Chem@Cam 56, Winter 2017

Chemistry at Cambridge Magazine WINTER 2017

ISSUE 56

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Nobel Laureates

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Cope & Shoolery Awards

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Noticeboard Welcome

Contents Research

Q&A

Recognitions Appointments andhisawards and promotions issue - as you will see - features scientists associated with the

OUTREACH

Predicting medicine’s ‘Black Swans’

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he first project of the Cambridge Alliance

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Up to now, this type of data analysis has been

John Sulston receives on Medicines Safety will be a three-year difficult to perform because of the lack of 19.0mm collaboration to predict the safety of available data, both in quality and quantity. Now Alumni Medal Chemistry networking current and future medicines. the researchers will not only have access to public Members of the Bender, Goodman and Colwell research groups, all located in the Department of Chemistry, will work together to analyse data to determine the links between a compound’s structure and its potential adverse effects when used as a medicine. The project focuses on what the team call “Black Swans” – the toxic effects of compounds that could have been predicted in hindsight.

WOMEN IN CHEMISTRY

sources, but also to the historical compound profiling data held by GlaxoSmithKline, which has funded the three-year project.

RESEARCH

The team will examine the data using high throughput screening techniques and mathematical analyses to derive Adverse Outcome Pathways (AOPs) that reveal the links between compounds and their adverse effects.

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Karen Stroobants

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“Currently, this step is difficult to perform due to paucity of data as well as many AOPs not being sufficiently quantitative in nature, which is what the current project aims to improve upon,” said Dr Andreas Bender, one of the group leaders.

He expects other major pharmaceutical companies to join the project, which will provide even further data for analysis.

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Flowers’ ‘blue halo attracts bees The Cambridge Alliance on Medicines Safety is

Letter from the Head of Department

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Q&A: John Sulston

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News

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part of the Cambridge Academy of Therapeutic Sciences (CATS), which has been operational since March 2017. CATS aims to connect industry Our Nobel Laureates: Remembering Todd and academic expertise Lord to drive therapeutic 28 development. It spans across disciplines ‘Blue halo’ helps bees 29 in the University, as well as teaching and research aspects related to drug discovery and 31 Silk micrococoons could protect sensitive molecules development.

Chemistry opens its doors

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New compound targets brain tumours

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Alumni News

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Thermal gradients shown by numbers

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Alumni Correspondence

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Predicting medicine’s ‘black swans’ Cambridge Alliance on Medicines Safety:

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As I See It: Clair Castle

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Our Nobel Laureates: Quick as a flash

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Heidelberg01223 University 761479

news@ch.cam.ac.uk

27 February 2018: www.ch.cam.ac.uk ‘Identification of Active Species @ChemCambridge and Mechanistic Pathways in the Views expressed in this magazine are Enantioselective Catalysis with 3d not necessarily those of the Editor, Transition Metal Pincer Complexes’ . the Department of Chemistry or the WolfsonUniversity LectureofTheatre, 14:00-15:00.

Cambridge.

Alumni Medal in October. John played a key in sequencing the very first • role Dr Robert Less is a joint teaching animal genome and went on to become the founding director the Sanger fellow between theofDepartment Institute, from where he led UK research in the Human Genome Project –inwithout and Murray Edwards College Professor Clare Grey inorganic chemistry. which exponential advances we’ve seen in genetic science would not be Electedthe a Fellow of the Electrochemical Society. John and two colleagues received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or possible.

• Drand Stephanie Smith is a joint Awarded the 2017 Société Medicine in 2002.

To findChimique out more about John his achievements, read his Print: Sterling Solutions teaching fellow between the 1 March 2018: de France French-British prize.

Q&A on page 4.

Department and Pembroke ‘Perylene-Based Poly(N-Heterocycles): Named as the first ever recipient of the College in organic chemistry.

International Solid State Ionics GalvaniWe also celebrate the award of the Nobel Prize to our former colleagues – Nernst-Wagner Mid-Career Researcher We are looking to years working Lord Todd 60 years ago, and Sir Ronald Norrish and Lord forward Porter 50 ago.

Award. with them both over the next three Their work opened up new fields of research and paved the way for scientific years. Many of our readers may have Professor Michele Vendruscolo breakthroughs that were previously unthinkable.

Awarded theofGiuseppe Occhialini legends. (See our Nobel section on pages memories these departmental Promotions Medal and Prize jointly by the Institute 26-28.)

The Department of Chemistry is of Physics and the Italian Physical pleased to announce several academic Society. promotions.

Our research section highlights some of our current initiatives, from Silvia Dr Volker Deringer Vignolini’s investigations into the fascinating mechanisms by which plants attract Stuart Clarke,effort Sophie Jacksonthe Awarded a Leverhulme Career funded collaborative pollinators like bees, toEarly a recently involving and Erwin Reisner (below left) have Fellowship.

Bender, Colwell and Goodman research groups to improve safety in medicines. been promoted to professor, Silvia (See the Research section on pages 29-34.)Vignolini has been promoted to a Professor Ali Alavi readership, and Janet Kumita (below Elected to the International Academy right) hasthe been promoted to principal Life after theMolecular Chemistry Department doesn’t look same for everybody.

Look of Quantum Science. research associate. out for our talks with several alumni about where life has taken them after Recognition their studies here. ‘Abroad’ seems to be the answer: on page 16, two young Congratulations to our colleagues on Immaterial, a start-up by the leadership women scientists tellfounded us about programme they enrolled in that their accomplishments. alumnus Dr Andrew Marsden, has culminated in a trip to the Antarctic. On page 18, a former undergraduate who is made the top 20 in the Innovation now BP’s Vice-President Group Research explains how his career has taken him Forum’s Imagine IF! global of accelerator to live in Russia andpitch China. programme and will for thousands of dollars in prizes in an international head-to-head in alumni ‘postcards’ from the World Solar And we have some fascinating December.

Andrew completed hisa space satellite conference in Japan. (See the Challenge across Australia and undergraduate degree in Chemistry Correspondence pages 20-21.) We hope you enjoy reading them. here before studying for a PhD in Protein Biophysics.

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Copyright 2017

OrganicDepartment Semiconductors, Biological of Chemistry, University of Cambridge Fluorescence Probes and Building Chem@Cam is published twice a year, Blocks for Molecular Surface Networks’. and is sent free to chemistry alumni, Wolfsonpostdoctoral Lecture Theatre, 14:00-15:00. researchers, retired staff and friends of the department.

