Gibson Group: Sarah-Jane Richards
Biography
Sarah-Jane Richards was born in Rugby, Warwickshire in 1988. From 2006-2010 Sarah-Jane carried out an MChem in Chemistry at The University of Sheffield. In 2009, Sarah-Jane carried out a short project through the Sheffield Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) program on 'Investigating the Resistance of Uveal Melanoma Cell Lines to the Cross-linking Agent Mitomycin C'. Sarah-Jane's fourth year project was conducted under the supervision of Dr Linda Swanson on 'Smart Polymers for the Improvement of Oil and Gas Production' which involved using fluorescence anisotropy techniques to investigate the dynamics of thermoresponsive polymers for their use in clatherate hydrate inhibition. From September 2010 to September 2011, Sarah-Jane carried out an MSc in Mathematical Biology and Biophysical Chemistry through the MOAC DTC at The University of Warwick. Sarah-Jane's MOAC webpage can be found here.
Research Interests
Sarah-Jane's research interests lie at the interface between materials chemistry and life sciences. The focus of her PhD research was on the design, synthesis and application of multivalent macromolecular vectors that can interact with microbial membranes. In particular, the use of glycopolymers synthesised by tandem post-polymerisation modification to selectively inhibit bacterial toxins (Angew. Chem. 2012, Polym. Chem. 2013 and Chem. Sci. 2014, JACS Au 2021) and glyco-gold nanoparticles with optimised polymer coatings to discriminate between lectins and bacterial phenotypes (J. Mater. Chem. B. 2014, ACS Macro Lett. 2014 and J. Mater Chem. B. 2016).
In May 2015, Sarah-Jane was awarded a highly competitive Institute of Advanced Study (IAS) Early Career Fellowship to continue to pursue research in the field of label-free diagnostics.
In November 2015, Sarah-Jane started a three year position as a research fellow to work on multivalent glyco-nanomaterials as point-of-care diagnostics (Analyst 2016 and Nanoscale. Horiz. 2017) and antimicrobial polymers (Biomac. 2017 and Chem. Eur. J. 2018) and particles (Biomac. 2018).
Sarah-Jane was part of the BBSRC and Innovate UK funded Specialty Glycans consortium which brought together eight UK universities (Southampton, Bristol, Leeds, York, Reading, Manchester, Imperial and Warwick) and five Industrial partners (Ludger, GSK, Carbosynth/Biosynth, Prozomix and Dextra) to chemoenzymatically synthesise fluorinated glycans and determine their binding towards an number of protein targets. Here we showed the differential binding of Lacto-N-biose derivatives towards Galectin-3 and Galectin-7 (Chem. Sci. 2021) and that fluorinated Lewis X derivatives could differentially bind to cholera toxin (ChemRxiv 2023).
Sarah-Jane has also worked on a number of other collaborative projects with University of Nottingham on the immune-regulatory glycomaterials (Materials Today Bio. 2020) and Monash University on Metabolic Labelling (J. Mater. Chem. B. 2021).
During the 2020 Coronavirus pandemic, the Gibson group set out to develop a rapid diagnostic test with Iceni Diagnostics (Cent. Sci. 2020, ACS Sensors 2021).
In August 2022 Sarah-Jane was promoted to Assistant Professor.
