The GibsonGroup have collaborated with immunologists at Nottingham to develop immune-instructive materials. Using the GibsonGroups technology for immobilising glycans (sugars) onto surfaces, they were able to screen for specific mixtures of glycans which modulated the behaviour of dendritic cells - key components of our immune system. This work shows that the incorporation of synthetic glycomaterials could be useful for the development of advanced implantable materials or in regenerative medicine. Read about the research here

Proteins are used as medicines, catalysts and many other application areas, but require careful storage conditions. Cryopreservation (freezing) is a widely used method to bank proteins but it is often necessary to add solvents (or other excipients) to protect them. The GibsonGroup have published an investigation into using polymers which control ice crystal growth, to protect proteins during freezing, which are now being investigated to help store and transport protein therapies. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eurpolymj.2020.110036

NanoSyrinx is the first company to engineer ‘nanosyringes’, a selective non-viral peptide and protein delivery system identified in an undisclosed organism. The company will focus on direct cytosolic delivery of genome editing enzymes and therapeutic proteins in vivo, with key applications in the cell and gene therapy space.

CEO Dr Joe Healey, who joined from the Waterfield Lab to lead the company, said, “We believe that our nanosyringe platform will unlock new approaches for the treatment of many intractable diseases and will be of value to a wide range of potential partners and customers. The company is delighted with the early progress made in both in vivo active pharmaceutical delivery and ex vivo cell engineering applications.”

Dr Nick Waterfield commented, “We are pleased with the traction the company has made, with both academics and industry leaders across a range of applications. In particular, our academic collaborations have provided excellent opportunities for us to build out a synthetic biology platform and validate compatibility with a range of payloads, including pro-apoptotic peptides, reporter proteins, and larger functional proteins (such as DNA modifying enzymes and toxins). We will also be exploring a diverse range of other payloads. The team would welcome discussions with the right partners as we move to the next phase“.

NanoSyrinx’s initial focus will be on the development of its ex vivo gene editing nanosyringe concept, having already engaged with a number of leaders in the cell therapy field.

Read more here

Current diagnostic strategies for SARS-COV-2 rely on centralised infrastructure using PCR (polymerase chain reaction) methods. The GibsonGroup have discovered that the SARS-COV-2 spike protein binds a sialic acids (a type of glycan other respiratory viruses also target) and show this can be used to detect it. The glycan is installed onto gold nanoparticles, which are then used in a hijacked ‘pregnancy test’ allowing quick detection without any infrastructure. This publication proves the principle including detection of a model virus system. https://doi.org/10.1021/acscentsci.0c00855 

Glycans (aka sugars) are crucial in infection and cell-cell signalling, but the incorporation of complex glycans into nanomaterials is not always easy. The GibsonGroup have developed a method to enable direct capture of glycans onto nanoparticles, removing complex chemical-synthesis steps which will enable the rapid investigation of their use in diagnostics, in particular. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.bioconjchem.0c00465

The GibsonGroup report the use of their (patent pending) macromolecular cryoprotectants for the cryopreservation of stem (stromal) cells. With this technology the amount of DMSO was reduced required for cryopreservation was reduced from 10 wt % to just 2.5 wt %. These findings are important for regenerative medicine applications where high-quality frozen cells are crucial, and the reduced DMSO may reduce toxicity and improve stem cell manufacturing processes. 
https://doi.org/10.1021/acsabm.0c00638

In this viewpoint article, to celebrate 100 years of polymer science, the GibsonGroup have reviewed the emerging field of engineering cell surfaces with polymers. Protein-polymer conjugates are now clinically used, but cell-polymer conjugates are still emerging. This article reviews how chemists can exploit glycan (sugar) metabolic processing to introduce ‘handles’ to cell surfaces to allow attachment of polymers, or nanomaterials, and the many potential applications this technology may have. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsmacrolett.0c00317

Frozen cells are crucial in all biomedical research, as well as to deliver cell based therapies (e.g. CAR-T cells) to patients.The GibsonGroup have published a study showing how to avoid false positives when testing innovative polymer-based cryoprotectants, which is crucial to help their translation from the lab to clinic. The work was led by recently appointed Wellcome-Trust translational fellow Dr Kathryn Murray. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.biomac.0c00591

WMS and University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire (UHCW) NHS Trust are investigating whether a new dual testing method can improve the diagnostic accuracy for patients with suspected significant bowel disease (SBD) - without the need for a colonoscopy.

The first building blocks of our lives are to be explored by a new research centre at the University of Warwick, starting from before we are even conceived right up to the age of five years old.

Researchers from WMS and the School of Engineering have developed a new technique that can spot a potential preterm birth in asymptomatic high-risk woman, with up to 73% accuracy months before delivery.

The GibsonGroup's work, in collaboration with Iceni Diagnostics, developing a new approach to rapid coronavirus diagnostics has been featured on the BBC. On Thursday 25 June, BBC Midlands interviewed Professor Gibson and members of his team - a feature on this can be read on the BBC News web pages. 