Chemistry Open Day 17 March 2018 CONTRIBUTORS For details of more talks taking place in Rachel Gardner the department, please see Editor www.ch.cam.ac.uk/talks/all-upcoming

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Diane Harris Contributing editor Nathan Pitt Head of Photography and Reprographics Gabriella Bocchetti Photographer Contributors: The editor would like to thank and acknowledge all who contributed to this issue.

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www.ats.cam.ac.uk/what-we-do/cambridgealliance-medicines-safety Noticeboard 35 Cambridge Academy of Therapeutic Sciences: www.ats.cam.ac.uk How you can contribute 36

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Women in Chemistry: Karen Stroobants

READ MORE:

Department of Chemistry University of Cambridge Lensfield Road Lewis Lectures Cambridge CB2 1EW

department whose work has been recognised at the highest level by New teaching fellows We are delighted to have appointed Speaker: Professor Lutz Gade, the award of the Nobel Prize.

two new teaching fellows in the First is Sir John Sulston, to whom we were department. delighted to award the department’s

Bender, Goodman & Colwell Groups

Upcoming events

John Pyle

Head of Department 3

ISSUE 56 Winter 2017

A new compound that in tests has shrunk brain tumours without causing harmful side effects has been developed by a team of researchers including the Department of Chemistry’s Professor Robert Glen.

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Traditional cancer therapies target the tumour itself.

But to try and find a chink in this cancer’s armour, the You and Bob Waterston were the first What was working herehave like?

Why Chemistry? researchers have taken a different route. They to sequence an animal genome. Why Like being at my home – but with I was always intrigued by biology, designed a compound, known as MM54, which is an the nematode worm? better and bigger machines.

Quite early which was mysterious and fascinating. antagonist that blocks the action of an important g Sydney Brenner chose it because of on, I found a spot in a chromatogram I opted for Physiology in Partprotein-coupled I, but it receptor called apelin. The natural its simplicity and quick growth. (There which shouldn’t have been there.

I had turned out to be not very interesting, agonist for the apelin receptor is a peptide, secreted in wereimages lots of from jokesthe about worm’, discovered a reaction people hadn’t mainly learning labels and names.

Ian most exciting Brain‘Sydney’s paper is the the blood vessels around the tumour, which helps to as we called it.)

I joined his group known about.

I was immediately in an Fleming [now Emeritus Professor in the complete arresting of tumour growth and reduction sustain them. the MRC Laboratory of Molecular exciting position of having discovered department] was at Pembroke and was in tumour[in size after dosing with MM54, ” Professor Glen Biology] on returning to Cambridge after something new. young, personable and really sparky says.

“The antagonist MM54 blocks the expression of this postdoctoral research at the Salk Institute about how things worked. That made peptide anda in doing so, it denies the tumour the in California.

My supervisor was Colin Reese, the huge difference to me and inspired me He adds, “We think this compound could also work growth potential it needs to survive,” says Professor second person I owe a lot to.

He to study chemistry. on a number of other tumours, for example, tumours Glen.

Byin1983 hadrenal a lot cancer of mutants in the organised us unmercifully and told us developed lungwe cancer, and colorectal worm, but then the genes had to be what to do, but didn’t restrict us.

My What was Pembroke like When in 1960? cancer. Blocking the action of the apelin receptor researchers in Nantes grew tumourspheres located and isolated for study, and thesis was on oligonucleotide synthesis Dreadful. Almost no women,from a very odd human glioblastoma cells in vitro, the researchers blocks the messages that sustain the cancer.” each one took a huge amount of work. I – an exciting area because monastic set-up. could see the apelin blocker MM54 slowing theirpeople were crazy. We need to map just realising the genetic code could be Professor thought Glen has ‘This beeniscollaborating for several growth. Further tests in the lab have shown the worked out. the genome’ .

Sydney agreed.

What led you to a PhD in compound Chemistry? years with Dr Anthony Davenport at the Division of shrinking the tumour in vivo. “One of the I had signed up for Voluntary Service What were you like as a boy?

We talked about the methodology.

Overseas but my programme fell Intrigued by biology. I was always The worm has 100 million bases and through. I came, hat in hand, to the REFERENCE: fiddling about with meccano sets, sequencing technology at that time department and was interviewed by Elizabethbut Harford-Wright, Gwennan Andre-Gregoire, Kathryn Lucas Treps, Heloise M Leclair, electric wiring, an aquarium, andA Jacobs, growing couldSophie onlyLe doGonidec, a few thousand.

We Sara Alexander Todd, who was austere Gonzalez-Diest, Quentin Roux, François Guillonneau, Delphine Loussouarn, Lisa Oliver, François M Vallette, Fabienne Foufelle, things in my Robert bedroom. thought we could chunk the genome amazingly accepting of thisPhilippe ‘refugee’ with Valet, Anthony P Davenport, C Glen, Nicolas Bidere, Julie Gavard: Pharmacological targeting of apelin impairs into pieces, cloning and rearranging his 2.1. glioblastoma growth. Brain, awx253, https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awx253

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How has the scientific world changed In the Laboratory of Molecular Biology, since you started? we had managed 3 million base pairs I used to feel my job was to get on with of the nematode, but we needed space my work and leave the world to be run for the other 97 million. By then we Frenkel Group by politicians who have the skills and were also making huge inroads into experience to do it properly. But now the human genome – we eventually I believe in the importance of greater managed a little under one-third of and genuine involvement by scientists the human genome at the Sanger, in deciding the sort of world we want. working with colleagues in America. lectric charges This are ubiquitous, yet caused isolated by magnetic was partially the bid, Nowadays, [the department’s] Shankar charges (‘magnetic monopoles’) have never been detected

by Celera in 1998, to make the human Balasubramanian and David Klenerman in experiments.

In 2016, Professor Daan Frenkel predicted genome project private. It seemed to me have taken us into Next Generation that heated or cooledself-evident, nanoparticleson should withpractical each both interact moral and sequencing with Solexa, which is vastly Experimental Medicine and Immunotherapeutics other as if they are monopoles and that they should move grounds, that the human genome is an faster. at Addenbrookes Hospital. It was while looking for 1 in inhomogeneous fields . However, unlike normal electrical inappropriate subject for commercial potential drug targets for vascular disease that they charges, they would not move under the influence of an applied ownership. [A subject John wrote about, You Nobel discovered MM54, the first competitive antagonist (orlearned about your homogeneous field. with Georgina Ferry, in ‘The Common Prize...? blocker) for apelin, a receptor on the surface of cells Thread – Science, politics, ethics and the From that carries specific signals from the outside of the cell a message on the answering Now a team of researchers from Frenkel’spublished group, in collaboration Human Genome’, in 2002.] machine on my desk at Sanger.