Publications
*denotes corresponding author, ‡ denotes authors contributed equally
2023
[33] Hollingsworth, K.‡, Di Maio, A.‡, Richards S-J., Vendeville, J-B., Wheatley D. E., Council, C. E., Keenan, T., Ledru, H., Chidwick, H., Kun, H., Parmeggiani, F., Marchesi, A., Chai, W., McBerney, R. Kaminski, T. P., Balmforth, M. R., Webb, M. E., Fascione, M. A., Flitsch, S. Galan, M. C., Gibson, M. I., Liu, Y., Turnbull, W. B., Linclau, B., ChemRxiv Cambridge: Cambridge Open Engage This content is a preprint and has not been peer-reviewed (10.26434/chemrxiv-2023-4hn6k) "A ‘glyco-fluorine’ code revealing differential recognition by glycan binding partners" link
[32] Neves, M. M. P. S., Richards, S-J., Baker, A. N., Walker, M., Georgiou, P. G., Gibson, M. I., Nanoscale Horizons, 2023, 8, 377- 382, (DOI: 10.1039/D2NH00470D "Discrimination between protein glycoforms using lectin-functionalised gold nanoparticles as signal enhancers" linkLink opens in a new window
2022
[31] Micallef, J., Baker, A. N., Richards, S-J., Soutar, D. E., Georgiou, P. G., Walker, M., Gibson, M. I., RSC Adv., 2022, 12, 33080-33090 (DOI: 10.1039/D2RA06265H) "Polymer-Tethered Glyconanoparticle Colourimetric Biosensors for Lectin Binding: Structural and Experimental Parameters to Ensure a Robust Output", link
[30] Georgiou, P. G., Guy, C. S., Hasan, M., Ahmad, A., Richards, S-J., Baker, A. N., Thakkar, N. V., Walker, M., Pandey, S., Anderson, N. R., Grammatopoulos, D., and Gibson, M. I.*, ACS Macro Lett., 2022, 11, 3, 317-322. (DOI: 10.1021/acsmacrolett.1c00716) "Plasmonic Detection of SARS-CoV-2 with Polymer-Stabilized Glycosylated Gold Nanorods" link
[29] Baker, A. N. Muguruza, A. R., Richards, S-J. Georgiou, P. G., Goetz, S., Walker, M., Dedola, S., Field, R. A. and Gibson, M. I.* Adv. Healthcare Mater. 2022, 11, 4, 2101784. (DOI:10.1002/adhm.202101784) "Lateral Flow Glyco-Assays for the Rapid and Low-Cost Detection of Lectins - Polymeric Linkers and Particle Engineering are Essential for Selectivity and Performance" link
[28] Baker, A. N., Congdon, T. R., Richards, S-J., Georgiou, P. G., Walker, M., Dedola, S., Field, R. A., and Gibson, M.I.* ACS Polym. Au, 2022, 2, 2, 69-79. (DOI: 10.1021/acspolymersau.1c00032) "End-Functionalized Poly(Vinyl Pyrrolidone) for Ligand Display in Lateral Flow Device Test Lines" link
2021
[27] Richards, S-J., and Gibson, M. I.* JACS Au, 2021, 1, 12, 2089-2099. (DOI:10.1021/jacsau.1c00352) "Towards Glycomaterials with Selectivity as Well as Affinity" link
[26] Baker, A. N.‡, Richards S-J.‡, Pandey, S., Guy, C. S., Ahmad, A., Hasan, M., Biggs, C. I., Georgiou, P. G., Zwetsloot, A. J., Straube, A., Dedola, S., Field, R. A., Anderson, N. R., Walker, M., Grammatopoulous, D., and Gibson, M. I.* ACS Sensors, 2021, 6, 10, 3696-3705. (DOI: 10.1021/acssensors.1c01470) "Glycan-Based Flow-Through Device for the Detection of SARS-CoV-2" link
[25] Tan, A., Lui, Q., Chu, S., Richards, S-J., Rothen-Rutishauser, B., Petri-Fink, A., Gibson, M. I., Boyd, B. J., J. Mater. Chem. B., 2021, 9, 5365-5373. (DOI:10.1039/D1TB00721A) "Understanding selectivity of metabolic labelling and click-targeting in multicellular environments as a route to tissue selective drug delivery", link
[24] Richards, S-J ‡, Keenan, T.‡ Vendeville, J-B., Wheatley, D.E, Chidwick, H., Budhadev, D., Council, C. E., Webster, C., Ledru, H., Baker, A. N., Walker, M., Galan, M.C., Linclau, B.,* Fascione, M. A.,* M. I. Gibson, Chemical Science, 2021, 12, 905-910. (DOI: 10.1039/D0SC05360K) "Introducing affinity and selectivity into galectin-targeting nanoparticles with fluorinated glycan ligands", link
2020
[23] Alobaid M. A, Richards, S-J., Alexander, N. R., Gibson, M. I., Ghaemmaghami A. M. Materials Today Bio, 2020 (DOI: 10.1016/j.mtbio.2020.100080) "Developing immune-regulatory materials using immobilized monosaccharides with immune-instructive properties", link
[22] Baker, A. N.,‡ Richards, S-J.,‡ Guy, C. S., Congdon, T. R., Hasan, M., Zwetsloot, A. J., Gallo, A., Lewandowski, J. R, Stansfeld, P. J., Straube, A., Walker, M., Chessa, S., Pergolizzi, G., Dedola, S., Field, R. A. and Gibson, M. I., ACS Central Science, 2020, 6, 11, 2046-2052. (DOI: 10.1021/acscentsci.0c00855) "The SARS-CoV-2 Spike Protein Binds Sialic Acid and Enables Rapid Detection in a Lateral Flow Point-of-Care Diagnostic Device" Accepted. linkLink opens in a new window
