pain relief products which can be used to treat common painful conditions like chronic back pain, neuralgia and arthritis without the need to take potentially damaging doses of the drug orally. Although there are a number of popular ibuprofen gels available these make it difficult to control dosage and are inconvenient to apply.
The influence of ferroelectric surfaces on organic semiconductors published by the Jones group
The Jones group, in collaboration with Imperial College London, publish a study investigating the effects of polar ferroelectric surfaces on the growth of organic semiconductor thin films in The Journal of Materials Chemistry C.
Quote from the Nurse Review, selected by Pete O'Connor
Alison Rodger enters the debate on the financial status of Chemistry Departments
A recent report has concluded that the experimental sciences of chemistry and physics are expensive to teach. When consulted about an increase in student:staff ratios, Alison Rodger noted that the students were not suffering but academic staff were all working much harder to ensure this.
For the full article see: http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/2015/11/uk-chemistry-departments-spending-finances-deficit
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.
Anticancer metallohelices; potency & selectivity
Warwick Chemistry, Life Science and Medical School team up to make a new generation of readily self-assembled metallohelices kill cancer cells at very low concentration (40 nM) but have low toxicty to microbes, insects and healthy human cells.
Congratulations to Paolo Coppo
Senior Teaching Fellow, Dr Paolo Coppo, has just been awarded the HEA Fellow status, which is the UK Professional Standards Framework for teaching and learning support in higher education.