I didn’t to the inside. They then looked to see what MM54 with Christoph Dellago of the University of Vienna, have confirmed believe it, but figured I should phone could do. this prediction.

How does it feel to receive the them back!

Alumni Medal?

It was reported in the literature that apelin is involved Which chemist do youUsing mostmolecular admire?simulations, the team were able to to demonstrate A complete surprise.

I tried demur – with blood vessel formation. This was of interest Fred Sanger. There was something that a pair of heated orwho cooled colloidal particles in a dipolar than am I? Others are more suitable because researchers have been exploring for years about him: he spoke quietly, in abehave like oppositely solvent magnetic me. But charged I acceptelectric it with or gratitude. how to block angiogenesis – the production of blood non-flamboyant way, butmonopoles. with great In particular, they showed that the field distribution vessels – in tumours. Additionally, apelin turned out to intelligence and knowledge. around these particlesWhat agreesadvice quantitatively theoretical wouldwith youthe give young have other effects, such as maintaining cell viability in predictions for a pair ofscientists oppositelytoday? charged electric or magnetic low oxygen (ischaemic) environments like the centres What trait do you mostmonopoles. deplore inHowever, in other respects, the nonequilibrium I still think it’s true that you should them in a jigsaw pattern. So Bob of tumours. chemists? colloidal particles do not as monopoles: cannot do behave what you enjoy doing.they If you do be Waterston, Alan Coulson and I built the Greed. Not just financial, moved but theby a homogeneous applied field. something you like, at least you have clone map.

You have the genetic For these reasons, apelin looked likemap, a promisingunwillingness to share data and that, and there’s a higher chance it will so you know the order of genes in the target, so Glen and his Cambridge colleagues setdiscoveries, up a including notLead giving credit author, PhD student Wirnsberger said: “This intriguing takePeter you somewhere. genome, you align the two maps, then collaboration with researchers in Nantes to test MM54 to others. This contributes to many of the result advances our understanding of the complex interactions take eacha clone your region andcalled checkMM193) (and also newerin version antagonist problems in science today. in nanoscale systems out of thermal equilibrium.

It is likely that Three key words in your career? to see whether your gene is in glioblastoma. it or not. in different models of the cancer The there are many closelySerendipity. related phenomena in nanoscale devices.

Mapping. Open access.

What’s your biggest discovery? subsequent testing has looked so promising, with However, the effect has not yet been observed in experiments. ” By thatshowing time people had got adept at properties Finding a way to watch cells divide in the MM54 remarkable anti-cancer in Where do we go from here? injecting pieces of DNA into theare worm the models, that the researchers now hopingliving to worm. I’m a mapper at heart.

In our journey of understanding the and seeing how it was affected.

By the move it to the next stage. universe we have no limit. end of the 1980s we could pull genes What was your worst job? out with much less trouble.

By 1990 the Working in an asbestos factory as a “The Brain paper shows that apelin receptor Sanger method had beeninautomated and– i.e. school holiday job. We emptied big sacks REFERENCE: expression is up-regulated these cancers speeded up, socells we started sequencing theapelin 1 HotI’ve nanoparticles of the stuff into the hopper. no idea in polar or paramagnetic liquids interact as that the cancer are interacting with the monopoles, Frenkel D (2016) J Phys Chem B 120:5987-5989. genome.

The worm the firstcells animal how many died as a result. peptide derived fromwas endothelial in the blood ever sequenced.

I’m very proud of that. vessels around the cancer. We’re trying to switch off RESEARCH: What music do you enjoy?

Numerical evidence for thermally induced monopoles, Wirnsberger P et that mechanism.”

What led you to the Sanger Centre? al, (2017) PNAS 114:19, 4911-4914.

Everything. My wife Daphne plays piano In the early 1990s, the Wellcome Trust and chooses CDs and I love it all. When Professor Glen adds, “It’s very exciting. This is a different accepted a proposal for entirely tacklingbecause the was on Desert Island Discs in 2001, kind of cancer treatment unlikeIthe human genometemozolomide, and to build athis new they called my choices “eclectic”. [John’s current therapy, is not a genotoxic research I agreedwith to become chosen luxury was “the microscope drug, andcentre. it is synergistic the current therapy. ” involved because I wanted to get the used to examine the lineage of the nematode done. roundworm”…]

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New compound targets brain tumours

he research, which also involves collaborators at Cambridge’s Sir John Sulston CH FRS is the recipient of the Addenbrookes Hospital and the Department of Chemistry Alumni Medal. He read Natural University of Nantes, has just been Sciences and Chemistry at Pembroke College and published in the journal Brain. received his PhD in organic chemistry here in 1966. John shared the 2002 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Together, the researchers have been studying a with Sydney Brenner and Bob Horvitz for cell lineage potential new treatment for glioblastoma, the most research in the nematode worm, C. elegans. In 1992, he common and lethal primary brain tumour in adults. became founding Director of the Sanger Centre (now the “In humans, glioblastoma is a very nasty disease,” says Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute) and from there led UK Professor Glen. “Following diagnosis, most patients research in the Human Genome Project. only live 15-16 months even after surgery to remove the tumour, chemotherapy and radiotherapy.”

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ISSUE 56 56 Winter Winter 2017 2017 ISSUE

Phipps Group

In 1987, Professor Lehn won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry with Donald Cram and Charles Pederson for their innovative work on synthesising molecules bind co-founded in 2013 by postdoctoral Researchers in thecryptands, Phipps the group have that developed novelSensorHut catalystswas which are able to engage in non-researcher atoms together. He is Honorary Professor at the Collège de Dr Tanya Hutter, who first had the idea for developing her covalent interactions with substrates. With judicious design, they are able to control positional selectivity France and Emeritus Professor at the University of Strasbourg innovative sensor technology while studying for her PhD here. in thehe conversion of common C-Hofbonds versatile C-B bonds in a range of different molecules. where was the founder of its Institute Scienceto and Supramolecular Engineering.