[21] Laezza, A., Georgiou, P. G, Richards, S-J., Baker, A. N., Walker, M., Gibson, M. I., Bioconjugate Chemistry, 2020, 31, 2392-2403. (DOI: 10.1021/acs.bioconjchem.0c00465) "Protecting Group Free Synthesis of Glyco-Nanoparticles using Amino-oxy Terminated Polymer Ligands" linkLink opens in a new window
[20] Richards, S-J., Baker, A. N., Walker, M., Gibson, M. I., Biomacromolecules 2020, 21, 1604-1612. (DOI: 10.1021/acs.biomac.0c00179) "Polymer-Stabilized Sialylated Nanoparticles: Synthesis, Optimization, and Differential Binding to Influenza Hemagglutinins" link
[19] Georgiou, PG., Baker, Alex, N., Richards, SJ., Laezza, A., Walker, M., Gibson, M.I., Journal of Materials Chemistry B., 2020, 8, 136 - 145. (DOI: 10.1039/C9TB02004G) "Tuning Aggregative versus Non-Aggregative Lectin Binding with Glycosylated Nanoparticles by the Nature of the Polymer Ligand" link
2019
[18] Stubbs, C., Congdon, TR., Davis, J., Lester, D., Richards, S-J., Gibson, M.I., Macromolecules, 2019, 52, 7603-7612. (DOI: 10.1021/acs.macromol.9b01714) "High-throughput Tertiary Amine De-oxygenated Photopolymerizations for Synthesizing Polymer Libraries" link
2018
[17] Richards, S-J., Jones, A., Tomás, R. M. F., Gibson M. I., Chem. Eur. J., 2018, 24, 13758-13761. (DOI: 10.1002/chem.201802594) "Photochemical 'In-Air' Combinatorial Discovery of Antimicrobial Copolymers" link Highlighted as a Hot Paper
[16] Richards, S-J., Isufi, K., Wilkins, L. E., Lipecki, J., Fullam, L.*, Gibson, M. I.*, Biomacromolecules, 2018, 19, 256-264. (DOI: 10.1021/acs.biomac.7b01561) "Multivalent Antimicrobial Polymer Nanoparticles Target Mycobacteria and Gram-Negative Bacteria by Distinct Mechanism" link
2017
[14] Freese, C., Anspach, L., Deller, R., Richards, S-J., Gibson, M. I Kirkpatrick, C. J., Unger, R., Biomater. Sci., 2017, 5, 707-717. (DOI: 10.1039/C6BM00853D) 'Gold nanoparticle interactions with endothelial cells cultured under physiological conditions' link
[13] Won, S., Richards, S-J., Walker, M., Gibson, M. I., Nanoscale Horiz., 2017, 2, 106-109. (DOI: 10.1039/C6NH00202A) 'Externally controllable glycan presentation on nanoparticle surfaces to modulate lectin recognition' link
2016
[12] Otten, L. Vlachou, V., Richards, S-J.*, Gibson, M. I. Analyst, 2016, 141, 4305-4312. (DOI: 10.1039/C6AN00549G) 'Glycan Heterogeneity On Gold Nanoparticles Increases Lectin Discrimination Capacity in Label-Free Multiplexed Bioassays' link
[11] Richards, S-J., Otten, L., Gibson, M. I.*, J. Mater. Chem. B, 2016, 4, 3046-3053. (DOI: 10.1039/C6TB90055K) 'Glycosylated gold nanoparticle libraries for label-free multiplexed lectin biosensing' link
[10] Richards, S-J., Biggs, C. I., Gibson, M. I.*, Methods in Molecular Biology; Macro-Glycoligands, Series Vol 1367 "Multivalent Glycopolymer-coated Gold Nanoparticles" e-book ISBN 978-1-4939-3130-9; Hard Cover ISBN 978-1-4939-3129-3 link
2014
[9] Richards, S-J., Gibson, M. I.*, ACS Macro Letters, 2014, 3, 1004-1008. (DOI: 10.1021/mz5004882) 'Optimization of the Polymer Coating for Glycosylated Gold Nanoparticle Biosensors to Ensure Stability and Rapid Optical Readouts" link
[8] Richards, S-J., Fullam, E.C., Besra, G.S., Gibson, M.I.*, J. Mater. Chem. B, 2014, 2, 1490-1498. (DOI: 10.1039/C3TB21821J) "Discrimination between bacterial phenotypes using glyco-nanoparticles and the impact of polymer coating on detection readouts" link
[7] Jones, M.W., Otten, L., Richards, S-J., Lowery, R., Phillips D.J., Haddleton D.M., and Gibson M.I.*, Chem. Sci., 2014, 5, 1611-1616. (DOI: 10.1039/C3SC52982G) "Glycopolymers with secondary binding motifs mimic glycan branching and display bacterial lectin selectivity in addition to affinity" link
[6] Lu, J., Zhang, W., Richards, S-J., Gibson, M.I., Chen, G.*, Polym. Chem., 2014, 5, 2326-2332. (DOI: 10.1039/C3PY01526B) "Glycopolymer-coated Gold Nanorods Synthesied by a One Pot Copper(0) Catalyzed Tandem RAFT/Click Reaction" link
2013
[5] Gou, Y., Geng, J., Richards, S-J., Burns, J., Becer, C.R., Haddelton, D.M.*, J. Polym. Sci. A Polym. Chem., 2013, 51, 2588-2597. (DOI: 10.1002/pola.26725) "A Detailed Study on Understanding Glycopolymer Library and Con A Interactions" link Featured on the front cover of the journal.
