In collaboration with Del Besra (Bham) and Liz Fullam (Life Science), we describe the design, synthesis and application of glycosylated nanoparticles for specific interaction with bacterial phenotypes. The nanoparticles have sugar on their surface which interest specifically with the FimH adhesion present on certain pathogenic strains of bacteria. In this paper we probe the role of the polymer coating on the optical outputs (colour change) of the nanoparticles, as the first steps towards a rapid point-of-care sensor for bacteria.

Read the paper here; Discrimination between bacterial phenotypes using glyco-nanoparticles and the impact of polymer coating on detection readouts

Our recent paper on cryopreservaiton of blood has attracted a lot of media attention:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-coventry-warwickshire-26087585

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ViXUgG-0h8&feature=youtu.be

complete list to follow

Research conducted by Rob (PhD student) in collaboration with Dan Mitchel (Warwick Med School) and Manu Vatish (Formally Warwick Med School and Coventry Hospital) has been published in Nature Communications.

This paper describes the application of synthetic polymers which can slow the grow of ice crystals, as novel cryopreervatives. The polymers function in a similar manner to antifreeze proteins (found in fish), but are far cheaper and do not have risk of immunogenicity etc. Here we show that addition of the polymers to blood allows it to be cryopreserved without adding any organic solvents. Normally, you need to add large amounts (up to 40 % by volume) of organic solvents which are obviously not compatible with people! We achieve cryopreservation with only 0.1 % of polymer.

Read the paper here http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2014/140203/ncomms4244/full/ncomms4244.html

A joint publication with Alison Rodger and Nicola Chmel has been published in The Analyst. This paper describe the use of poly(ethylene) fims to align small polar molecules for linear Dichroism spectroscopy.

Read it here. http://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2014/an/c3an02322b#!divAbstract

Robert Deller is staying with us to work as PDRA, now his Thesis is submitted. He will continue our cryopreervation work and also new sensory systems. Good to have you back!

Cathy Cooper has joined us as a PDRA working on a joint project with the Bon Group.

Our review article on Redox-responsive materials has been published in Antioxidants and Redox Signalling. This article gives an overview of oxidation and reduction sensitive materials which are finding application in drug delivery. The central Theme is understanding how different biological microenvironments (tissue, organelles etc..) have different redox environments and therefore there is not a 'one size fits all' solution to triggering release/degradation. We also discuss the need for using appropriate models of native reducing agents to reduce the occurance of false postive/exagerated results.

Read the paper here http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/ars.2013.5728

Collaborative work with Gaojian Chen (Soochow University, China) has been accepted in RSC Polymer Chemistry. Here we make use of Cu(0) mediated RAFT polymerization in parallel with alkyne/azide cycloaddition to obtain glycopolymers in a one pot reaction. These resulting polymers all have thiol-end groups due to the RAFT agent, and therefore have high affinity for gold surfaces. Gold nanorods were coated with these polymers.

Read the paper here. http://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2013/py/c3py01526b#!divAbstract