News

In their Angewandte Communication P. R. Unwin, J. V. Macpherson, et al. combined high-resolution electrochemical imaging, micro-Raman, and electron-microscopy data to demonstrate that spatially heterogeneous electron-transfer kinetics correlates directly with the local density of electronic states of polycrystalline boron-doped diamond (pBDD). A Multi-Microscopy Approach allowed electrochemical reaction rates to be linked to the corresponding dopant levels in pBDD. See http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/anie.201204563/abstract for more details.

Costantini and collaborators report in JACS on dispersions of HBC, an analogue to small graphene flakes.

The Gibson Group in collaboration with Pathologists from the Johannes Guttenburg University (Mainz) have published two studies onto the role of nanoparticle size and coating on their interactions with cells. The aim is to address questions regarding nanoparticle toxicity (if any). Focus was placed on cells from the vasculature (circulation). These cells are often negleted but any injected drug delivery system will encounter several kilometers of these. Several particle formations were found to enter endothelial cells associated with the blood-brain barrier - perhaps the most challenging biological barrier to drug delivery.

This work is published in Biomacromolecules: Read here and Particle Fibre Toxicology: Read here

(Particle Fibre Tox is No 1 Tox. Journal in ISI Citation reports, publishing Primary Research)

Establishing an independent academic career is an exciting and challenging process. The data available for UK chemistry suggests that more women than men find the process not exciting enough or too challenging. A key aspect of success in any career path is finding role models, establishing networks, and being tapped into good sources of information. Our aim is therefore to create opportunities for all of these in the first (and subsequent) Irène Joliot-Curie conference.

Prof. Greg Challis and Dr Lijiang Song, in collaboration with researchers at the University of Paris, report in Angewandte Chemie a hitherto unanticipated pathway for the biosynthesis of pyrroles from sugars. Using a combination of genetic engineering, isolation, structure elucidation, synthesis and feeding of biosynthetic intermediates, and incorporation of stable isotope-labelled precursors, the researchers showed that a carbohydrate, most likely N-acetylglucosamine-1-phosphate, is elaborated to the 4-acetamidopyrrole-2-carboxylate building blocks of the DNA-binding antibiotic congocidine (also known as netropsin). The assembly of pyrroles from carbohydrates is unprecedented in Nature and raises several intriguing questions regarding the mechanisms of the reactions involved. See http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/anie.201201445/abstract for further details.

Nanodiamonds have been found to help loosen crystallized fat from surfaces in a project led by Dr Andrew Marsh at University of Warwick. The tiny carbon particles transform the ability of surfactants to shift dirt in cold water, findings that could bring eco friendly low temperature laundry cycles.

The research is published in ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces and highlighted in the Daily Mail and Daily Telegraph, 26 June.

Nanodiamond Promotes Surfactant-Mediated Triglyceride Removal from a Hydrophobic Surface at or below Room Temperature Xianjin Cui, Xianping Liu, Andrew S. Tatton, Steven P. Brown, Haitao Ye, and Andrew Marsh ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces 2012, http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/am300560z

Team Stavros, in collaboration with Dr Martin Paterson at Heriot-Watt University, publishes work in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. They intricately map the ultrafast photochemistry occurring in aminobenzene (aniline), demonstrating that it is an excellent model for better understanding highly efficient mechanisms in the DNA base guanine which prevent toxic UV induced photodecomposition. Read the article here.

Unwin et al. recently reported on electron transfer at basal plane graphite which featured as a ‘Very Important Paper’ and on the inside cover of Angewandte Chemie. See http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/anie.201200564/abstract for more details.

The Gibson group report in Angewandte Chemie: Here they probe the accessibility of carbohydrate binding sites in bacterial toxins, exemplified with the toxin produced by Vibrio cholerae, the causative agent of cholera. Read the article here

Two members of the Gibson group have won poster prizes. Robert Deller won 1st Place at the RSC younger Members symposium (at Uni. Nottingham) for his work on Peptidomimetic Cryopreservation Agents. Lucienne Otten won 3rd place at the Systems Biology Annual Conference for her work on Label Free Analysis of Protein-Carbohydrate Interactions.

A new class of photoactive Pt(IV) anti-cancer prodrugs is under development in the Sadler group. But what happens when they are irradiated and how do the photoproducts interact with double-stranded DNA? Via a combination of new experimental data coupled with Ligand Field Molecular Dynamics simulations carried out in the Deeth group, we have modelled the DNA distortion caused by a putuative trans-Pt^II(pyridine)₂ lesion. See: http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/ic3005745 for all the details.

The Challis group and collaborators at the John Innes Centre report in the journal Chemical Science on the genomics-driven discovery of a novel polyketide alkaloid with an unprecedented structure. Incorporation experiments with stable isotope-labelled precursors combined with bioinformatics analyses were used to deduce the likely biosynthetic pathway for the natural product. See http://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2012/sc/c2sc20410j for further details.