[4] Otten, L., Richards, S-J., Fullam, E., Besra, G.S., Gibson, M.I.*, J. Mater. Chem. B, 2013, 1, 2665-2672. (DOI: 10.1039/C3TB20259C) "Gold Nanoparticle-Linked Analysis of Carbohydrate-Protein Interactions, and Polymeric Inhibitors, using Unlabelled Proteins; Easy Measurements Using a ‘Simple’ Digital Camera" link
[3] Jones, M.W., Richards, S-J., Haddleton, D.M., Gibson M.I.*, Polym. Chem., 2013, 4, 717-723. (DOI: 10.1039/C2PY20757E) "Poly(Azlactone)s: Versatile Scaffolds for Tandem Post-Polymerisation Modification and Glycopolymer Synthesis" link 3rd most accessed article October 2012
2012
[2] Richards, S-J., Jones, M.W., Hunaban, M., Haddleton, D.M., Gibson, M.I.*, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2012, 51, 7812-7816. (DOI: 10.1002/anie.201202945) "Probing Bacterial Toxin Inhibition with Synthetic Glycopolymers using Tandem Post-Polymerization Modification: Role of Linker and Carbohydrate Density" link
[1] Gou, Y., Richards, S-J., Haddleton, D.M., Gibson, M.I.*, Polym. Chem., 2012, 3, 1634-1640. (DOI: 10.1039/C2PY20140B) "Investigation of Glycopolymer-Lectin Interactions using QCM-d: Comparison of Surface Binding with Inhibitory Activity" link
Awards and Travel Bursaries
RSC Travel Bursary from the Chemical Biology Interface Division to attend ACS national meeting in Boston, MA, USA
RSC Travel Bursary to attend MC12 (12th international conference on Materials Chemistry) in York, UK
A fully funded place on the MultiGlycoNano COST training school on "Synthesis for nano- and glyco-sciences" in Bangor, UK, April 2015.
Winner of #RSCAnalyticalPoster Twitter competition. RSC Analyst Blog
1st place PhD poster prize at the MOAC Annual Conference.
A bursary from COST to attend MultiGlycoNano 2014 in Pontignano, Siena, Italy.
A fully funded place on the MultiGlycoNano COST training school on "Dynamic nano- and glyco-sciences" in Namur, Belgium, April 2014.
Conference Organisation
Midlands Young Researcher Meeting on Nanomaterials, The University of Warwick, 17/10/2015. A one day meeting, funded by the RSC Materials Division, bringing together PhD students and Early Career Researchers from the Universities of Warwick, Nottingham, Loughborough, Liverpool and Bristol and industrial chemists. link
Awards and Travel Bursaries
RSC Travel Bursary from the Chemical Biology Interface Division to attend ACS national meeting in Boston, MA, USA
RSC Travel Bursary to attend MC12 (12th international conference on Materials Chemistry) in York, UK
A fully funded place on the MultiGlycoNano COST training school on "Synthesis for nano- and glyco-sciences" in Bangor, UK, April 2015.
Winner of #RSCAnalyticalPoster Twitter competition. RSC Analyst Blog
1st place PhD poster prize at the MOAC Annual Conference.
A bursary from COST to attend MultiGlycoNano 2014 in Pontignano, Siena, Italy.
A fully funded place on the MultiGlycoNano COST training school on "Dynamic nano- and glyco-sciences" in Namur, Belgium, April 2014.