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s usual, Royal Society University He was followed, in October, by Professor Research Tom CechFellow who Dr. Robert Phipps is came to give the 2017 Herchel Smith Lecture.

His talk thinking about molecules. “I’m trying was on ‘Shedding Some Light on the DarktoMatter the createof molecules in a selective and different way,” says Robert, who was Genomic University - Ribozymes, Telomerase and Regulating recently awarded a prestigious €1.5 million European Epigenetics’.

Research Council grant to further his research into exploring newat approaches to molecule assembly.

Professor Cech is Distinguished Professor the University (See on page 11). of Colorado Boulder, Director of story the University of Colorado

of fantastic molecular structures, but Robert and his research group are interested in incorporating them into new catalyst designs.

“Considering in biology how effectively enzymes use non-covalent interactions to perform nature’s catalysis and achieve amazing feats of selectivity, we thought maybe we could learn something from that. It’s quite a different approach to how we as synthetic chemists would traditionally go about making molecules,” he says.

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BioFrontiers Institute, and Investigator, Howard Hughes New molecules have many applications, from Medical Institute. His work has been recognised by many consumer goods such as paints national and international awards and prizes including theand computer chips “And in fact over the last 15 years there’s been a new to the fungicides used in industrial agriculture. They Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1989. The talk was organized by are perhaps used most widely in the pharmaceutical field of chemistry emerging called organocatalysis, the Herchel Smith Professor of Medicinal Chemistry, where synthetic chemists have realised they industry to develop drugs ranging from antibiotics, Sir Shankar Balasubramanian. can incorporate these non-covalent interactions anti-inflammatories and asthma treatments to the into small molecule catalysts. You don’t need the latest anti-cancer drugs.

• We’re commemorating the department’s own Nobel elaborate structure of an enzyme to get synthetically useful levels of selectivity.”

Laureates. See pages 21-23.

Synthetic chemists tend to be most familiarNow usingthe Henslow Research Fellow at Darwin College, and a

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Shankar with Tom Cech Photo: Kim Liu

member covalent bonds to assemble molecules. Robert says: of the multidisciplinary Elliott research group in the A major concern in this area is how to control department, she multi-tasks, juggling work for the company “If you go back to a fundamental level, the normal enantioselectivity – the selective synthesis of one way we think about chemical bonds is we think around her full-time academic research. mirror image form of a molecule over the other. about two atoms with a shared pair of electrons Whilst this is an important goal, the Phipps group between them, which is what we’re taught The as sensor technology that SensorHut is developing can sees the potential in harnessing these interactions undergraduates. be used to detect and monitor volatile organic compounds to tackle a different selectivity challenge – that (VOCs) – gasofmolecules that are present in air, chemical regioselectivity, which necessitates being able “But there is this parallel type of interaction processes, which is food and waste.

Many of these can be atoxic and to control what position in a molecule reaction 1 called a non-covalent interaction—in the simplest occurs at. harmful to humans and the environment. But they are sense it’s still two atoms interacting with each other, widespread, used in products ranging from mattresses to but they’re not sharing a pair of electrons infurniture, the “This ispaints very important because, to use the example solvents, and aerosols. same way. The attraction is typically weaker and the of pharmaceuticals, the shape of the molecule key aspect for us is that it is readily reversible.” This is hugely significant. You could have the same type of interaction has been used extensively by molecular formula, but a different shape could cause a totally different effect in the body,” says Robert. supramolecular chemists to construct all manner

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Knowles Group

The SensorHut technology uses nanotechnology “If you can put the boron in selectively at the desiredto reduce position then you have numerous avenues opennano-structure for sensor size. Light is shone through an optical its elaboration in very short order. ” This is a particular that behaves like a ‘sponge’, concentrating the molecules. This advantage drug discoverypath-length where the ability make metres to can reduceinthe interaction fromto several many analogues as quickly as possible is highly sought one centimetre, enabling the sensors to be much smaller. And, after.

Dr Hutter says, the SensorHut technology is also significantly more sensitive and selective to the compounds than others.

Last year, PhD students Holly Davis and Madalina Mihai found that they could use an ion-pairing interaction She adds:a“We are working closely with Alphasense between negatively charged catalyst and a positivelyLtd to take the substrate technology to a commercial product.

Alphasense is a charged to control the position at which the 2 leading gas sensor R&D and manufacturing company, also C-B bondUK formation occurred. working with the Atmospheric Chemistry group, focusing on the and air quality ” “Theindustrial use of ionsafety pairs to influence thismarkets. type of positional selectivity was quite unprecedented. Up until now most people would the stage. lack of“We directionality The work is at think an early are still inwould the research phase, scupper such a strategy, but our study this to says. working to understand the scientific showed principles, ” Drnot Hutter be the case, ” says Robert about their work.

However, the first product using SensorHut technology could go on sale – if the testing is successful – next year.

Furthermore, Holly also discovered that the catalyst they had designed to operate in ‘ion-pairing mode’ was also able to operate very well in ‘hydrogen-bonding mode’.

If the substrate molecule contained a hydrogen bond donor, such as an amide, the anionic catalyst was able to engage in a hydrogen bonding interaction which was also highly effective in directing the position of C-B bond formation. Working together with PhD student Georgi Around 100 potential postgraduate students attended the Genov, they found the scope to be very broad and the department’s Graduate Students Admissions in October. .3 results of the study were published very recentlyday The event was laid on to inform them about the how’s and why’s pursuing athat postgraduate degree inthe Chemistry and Robertofemphasises these studies are just included tours and information sessions. beginning.departmental “We are very excited about these results as they prove that our approach is not only viable but also has the potential to bewas verya powerful ” The heart of the day series of and ‘flash’general. research presentations given by academics representing the department’s five Research Interest Groups. Between the REFERENCES: presentations, student volunteers gave lab tours and 1.

HJ Davis, RJ Phipps: Harnessing non-covalent interactions to Graduate exert control over regioselectivity and site-selectivity in catalytic Students Advisor Dr Rachel MacDonald hosted information reactions. Chem. Sci. (2017) 8, 864. DOI: 10.1039/C6SC04157D sessions on the issues sometimes faced by applicants, such as visa language and fee Regiocontrol status.

