Gibson Group News
Daniel Mitchell Joins us as a PhD student
Daniel Mitchell has joined the group as a PhD student. He will be working on advanced cryopreservatives based on antifreeze glycoproteins. Welcome!
Paper accepted in Polymer Chemistry
Our paper describing the post-polymerization modificaiton of poly(azlactones) has been acceptd for publication in RSC Polymer Chemistry. In this work we show that poly(azlactones) can be modified by further, latent functionality, for subsequent 'click' type reactions. This route is more effecient and expedient than the synthesis and polymerization of protected alkynyl, alkenyl or furan monomers. We further explore the chemistry for the preparation of glycopolymers which are shown to be inhibitors of a bacterial toxin.
Masters Students join the team
Welcome to Rebecca Williams and Lewis Mann who are joining us to conduct their MChem research project. They will be working on stimuli responsive materials and glycoconjugates
Lucienne Otten joins us as a Phd Student
Welcome to Lucienne, who joins us as a PhD student from October. She will be working on probing the role of glycan adhesion on microbiol pathogenicity
Matthew Gibson Promoted to Assistant Professor
From 1st October, Dr Matthew Gibson has been promoted to Assistant Professor.
Rob wins another poster prize
Rob Deller one first prize for his poster at the SCRA Microscopy Conference, 21/09/12. His poster detailed his work on novel cryopreservation strategies based on modulating the growth of ice crystals.
Well done!
Paper accepted in Biomacromolecules
Our paper exploring the synthesis of degradable and responsive polymers by RAFT polymerization has been accepted in ACS Biomacromolecules. This paper builds on our previous report (Chem Comm 2012) on the synthesis of poly(disulfides) from RAFT derived macromonomers. In this report additional monomers are explored for their compatability with our methodology and their degradability is studied. In particular, it was shown that the polymers specifically degrade under conditions mimicing intracellular glutathione concentrations, and also can be tuned to undergo a shift in their responsive properties. This 'isothermal' transition will find use in intracellular delivery.
Optics Express Paper online now
Collaborative work with the Laboratory of Biomedical Imaging (EPFL, CH) is now availabe to read online.
Abstract
We introduce photothermal optical lock-in Optical Coherence Microscopy (poli-OCM), a volumetric imaging technique, which combines the depth sectioning of OCM with the high sensitivity of photothermal microscopy while maintaining the fast acquisition speed inherent to OCM. We report on the detection of single 40 nm gold particles with a 0.5 µm lateral and 2 µm axial resolution over a 50 µm depth of field and the three-dimensional localization of gold colloids within living cells. In combination with intrinsic sample contrast measured with dark-field OCM, poli-OCM offers a versatile platform for functional cell imaging.