Presentations
Winning #RSCAnalyticalPoster Twitter poster
2017
RSC Early Career Researcher workshop on Diagnostics for Antimicrobial reistance - London, UK, Nov. 2017
Poster presentation - "Glycosylated gold nanoparticle biosensors"
IUPAC 12th International Conference on Advanced Polymers via Macromolecular Engineering - University of Ghent, Belgium, May 2017
Poster presentation - "Glycosylated gold nanoparticle biosensors"
2016
Nanosymposium 2016 - University of Birmingham, UK, December 2016
Contributed Oral Presentation - "Glycosylated gold nanoparticle biosensors"
Bright Spark Symposium for Early Career Analytical Scientists - University of Warwick, UK, September 2016
Contributed Oral Presentation - "Glycosylated gold nanoparticle biosensors: Label-free and high-throughput evaluation of glycan/lectin interactions"
International Carbohydrate Symposium - New Orleans, LA, USA, July 2016
Contributed Oral Presentation - "Glycosylated gold nanoparticle biosensors"
Warwick Polymer Conference 2016 - University of Warwick, UK, July 2016
2015
250th ACS National Meeting - Boston, MA, USA, August 2015
Contributed Oral Presentation - "Tandem post-polymerization modification: Routes to effective glycopolymer inhibitors of bacterial toxins"
250th ACS National Meeting - Boston, MA, USA, August 2015
Contributed Oral Presentation - "Glycosylated gold nanoparticle biosensors: Label-free and high-throughput evaluation of glycan/lectin interactions"
12th International Conference on Materials Chemistry (MC12) - The University of York, UK, July 2015
Contributed Oral Presentation - "Glycosylated Nanomaterials: Neutralisation and Detection of Bacteria and Toxins"
Multiglyconano COST/IBCARB training school on "Synthesis for nano- and glyco-sciences" - Bangor, UK, April 2015
Poster 
and Flash Presentation - "Glycosylated Nanomaterials: Neutralisation and Detection of Bacteria and Toxins"
2014
IBCARB workshop on Carbohydrate Recogntion and Inhibtion - Norwich, UK, November 2014
Emerging Nanomaterials for Healthcare - The University of Warwick, UK, October 2014
- Poster - "Glycosylated Nanomaterials: Neutralisation and Detection of Bacteria and Toxins"
248th ACS National Meeting - San Francisco, CA, USA, August 2014
- Oral Presentation - "Glycosylated Nanomaterials: Neutralisation and Detection of Bacteria and Toxins"
Macro group YMS, The University of Durham, UK, July 2014
MultiGlycoNano 2014 - Certosa Di Pontignano, Siena, Italy, June 2014
- Oral Presentation - "Glycosylated Nanomaterials: Neutralisation and Detection of Bacteria and Toxins" 
RSC YMS 2014 - The University of Birmingham, UK, June 2014
- Oral Presentation - "Glycosylated Nanomaterials: Neutralisation and Detection of Bacteria and Toxins"
Chemistry Postgraduate Research Symposium, The University of Warwick, UK, May 2014
- Oral Presentation - "Glycosylated Nanomaterials: Neutralisation and Detection of Bacteria and Toxins"
MultiGlycoNano COST training school on "Dynamic nano- and glyco-sciences", Namur, Belgium, April 2014
- Poster - "Glycosylated Nanomaterials: Neutralisation and Detection of Bacteria and Toxins"
2013
IUPAC 10th International Conference on Advanced Polymers via Macromolecular Engineering - The University of Durham, UK, August 2013
- Poster - "Glycopolymer–Lectin Interactions and Inhibition of Pathogens using Multivalent Scaffolds"
11th International Conference on Materials Chemistry (MC11) - The University of Warwick, UK, July 2013
- Poster - "Glycopolymer–Lectin Interactions and Inhibition of Pathogens using Multivalent Scaffolds"
Joint DTC conference - Imperial College London, June 2013
- Contributed lecture - "Inhibiton of bacterial toxins with multivalent glycopolymers: affinity and specificity"
RSC Biomaterials Conference - Sheffield UK, January 2013.
- Contributed lecture - "Inhibiton of bacterial toxins with multivalent glycopolymers: affinity and specificity"
2012
Multivalent Glycosciences: co-organised with RSC Carbohydrate Interest Group, The University of Birmingham, September 2012
- Flash presentation - "Inhibiton of bacterial toxins with multivalent glycopolymers: affinity and specificity"
Warwick Polymer Conference 2012, July 2012
- Poster - "Glycopolymer–Lectin Interactions and Inhibition of Pathogens using Multivalent Scaffolds"
S.Richards.1@warwick.ac.uk
Education
Chemistry, MChem, The University of Sheffield, 2006-2010.
Mathematical Biology and Biophysical Chemistry, MSc, The University of Warwick, 2010-2011.