2. rules, HJ Davis, MT Mihai, requirements RJ Phipps: Ion Pair-Directed

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ed by Professor Tuomas Knowles, Chemistry researchers have created microscopic versions of the cocoons spun by silkworms. The tiny capsules, invisible to the naked eye, can protect sensitive molecular materials and could prove a significant technology in areas including food science, biotechnology and medicine. Writing in the journal Nature Communications, the researchers suggest that these “micrococoons” are a potential solution to a common technological problem: how to protect sensitive molecules that have potential health or nutritional benefits but can easily degrade and lose these favourable qualities during storage or processing. The study argues that sealing such molecules in a protective layer of silk could be the answer.

“The day always requires a great deal of organisation,” said Head Graduateproblem, Recruitment Dractive Rebecca Myers, who “It’s aofcommon having molecules that runs the event.

“I’d like to thank everyone who contributed.

Without possess beneficial properties but are challenging to stabilise them all pitching in, these events would not be as popular for storage,” Professor Knowles says. “A conceptually simple,as they ” but are. powerful, solution is to put them in tiny capsules. These are typically made from synthetic polymers, which can have a number drawbacks. the use of This year forofthe first time,We’ve videosbeen of all exploring the presentations fully been natural materials for this purpose and are excited by have made available on the department’s Graduate the potential to replace plastics with sustainable biological Admissions website. They can be seen at materials for this purpose.” www.ch.cam.ac.uk/pgapp

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A company started up by Research Fellow Dr Tanya Hutter to develop robust, small and cheap sensors for detecting toxic gases has just won a commendation in a new awards scheme. SensorHut was chosen as a finalist in the Cambridge Independent’s inaugural Entrepreneurial Science & Technology Awards. At the ceremony in late September, the company was Highly Commended in the ‘Cleantech’ category.

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We have enjoyed talks by two visiting Nobel Laureates in the last few months. In June, the day after he received an Honorary Degree from the University of Cambridge, Professor Jean-Marie Lehn came to the Department of Chemistry. A former Alexander Todd Visiting Professor of Chemistry, his talk to a packed lecture theatre was on ‘Perspectives in Chemistry: From Supramolecular Chemistry towards Adaptive Chemistry’.

Silk micrococoons could protect sensitive molecules

In their early explorations, group members have been Optical gas sensors that are based on molecular spectroscopy focusing on the conversion of an aromatic carbonmeasure molecules that are dispersed in air. The sensitivity of hydrogen bond to a carbon-boron (C-B) bond. C-B bonds detection depends on the length of interaction of light with are very versatile, meaning they can be transformed the molecules. longer the path-length over which this intogas numerous otherThe types of bonds, including carboninteraction is measured, theand stronger the carbonsignal. But to do that nitrogen, -oxygen, -halogen, of course requires bulky and expensive gas flow cells. carbon bonds.

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fellow’s startTailoring catalystsResearch to incorporate up wins commendation non-covalent interactions

Nobel Laureate lectures

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News Research

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Department welcomes prospective postgrads

The capsules were made using a specially-developed microengineering process that combines the power of microfluidic manufacturing with the value of natural silk. The process mimics on the microscale the way in which Bombyx mori silkworms spin the cocoons from which natural silk is harvested. The resulting micron-scale capsules comprise a solid and tough shell of silk nano-fibrils that surround and Leading Chinese academic Professor Yuhan Sun, came to the protect a centre of liquid cargo, and are more than a thousand department in early October to give the BP Keynote Lecture times smaller than those created by silkworms. The same 2017 on approaches to be energy and storage. technology could also usedconversion in pharmaceuticals to treat a wide range of severe and debilitating illnesses. In the study, the Prof Sun is Vice President showed of the Shanghai Advanced Research researchers successfully that silk micrococoons can Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). increase the stability and lifetime an antibody thatFrom acts on a 2009-2014, he was Board Chairman of the diseases.

CAS-BP Clean Energy protein implicated in neurodegenerative Technology Centre.

BP Lecture on energy conversion

in Transition Metal Catalysis: A Meta-Selective C–H Borylation of Aromatic Quaternary Ammonium Salts. J. Am. Chem. Soc. (2016) Visitors to speak to current students and 138,were 12759.also DOI: able 10.1021/jacs.6b08164

InREFERENCE: his lecture during the annual BP Day to students, academics Silk micrococoons for protein stabilisation and molecular encapsulation, Nature and invited guests, Prof(2017).

Sun discussed the importance of Communications 8, 15902 carbon-oxygen bond activation for carbon dioxide/carbon monoxide utilisation.

postdoctoral researchers, many of whom presented their 3.

HJ Davis, GR Genov, RJ Phipps: Meta Selective C-H Borylation of research posters in the Cybercafé at lunchtime and during the Benzylamine, Phenethylamine and Phenylpropylamine-Derived closing reception.

Amides Enabled by a Single Anionic Ligand. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. (2017) 56, 13351. DOI: 10.1002/anie.201708967

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ISSUE ISSUE 56 56 Winter Winter 2017 2017

Two of our young researchers – research fellow Dr Karen Stroobants and PhD student George Trenins – were selected to attend the 2017 Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting, which was dedicated to chemistry.

Sixty years after Lord Todd won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, his work and legacy is remembered

by Professor Sir Shankar Balasubramanian.

Early-career scientists who want the opportunity to share

conversations, research and ideas with Nobel Laureates at the annual Lindau Meetings have to undergo a rigorous application process.

Successful applicants, say the organisers, nucleosides to form “Organic chemistry deals with matters of truly vital methods for phosphorylating “undoubtedly representblocks the emerging generation of leading nucleotides, the constituent building for importance and in some aspects it may prove to the nucleic acids (RNA and and a number of hold the keys to life itself.” These words are taken scientists andDNA), researchers. ” coenzymes. from the Nobel Lecture given by Lord Todd, who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1957.

Karen had the opportunity to present her research with four His work, carried out young with Dan Brown,alongside established This year we celebrate the 60th anniversary of other scientists Aaron Ciechanover, winner of the correct chemical structure of nucleic acids, the award to Lord Todd, who was appointed the 2004 Nobel Prize for Chemistry. allowing James Watson and Francis Crick to Professor of Organic Chemistry here in 1944. He then determine the three-dimensional structure worked during the golden era in which organic She says: “It was a unique experience working with a Nobel of the DNA double helix. Todd mastered the chemistry made enormous contributions to our Laureatediwho gave his own insight and opinions on the synthesis of adenosine and tri-phosphates understanding of natural products important to current academic landscape.

The Laureates are also interested (ADP and ATP) as well as developing chemistry biology.

