Biography

Huba was born in Romania and moved to the United Kingdom in 2010 at the age of 14. In 2015 he studied Chemistry at the University of Reading, with a masters in polymer chemistry developing zwitterionic materials as drug delivery vehicles.

Skills

Cell culture, PCR, ImageJ, Flow Cytometry, Plaque Assay, Phage-Infection Profiles, Slow Freezing.

Research Interests

Cryopreservation, Synthetic antifreeze polymers, Reduction of cryoprotectant toxicity

PhD Project Overview

Huba is working under Professor Matthew Gibson in collaboration with Cytiva. He is investigating cryopreservation techniques which include the use of synthetic antifreeze protein mimics and controlled freezing gradients working towards long-term storage of viral vectors for cell-based therapies.

Publications

Huba L. Marton, Apoorva Bhatt, Antonia P. Sagona, Peter Kilbride and Matthew I. Gibson (2023). Screening of Hydrophilic Polymers Reveals Broad Activity in Protecting Phages during Cryopreservation. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acs.biomac.3c01042Link opens in a new window

Huba L. Marton, Peter Kilbride, Ashfaq Ahmad, Antonia P. Sagona, and Matthew I. Gibson (2023). Anionic Synthetic Polymers Prevent Bacteriophage Infection. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/jacs.3c01874Link opens in a new window

Huba L. Marton, Kathryn M. Styles, Peter Kilbride, Antonia P. Sagona, and Matthew I. Gibson. (2021). Polymer-Mediated Cryopreservation of Bacteriophages. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.biomac.1c01187Link opens in a new window 

Panagiotis G. Georgiou, Huba L. Marton, Alexander N. Baker, Thomas R. Congdon, Thomas F. Whale, and Matthew I. Gibson. (2021). Polymer Self-Assembly Induced Enhancement of Ice Recrystallization Inhibition. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/jacs.1c01963Link opens in a new window

Research Presentations

Oral Presentations:

Can Any Hydrophilic Polymer Protect Phages During Cryopreservation? - SLTB2023, 59th Meeting of the Society for Low Temperature Biology, Vigo, Spain, September 2023

Polymer-Mediated Bacteriophage Cryopreservation: Elucidating the Mechanism - School of Life Sciences Postgraduate Researcher Symposium, University of Warwick, March 2023

Polymer-Mediated Cryopreservation of Bacteriophages - Cryo2022, Joint Meeting of the Society for Cryobiology & Society for Low Temperature Biology, Dublin, Ireland, July 2022

Polymer-Mediated Cryopreservation of Bacteriophages - MIBTP 2022 Symposium, University of Leicester, Leicester, 11th April 2022

Poster Presentations:

RAFT Polymer-Mediated Phage Cryopreservation: Elucidating the Mechanism - ChemContext 2023, University of Warwick, February 2023 - Won 5th place for poster presentation

Polymer-Mediated Cryopreservation of Bacteriophages - Measurement and Modelling and Materials and Polymers Clusters Research Symposium Poster Presentation, University of Warwick March 2022 & Department of Chemistry Postgraduate Symposium, University of Warwick, 25th May 2022

Polymer-Mediated Cryopreservation of Bacteriophages - RSC Biomaterials 16th Annual Chemistry Group Meeting January 2022

Cryo-storage Biotechnologies for Cell-Based Therapies - MIBTP 2021 Poster Session