Gibson Group News
Paper Accepted In Polymer Chemistry!
Our manuscript describing the use of quartz crystal microbalance combined with inhibitory assays to probe the cluster-glycoside effect between synthetic poly(mannopyranosides) and ConA has been accepted for publication in the RSC journal Polymer Chemistry. This work is a collaboration with Dave Haddleton's group and represents another step forward in our efforts to develop potent inhibitors of lectin adhesion. In this work we show that measuring polyemr-lectin affinity using surface methods can lead to confusing interpreptations of 'what is the most active binder'. We also show that the association constant of polymers in this method do not correlate directly with inhibitory assays (more representative of a 'real' situation).
MIG joins RSC Carbohydrate Group Committee
MIG will joing the committee to represent materials/polymer science and glycan recognition interests.
Paper in Top 10 Most Read in 2011 in Biomacromolecules
Our paper published with Harm-Anton Klok (EPFL) and Nikhil Singha (Kharagpour) has been highlighted as one of the top 10 most read articles of 2011 in the ACS Journal Biomacromolecules (IF ~ 5.3). Read the paper here!
Paper Published in Macromol. Rap. Commun.
Paper showing how thermo-responsive polymers can be used to modulate lipophilicity is now online here. This work (with Alison Rodger, Warwick) may provide understanding into how polymer conjugates can be used to gain entry into cells, without the need for receptor-mediated uptake mechanisms
Mat's paper accepted in Chem Comm!
This a a follow up paper to a recent JACS article desribing how maleimido-terminated polymers can be used for bioconjugation into native disulfide bonds in proteins. This paper introduces dithiomaleimides which are tolerant to controlled radical polymerization, removing the need for protecting group strategies. Read the paper here!
Publication featured in 'most downloaded' in Polym. Chem.
Our collaborative work with the O'Reilly group features on the 'most downloaded' list from the RSC journal 'Polymer Chemistry'.
New student join the team
Charline Willmet from the University of Louvain, Belgium, is joining us as part of the Erasmus scheme for the next 4 months. She will be working on the design of smart polysaccharide-inspired biomaterials.
Publication accepted in Macromolecular Rapid Communications
Work has been accepted into Macro. Rap. Commun., on the interactions of stimuli responsive polymers with model membranes. Most previous studies on stimuli responsive polymers has focussed simply on those with LCSTS (lower critical solution temperatures) and demonstrating that they can be used for reversible precipitation. In this work, we show that LCST-displaying polymers can be used to tune lipophiliicty, which is a key feature in pharmacy to determine the biodistribution and bio-availability of drug molecules. We demonstrate that the polymers can be triggered to interact with phospholipid vesicles, using a wide range of biophysical techniques. We hope this insight will help us to develop 'smarter' drug delivery, or bioengineering, materials.