A new diagnostic tool for rapid detection of Coronavirus is being developed by Warwick researchers, led by the Gibson Lab. Learn more about the tool, its development and how it could help in the battle against the virus.

Survey by WMS researchers shows most women’s healthcare units have adopted national guidance on COVID-19 but there are concerns that without greater planning there could be problems that may adversely affect women’s health in the future.

WMS researchers have developed a way to create more crucial reagents for use in COVID-19 tests that could also provide enhancements to the use of, and production of, future tests.

The Gibson Group are developing mimetics of anitfreeze proteins for various biomedical applications. In this work, they explore the use of X-ray scattering as a tool to help discover new materials and understand existing antifreeze proteins. Traditional tests of antifreeze function use microscopy and end-point assays, or require extensive image analysis of a relatively small number of crystals. Here, low-temperature x-ray scattering was used (with superb assistance from the X-Ray RTP at Warwick) to enable real-time profiling of ice growth rates, probing 100’s of crystals simultaneously. This work will help develop new more active antifreeze protein mimetics for biomedical and biotechnological applications. https://doi.org/10.1039/C9AN02141H

The Gibson Group have developed new nanoparticles capable of inhibiting ice growth, to mimic antifreeze proteins. Antifreeze proteins often show size-dependant activity - larger proteins are more active than small. In this work, the Gibsongroup used the tool of polymerization induced self assembly, PISA. PISA is a powerful, but typically cannot be conducted in saline, which can limit its application, especially for ice growth assays which require saline. The team developed an easy method to enable saline-stable PISA and exploited this to generate nanoparticles which were potent ice growth inhibitors, and were more active than the starting polymers. https://doi.org/10.1039/D0MH00354A

The Gibson Group has explored the use of gold nanoparticles as a tool to probe how influenza targets our cells. Influenza engages cells in our respiratory tracts by binding to glycans (sugars) and the pattern of sugars they bind is a key part of zoonosis - species hopping, for example avian to human influenza. The GibsonGroup used their polymer-stabilised nanoparticle technology to capture glycans onto the nanoparticles and probed how they interact with a components from a panel of influenza strains. This revealed key differences in the binding pattern compared to just using the glycans alone.
https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.biomac.0c00179

In the editorial, 'Covid-19: A new digital dawn?', researchers, which include Dr Harpal Randeva from the Division of Biomedical Sciences, provides insight into how these three reasons have led to an increase in digital healthcare.

1. The need to triage and treat large number of patients with respiratory problems

2. The need to protect healthcare workers to ensure they can treat the sick

3. The need to protect the elderly and most vulnerable in society from being infected

https://warwick.ac.uk/newsandevents/pressreleases/coronavirus_brings_dawn

The movements of cell muscles in the form of tiny filaments of proteins have been visualised at unprecedented detail by scientists from Warwick Medical School and the Department of Physics.

In this study, UHPLC-MS/MS lipidomics was used to measure the dynamic changes in lipid composition as a function of age and gender throughout the lifespan of genetically identical male and female D. magna. The collaborative study between Mirbahai and Viant groups demonstrated that more than half of all lipids measured, including triglycerides and diglycerides are statistically different between female and male D. magna with age. This study provides a benchmark dataset to enhance our understanding of the significant role of lipids in regulation of health and disease. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-62476-z.

Phil Auckland (McAinsh lab) reveals how the human kinetochore protein CENP-F helps hold onto microtubules with one hand, while limiting the motorised stripping of corona components with the other (see figure). We find that over stripping leads to inefficient chromosome biorientation - a key step in accurate chromosome segregation. doi.org/10.1083/jcb.201905018

How can membrane bound actin and myosin motors form contractile platforms without being in each other's way? The solution lies in their self-organization into layers on top of each other. The collaboration between experiment (Mayor group and Koester) and modeling (Rao and Skrepnek groups) of minimal, membrane bound acto-myosin networks provided new insights into this phenomenon that is important for our understanding of the cell cortex dynamics in close proximity to the plasma membrane. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aay6093

Following the dynamics of molecular motors in minimal actin cortex systems is usually performed by fluorescence microscopy which poses heavy limits on the recording frequency due to phototoxicity. In a collaboration between Koester and the Kukura group in Oxford, label free interferometric scattering microscopy was employed to circumvent these limitations providing unprecedented high frequency data of myosin filament dynamics. Together with a new single particle tracking routine developed by Lewis Mosby (Straube group) and Marco Polin the results revealed intriguing changes in myosin II filament dynamics upon ATP depletion and driving actin network contraction. This work provides new tools and approaches for the study of active processes and molecular motors.  doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bpj.2020.02.025.

The storage and transport of cells is crucial for fundamental biological studies and to ensure cell-based therapies can be delivered to the patient intact and functional. The Gibson Group has developed a semi-automated method to rapidly make 100’s of new polymers, which allowed them to identify new design rules to help make more active materials. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsmacrolett.0c00044