“Hisresearch work... in of seeing how young peoplewith are taking their original for the synthesis dinucleotides.

Together allowed James As he said: “COthe / CO utilisation is becoming one of the forward. ” Michelson (1955) he achieved the synthesis of In those days 2 chemical structures of complex most severe challenges human society nowadays.

In a dinucleotide with a 3’ to 5’ phosphate diester biomolecules had to befor defined and proved by Watson and marking the first step towards developing degradation to simpler components recent years, tremendous efforts havefollowed been put on COlinkage, 2 Francis Crick methods for oligonucleotide and ultimately DNA synthesis. completed /by COorganic utilisation, trying Todd to convert them the backtotal to chemical to determine and RNA synthesis. Todd was awarded the Nobel synthesis of a wide variety of natural products, products or energy.” He went on to talk about the important the threethough was best for his synthesis of Prize in Chemistry in 1957 in recognition of his role of catalysis byrecognised nanoparticles in the development of new nucleotides and nucleotide coenzymes.

During contributions to nucleotides and nucleotide dimensional technologies for CO2 / CO utilisation, and key factors in this the 1940s, he contributed to the understanding coenzymes. work. structure of the of the structure and conformation of nucleosides, DNA double particularly establishing the beta configuration of BP is an annual event It brings executives theDay glycosylic linkage.

He here. also pioneered synthetic from the helix.” company – which has had a long research relationship with the department – to hear from PhD students about their research.

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As Dr Angelo Amorelli, Technology Vice President, BP Group Research, explained: “For a company like BP, it’s great to engage AN ALUMNUS REMEMBERS LORD TODD with academics and students working on the latest types of research. Some of these projects are funded by us. But many David Rand: I had the temerity in the early 1960s to seek an that we are hearing about today we are not directly involved interview with Lord Todd with the prospect of conducting postwith – but they stimulate ideas for us to pursue in the future. graduate research on nucleotides. It was an unnerving experience. I And that’s a really exciting aspect of participating in a day like entered a room that surely was more befitting a stately home than a this.” chemistry laboratory.

George says: “I enjoyed the discussion session with Prof Rudolph Marcus, who with an account of how he what passed between us shared except for myusinterrogator’ s final words, entered into theoretical research, despite doing a PhD in delivered in a strong Scottish brogue: “Remember, laddie, many synthetic chemistry during World Warexamination II. It was reassuring to are called, but few are chosen!”

When the results were hear thatI even some of the prolific academics may haveto published, was not among themost happy few who were summoned a false start in their research career.

It was also inspiring the Department of Organic Chemistry to become ‘Toddlers’...” to meet a person who has made such a contribution to science, much early years in please academia. ” them • despite Do you haveadversity memoriesinofhis Lord Todd?

If so, share

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• Dr Amorelli was an undergraduate here in the department.

Lord Todd, a tall man, was reclining so far back in his chair that I was Find out more about him in our ‘Life after Cambridge’ feature obliged to converse throughout with the soles of a pair of shoes on page 18. which rested atop the highly-polished desk. I have no memory of

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Research

‘Blue halo’ helps bees

Karen has a particular interest in science policy and therefore especially enjoyed participating in the closing panel discussion on Ethics in Science. “We’re all really involved in ethics because we have to make ethical decisions every day as scientists, from how we treat data to how we treat our colleagues,” she says.

Vignolini Group

The session happened to take place on her 30th birthday and, she says, “I was very happy to be in it. I am still a bit An interdisciplinary group overwhelmed by that particular day.of ” researchers including Chemistry’s Dr Silvia Vignolini has found that

‘messy’ microscopic structures on the petals of some flowers manipulate light to produce a blue

George “Onethat message from the meeting that is close to colouradds: effect is easily seen by bees. my heart as a PhD student in theoretical chemistry was about the importance of fundamental research. the hese nanostructures scatter light It suffers from The researchers conclude that these “messy” petal PR problem of notinfurnishing directly particles the blue tosociety ultraviolet colourwith immediate nanostructures likely evolved independently many benefits. Yet fundamental research is capable of unearthing spectrum, generating a subtle effect that times across flowering plants, but reached theand Interactions Symposium A Protein Folding, Evolution scientists have christened the ‘blue halo’ . same luminous outcome that increases visibility solutions that one would never suspect were there in the first was held in early September to celebrate the retirement of By manufacturing artificial surfacesof that to pollinators – an example ofof what’ s knownProfessor as place.

It should not be deprived thereplicated attention it deserves. ” Department Chemistry Jane Clarke FRS. ‘blue halos’, scientists were able to test the effect on ‘convergent evolution’. “We had always assumed that in thisabout case foraging bumblebees. the saw inretired our petal surfaces was just anat the end of September •pollinators, Read more Karen Stroobants inThey our ‘Women indisorder we Jane from the department foundChemistry’ that bees can see the blue halo, and use it as a accidental by-product of life – that flowers couldn’t feature on page 22.

– and went straight on to her next role as the first female signal to locate flowers more efficiently. do any better,” said senior author Professor Beverley president of Wolfson College.

Glover, plant scientist and director of Cambridge’s The study was conducted by a multidisciplinary team Botanic Garden.

Jane said: “In part, this conference was to celebrate my of scientists from the Departments of Plant Sciences, But rather than traditional retirement Chemistry and Physics along with colleagues from the “It came as a realretirement. surprise to discover that thethe disorder symposium, I chose to hostsignal a most impressive selection of Royal Botanic Gardens Kew and the Adolphe Merkele itself is what generates the important optical speakers Protein Science here in Cambridge.

Institute in Switzerland. that allows beesinternational to find the flowers moreoneffectively.

The aim was to offer an outstanding chance for young Congratulations to Professor Steve Ley who has received the While the ridges and grooves on a petal surface “Many flowers lack the genetic andwith biochemical scientists to meet the world leaders.”

2018 Arthur C. Cope Award – the first time this prize has been line up next to each other “like a packet of dry capability to manipulate pigment chemistry in the awarded a scientist working in flower the UK.species, spaghetti”,to when analysing different blue to ultraviolet spectrum, ” said Vignolini.

“The Keynote speakers included Professor Sir Alan Fersht of the the researchers discovered they vary greatly in height, presence of these disordered photonic structures on University of Cambridge and Professor Dame Carol Robinson of The award is for achievement in the field of organic chemistry width and spacing – yet all produce a similar ‘blue their petals provides an alternative way to produce the University of Oxford. Professor Clarke acted as chair. research and is one of on theahighest honours the field.signals that attract insects.” And the research may have halo’ effect.

