Matt was today interviewed on BBC Coventry/Warwickshire about the the importance of maintaining blood stocks and the need for new innnovations to help this. In particular the use of cryopreservation methods being developed in the group were discussed.

Read some of our papers on this;

Deller, RC, Vatish, M, Mitchel, D., Gibson, MI., 2015. 1 789–794, ACS Biomaterials Science and Enginneering. "Glycerol Free Cryopreservation of Red Blood Cells Enabled by Ice Recrystallization Inhibiting Polymers"

Mitchell, DE., Cameron, NR., Gibson, MI, 2015, 51, 12977-12980 Chemical Communications Rational, yet simple, design and synthesis of an antifreeze-protein inspired polymer for cellular cryopreservation

A recent paper by the GibsonGroup has been highlighted in RSC Chemistry World, and also selected as a 'hot' article in Molecular Biosystems. This work, in collaboration with the FullamGroup, describes a new method for identfiying bacteria, by creating 'barcodes' describing how bacteria bind to different sugars. In the work, the team assembled small arrays of simple sugars onto a surface, and then mapped how different bacteria bind to them. This allowed a trianing matrix to be developed, so unknown bacteria could then be identified. The key to this is its simplicity and scalable to a range of different biosensory surfaces. In this preliminary work, a range of Gram Negative and Gram Postive Mycobacteria were tested and identified. This included surrogates for Mycobacterium Tubuculosis. It is hoped that this will translate to easy point of care biosensors, and to enable more effecient use of antibiotics.

Read the paper here.

Discrimination between bacterial species by ratiometric analysis of their carbohydrate binding profile

A Warwick Chemistry undergraduate researcher, Bethany Dean who has done several projects in our lab has won an award to allow her to travel to Australia (!) to attend the ICUR undergraduate reserach conference . She will present her work on understanding how synthetic polymers affect ice nucleation - A process which is still not understood despite its obvious important in process from cloud formation, to cryopreservation to making ice cream!

Read her paper on this topic here (with another undergrad student, Jamie Kasperczak-Wright);

Congdon, T., Dean, B.T., Kasperczak-Wright, J., Biggs, C.I., Notman, R., Gibson, M.I., 2015, Biomacromolecules, Probing the Biomimetic Ice Nucleation Inhibition Activity of Poly(vinyl alcohol) and Comparison to Synthetic and Biological Polymers

Our recent paper in Chemical Communications has been highlighted by the Royal Society of Chemistry's magazine 'Chemistry World'. The article reviews are recent findings on how slowing the rate of ice growth during thawing of frozen cells, can improve their viability. In particular, we exemplify this for red blood cells, which are currently only frozen using large amounts of the organic solvent glycerol.

Read the Chemistry World article here

Read the Chem Commun Article here

Read our related work here

http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acsbiomaterials.5b00162

http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2014/140203/ncomms4244/full/ncomms4244.html

At the 13th PAT (Polymers for Advanced Technology) conference, in HongZhou (China) Matt was awarded the Young Talent award for outstanding research for an academic < 40 years old. He was selected from a shortlist of 5, including academics from USA, Europe and China.

Matt also delivered an invited lecture at the meeting.

Matt has written a perspective in TheConversation - a online, indpendant sources of news and views from academics (and other experts).

https://theconversation.com/frogs-and-fish-can-help-us-learn-how-to-freeze-humans-42448

His article is entitled 'Frogs and fish can help us learn how to freeze human'. The aim of this was to highlgiht how we can learn from how Nature survives in extreme cold environments - the so called Extremophiles - to enable us to improve cell and tissue storage. Modern medicine is hugely dependant upon transplantation tissue (with blood and bone marrow being the most famous, probably). However, this tissue is hard to store; in the same manner than freezing food extends its shelf-life, but it is often less palatable post-thawing. The article is intended to simulate discussion into this field, and also show the wider public how fundemental science ('why does water turn to ice') underpins new technological advancements.

As part of his appearance at the Cheltenham festival of Science, Matt was interviewed by BBC radio Gloucester. Tune in later this week to hear the interview. (including the important of a Gin and Tonic to understand the challenges of cryopreserving human tissue..)

Matt Gibson gave a lecture at the Cheltenham Festival of Science (one of the biggest such festivals in the UK). His talk was entitled 'How to Freeze a Human'. In this, he explored the concept of cryopreservation - freezing of tissue and the challenges around this. This included a discussion of just how complex water and ice are - including demonstrations from smashing frozen bananas to using a hammer to nucleate (promote) ice formation...