NEWS
July 2024
STAFF UPDATE
POST DOC TURNER PRIZE WINNER
Congratulations to Evelin Csanyi on being awarded the Chemistry Department’s Turner Prize! Up to four prizes are awarded annually to the best students completing their PhDs in the previous year. Evelin is currently working as a member of the MPB team with a focus on the design and construction of pigment-polymer antenna complexes.
Dr Eveline Csanyi with Prof Nick Williams
Department of Chemistry
University of Sheffield
Dr Ed Johnson
Department of Chemistry
University of Sheffield
July 2024
STAFF UPDATE
FACULTY OF SCIENCE POST-DOC PRIZE
Congratulations to Ed Johnson on the award of one of the four Faculty of Science Postdoctoral Prize winners in recognition of his outstanding work on the design of pigment-polymer antenna complexes and for his broader impact on the Department of Chemistry.
The prize committee spokesperson Gavin Thomas commented:
"The nomination highlighted your outstanding contributions to research leadership and culture within the Department of Chemistry and the Faculty of Science. The panel were struck by your leadership in research collaborations and exceptional productivity, as well as your strong commitment and leadership in developing a positive research culture in the department."
JULY 2024
RESEARCH
XPS DEPTH-PROFILING STUDIES OF CHLOROPHYLL BINDING TO POLY(CYSTEINE METHACRYLATE) SCAFFOLDS IN PIGMENT-POLYMER ANTENNA COMPLEXES USING A GAS CLUSTER ION SOURCE
June 2024
RESEARCH
CAPTURING ENZYME-LOADED DIBLOCK COPOLYMER VESICLES USING AN ALDEHYDE-FUNCTIONALIZED HYDROPHILIC POLYMER BRUSH
June 2024
RESEARCH
RATIONALLY SEEDED COMPUTATIONAL PROTIEN DESIGN OF ɑ-HELICAL BARRELS
Computational protein design is advancing rapidly. Here we describe efficient routes starting from validated parallel and antiparallel peptide assemblies to design two families of α-helical barrel proteins with central channels that bind small molecules. Computational designs are seeded by the sequences and structures of defined de novo oligomeric barrel-forming peptides, and adjacent helices are connected by loop building. For targets with antiparallel helices, short loops are sufficient. However, targets with parallel helices require longer connectors; namely, an outer layer of helix–turn–helix–turn–helix motifs that are packed onto the barrels. Throughout these computational pipelines, residues that define open states of the barrels are maintained. This minimizes sequence sampling, accelerating the design process. For each of six targets, just two to six synthetic genes are made for expression in Escherichia coli. On average, 70% of these genes express to give soluble monomeric proteins that are fully characterized, including high-resolution structures for most targets that match the design models with high accuracy.
May 2024
RESEARCH
RADIATIVE PUMPING IN A STRONGLY COUPLED MICROCAVITY FILLED WITH A NEAT MOLECULAR FILM SHOWING EXCIMER EMISSION
Strong light-matter interactions have attracted much attention as a means to control the physical/chemical properties of organic semiconducting materials with light-matter hybrids called polaritons. To unveil the processes under strong coupling, studies on the dynamics of polaritons are of particular importance. While highly condensed molecular materials with large dipole density are ideal to achieve strong coupling, the emission properties of such films often become a mixture of monomeric and excimeric components, making the role of excimers unclear. Here, we use amorphous neat films of a new bis(phenylethynyl anthracene) derivative showing only excimer emission and investigate the excited-state dynamics of a series of strongly coupled microcavities, with each cavity being characterised by a different exciton–photon detuning.
April 2024
RESEARCH
ARGININE-FUNCTIONAL METHACRYLIC BLOCK COPOLYMER NANOPARTICLES: Synthesis, characterization and adsorption onto a model planar substrate
April 2024
RESEARCH
STRONG COUPLING IN MOLECULAR SYSTEMS: A simple predictor employing routine optical measurements
We provide a simple method that enables readily acquired experimental data to be used to predict whether or not a candidate molecular material may exhibit strong coupling. Specifically, we explore the relationship between the hybrid molecular/photonic (polaritonic) states and the bulk optical response of the molecular material. For a given material, this approach enables a prediction of the maximum extent of strong coupling (vacuum Rabi splitting), irrespective of the nature of the confined light field. We provide formulae for the upper limit of the splitting in terms of the molar absorption coefficient, the attenuation coefficient, the extinction coefficient (imaginary part of the refractive index) and the absorbance. To illustrate this approach, we provide a number of examples, and we also discuss some of the limitations of our approach.
January 2024
RESEARCH
XPS DEPTH-PROFILING STUDIES OF CHLOROPHYLL INDING TO POLY(CYSTEINE METHACRYLATE) SCAFFOLDS IN PIGMENT-POLYMER ANTENNA COMPLEXES USING GAS CLUSTER ION SOURCE
Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are small, membrane-enclosed vesicles released by cells into the extracellular milieu. They are found in all body fluids and contain a variety of functional cargo including DNA, RNA, proteins, glycoproteins and lipids, able to provoke phenotypic responses in cells, both locally and at distant sites. They are implicated in a wide array of physiological and pathological processes and hence have attracted considerable attention in recent years as potential therapeutic targets, drug delivery vehicles and biomarkers of disease. In this review we summarise the major functions of EVs in health and disease and discuss their translational potential, highlighting opportunities of – and challenges to – capitalising on our rapidly increasing understanding of EV biology for patient benefit.
February 2024
RESEARCH
CONTROLLING ADSORPTION OF DIBLOCK COPOLYMER NANOPARTICLES ONTO AN ALDEHYDE-FUNCTIONALIZED HYDROPHILIC POLYER BRUSH VIA pH MODULATION
Sterically stabilized diblock copolymer nanoparticles with a well-defined spherical morphology and tunable diameter were prepared by RAFT aqueous emulsion polymerization of benzyl methacrylate at 70 °C. The steric stabilizer precursor used for these syntheses contained pendent cis-diol groups, which means that such nanoparticles can react with a suitable aldehyde-functional surface via acetal bond formation. This principle is examined herein by growing an aldehyde-functionalized polymer brush from a planar silicon wafer and studying the extent of nanoparticle adsorption onto this model substrate from aqueous solution at 25 °C using a quartz crystal microbalance (QCM). The adsorbed amount, Γ, depends on both the nanoparticle diameter and the solution pH, with minimal adsorption observed at pH 7 or 10 and substantial adsorption achieved at pH 4. Variable-temperature QCM studies provide strong evidence for chemical adsorption, while scanning electron microscopy images recorded for the nanoparticle-coated brush surface after drying indicate mean surface coverages of up to 62%. This fundamental study extends our understanding of the chemical adsorption of nanoparticles on soft substrates.
January 2024
STAFF UPDATE
CONGRATULATIONS
Congratulations to Jenny Clark, one of the MPB investigators, on being promoted to a Personal Chair in Materials Physics in the Department of Physics and Astronomy.
Professor Jenny Clark
Department of Physics and Astronomy
University of Sheffield