In fact, even single petal thesein lightmanipulating structures were found to be surprisingly applications beyond enhancing our understanding of irregular.

ThisC.isCope a phenomenon physicists“outstanding describe as how flowers attract pollinating insects.

The Arthur Award recognises ‘achievement disorder’. in the field of organic chemistry, the significance “We were interested in the way that plants use of which has become apparent within the five years preceding “The huge variety of petal anatomies, combined with these simple but messy nanostructures for light the year in which the award will be considered.” the disordered spacing of their nanostructures, would management – and found that though they are suggest that different flowers should have different simple one-dimensional structures, they are really Steve has pioneered the use of immobilised reagents and Dr James Keeler, Deputy Head and Director of Teaching, has optical properties,” said Vignolini. powerful. This could potentially help us understand flow techniques in multi-step organic synthesis, which now won the 2017 Shoolery Award which recognises important how to improve light management in man-made incorporates flow chemistry for multistep organic synthesis contributions to small molecule NMR (nuclear magnetic “However, we observed that all these petal structures structures,”Vignolini says. applications in the Innovative Technology Centre (ITC), a stateresonance) spectroscopy. produce a similar visual effect in the blue-to-ultraviolet of-the-art chemistry facility located in the wavelengthflow region of the spectrum – the blue halo.department. ” REFERENCE: The award wasfloral established in 2014 in honour of James Moyroud, E. et al. ‘Disorder in convergent nanostructures Shoolery, a 18th respected enhances signalling to bees. Nature; Octoberdeveloper 2017; DOI: of the use of NMR in 10.1038/nature24285 chemistry and an educator of the wider chemistry community in the potential value of NMR spectroscopy in their research.

The award was presented at the Small Molecule NMR Conference in Italy in September 2017.

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Suitably dressed in boots, hardhats and hi-vis jackets, guests – including the principal contractor Kier Construction Ltd, Head of Department Professor John Pyle, The Centre for Misfolding Diseases co-directors Professors Chris Dobson, Tuomas Knowles and Michele Vendruscolo, and the project team Ramboll & R H Partnership architects – took a tour of the building site. They then headed up to the roof where they watched as the final bolt was fitted to the building’s steel frame.

Quick as a Flash

The Chemistry of Health building is due to open in summer 2018. Dennis Cotton, Operations Director at Kier Construction Eastern, thanked the project team for their incredible progress rate.

Professor Ronald Norrish and Lord Porter

New lecturers take up their posts

Researcher wins ERC grant

We welcomed three new interdisciplinary lecturers to the Department of Chemistry in October. The lectureships are among nine that the School of Physical Sciences has created, each to be held jointly in two departments within the School. The three lecturers who have joined Chemistry are Anja Schmidt, Hugo Bronstein and Robert Jack.

Royal Society University Research Fellow Dr Robert Phipps has received a €1.5 million European Research Council (ERC) starting grant. Dr Phipps’ research group is developing new methodology in synthetic organic chemistry. His group currently supports six PhD students; the grant will allow him to recruit a number of postdocs and to purchase equipment to expedite and expand the group’s research.

As Director of Teaching, Dr Keeler has overall responsibility for the delivery of the undergraduate chemistry course. His own teaching is mainly in the area of introductory physical and short-lived species in elementary chemical reactions, he past, as L P Hartley observes at the theoretical chemistry. in particular the molecular fragments known as free start of The Go-Between, “is a foreign country: they do things differently there.” radicals.

His research interests have been in theThey area certainly of high-resolution did things differently in nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), particularly inafter the the Second World War. (“This would lead to lots of jokes during the Cambridge development and application new techniques.

McCarthy era,” Professor Thrush recalls. “Norrish Theofcountry was still constrained by rationing, so once went to the USA and when officials asked food was scarce. But government surplus stock was thePyle subject hedevelopment foolishly replied ‘free and could be bought very cheaply.Professor That John said:of“Ithis is lectures, a fantastic that Dr Keeler is Editor-in-Chief ofavailable the journal Magnetic Resonance . It tookour himresearch four hours tofuture get through a boon to enterprising scientists like Professor will enable usradicals’ to translate into treatments in Chemistry and immediatewas past Chairman of the Royal immigration…”)

Norrish (whoHe as isa child had conducted his to combat some of these devastating neurodegenerative Society of Chemistry’s NMR Ronald Discussion Group. also the first chemistry experiments in the garden shed) and conditions.” author of the book ‘Understanding NMR Spectroscopy’ (Wiley).

Norrish and Porter wanted to study, by flow George Porter, a former radar engineer officer in the techniques, the free radicals produced in gaseous navy, who came to work with him in 1945.

The new 2,600 sq metre facility will be connected to the chemical reactions using short pulses of light. To existing Lensfield Road building and will house the Centre for progress this work, they decided to make a flash “We could get the equipment for next to nothing,” Misfolding Diseases Chemistry of Health Incubator, lamp of (CMD), the kindaphotographers use, but thousands Professor Thrush says. “Local scrap merchants had and the Molecular Production and Characterisation Centre rows of rather fancy valves, and the radio receivers of times more powerful.

(MPACC). that were used for radar. We could buy such things forbuilding, not muchcurrently more than the cost of their weight in “To get enough free radicals to measure, you need The new Chemistry of Health under As part of thetoceremony, Professor Chris Dobson a scrap metal.” use a very intense light source, ” Prof. gave Thrush construction at the back of the Department of Chemistry, says.to “Norrish’ s first idea was to use a very of powerful symbolical ‘nod’ the workers by pouring a bottle Elgood’s has reached its highest point. To mark this, a topping-out Unlikely as it sounds now, the device Norrish and searchlight focus ultra-violet lightsparkling on flowing Cambridge Bitter on thetobuilding after which wine ceremony was held in June Porter on thebuilt rooftop theitems £22.8would milliongo on to win with of these moleculesbeer. up sufficiently that was served ingases placeand of to thebreak morethe traditional four-storey building. When finished, new facility will “studies of extremely you could see the free radicals produced. But the them thethis Nobel Prize for their provide space for the study fast of neurodegenerative disorders searchlight mirrors proved to be poor reflectors of chemical reactions, effected by disturbing the such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s Diseases. equilibrium by means of very short pulses of energy”. ultraviolet light.”

Their work opened up a new way of looking at

Anja is lecturer in Climate Modelling, jointly with the Department of ERC starting grants are designed to help early career Geography. She joins us from the researchers develop their research. The grants are highly University of Leeds School of Earth desirable because they provide a considerable sum that and Environment where she was can be used relatively flexibly over five years. This enables an Academic Research Fellow. She researchers who are just starting out to recruit members and combines expertise in atmospheric invest in equipment without the pressure of writing constant science and volcanology to advance grant applications. the current understanding of volcanic impacts and hazards. The week she Dr Phipps said: “This grant will help continue and further Norrish Professor joined Professor us, it was announced that Anja expand our group’s researchThrush into incorporating non-covalent had been awarded the Arne Richter interactions in catalytic processes by allowing us to greatly Award for Outstanding Early Career broaden and diversify the projects we are examining in Scientists of the European Geosciences this area, predominantly through recruitment of further to the two men came, by happy coincidence, two So Norrish and Porter turned to using the flash “This fundamental Union (EGU). Many congratulations to researchers to join the group.” He adds: “We published days before Norrish’s 70th birthday. “I had already discharge tubes that had been developed for use science has led to her. of enemy targets ourtoproof-of-concept work that arranged a dinner celebrate it and George hadforms the basis of the ERC in night-time aerial photography a our at the of last year.

It’s great torevolution see that the in ideas been invited to proposal present him withend a Festschrift written

by British planes. “These were brighter by orders of understanding has taken on thearole of lecturer and scientific goals going well received by by his former students who were there.

Andforwards it was have been magnitude,” says Professor Hugo Thrush, “though with in Functional Materials, jointly with the the ERC. ” of atmospheric quite a dinner: it began at seven in the evening and very short duration, so that a second flash had to Physics spectrum Department.

He joins uswe from finally got up from the table at 2 am!” be used to record the absorption of the chemistry, resulting products.”

University College London, where he • See more about Dr Phipps’ work in the feature in the the including work of Norrish Research and Portersection has hadon quite a 30. was a Lecturer and ERC startingThe grant page ozone hole and He became Norrish’s research student in 1950focuses and on legacy holder.

His research how toover the years, says Professor Thrush. “The climate change.” was involved in building the second, conjugated improved, organic technique synthesize materials of flash photolysis has found many applications and the equipment used has ranged flash photolysis unit. “Free radicals about electronic for use inonly nextlast generation from commercial bench-top items to the large a thousandth of a second so you need to observe devices. grating spectrographs of Gerhard Herzberg’s group them quickly using a second flash of light taking a long path through the reaction vessel to photograph in Ottawa, who obtained and analysed the spectra Robert has joinedshows us as lecturerofinmany small free radicals, which the Cambridge an absorption spectrum. (The photograph Statistical Mechanics the original unit in which the two flashes were & Soft Matter, group had sought.” with the of Applied timed by a rotating wheel.)jointly I designed andDepartment built Mathematics Theoretical Physics, an electronic timer to control the periodand between Professor Jeremy Sanders adds: “This fundamental thebyUniversity he has led to a revolution in our understanding the two flashes, and I got itfrom down a factor ofofaBath where science hundred. And that was forwas my PhD. ” of atmospheric chemistry, including the ozone hole a Reader and an EPSRC Career (and how to cure it) and climate change.”

Acceleration Fellow. His research brings The flash photolysis method Norrishstatistical and Porter together mechanics and soft READ MORE: developed would later be matter, lauded including in the Nobel Prize fundamental aspects “The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1967”. Nobelprize. presentation speech for enabling the study ofprocesses. many of non-equilibrium org. Nobel Media AB 2014. www.nobelprize.org/ fast reactions that scientists previously had only nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1967/ been able to guess at. The award of the Nobel Prize

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extremely fast chemical reactions in the late 1940s. didtouched so using army surplus Dr Keeler said: “IThey was very and gratified to receive this kit bought forachievements a song from scrap in NMR’.” award for ‘lifetime andlocal contribution merchants. The resulting work opened up a He adds: “My of greatest achievement, if it can be described new field research and won Norrish and as such, isthe the successful and varied careers that my former Porter Nobel Prize for Chemistry.

On the students and co-workers have gone on to.

If I had any part 50th anniversary of the prize Professor Brianin their success, that is reward enough for me.” student, Thrush, Norrish’s former research tells the story.

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He said: “Kier is proud to be delivering a project that will drive forward research that could change medication and treatment for future generations.”

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The original flash photolysis unit

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The Department of Chemistry threw open its doors in September to academia and industry and put itself - and its students - on show.

As I see it…

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Our postgraduate students were given the opportunity to present their work in public at a Chemistry Showcase Week held for the first time this year – a valuable chance to hone their presenting and public-speaking skills.

She used to manage business collections and curate rare volumes of natural history. Now, as Department of Chemistry Librarian, Clair Castle works more with data than books. As she told a meeting of theable International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions in Warsaw earlier “Being to stand up and this year, research data management is a big challenge for departments like Chemistry. But talk about your work collaboration and training mean itis is such not insurmountable.

a valuable skill, we wanted to offer it asBeing a learning the librarian here is more about managing information than it is about printed collections. opportunity.” Deborah Longbottom

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I got involved with Research Data Management because...

It was becoming an increasing obligation for researchers to make their papers open-access. Higher Education funders and research councils were stipulating that the research should be accessible by the taxpayers who are funding it.

As a result, we needed to know how to help researchers comply with this requirement. And now, there’s a requirement in many cases for the research data that supports the published paper to be made openly available too. So the challenges of research data management have spiralled. In this department, datasets can range from spreadsheets to magnetic resonance images to dynamic simulations that can be terabytes of data each. That’s a huge amount of information and we are now training researchers in ways to store it, share it and preserve it for their own benefit as well as for that of society.

I am training PhD students to manage their research data.

The University’s Office of Scholarly Communication was looking for people to help them with research data management. They also wanted to train PhD students in this, to help get them into good research habits for the future. They

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I used to work for the University’s Department of Zoology, looking after a very valuable collection of rare natural history books going back to the 15th century. Many contained beautiful illustrations of specimens collected by early travellers and explorers, like the Victorian ornithologist John Gould who went to Australia in the 1840s to document the animals there. I miss that part of my job. But I came to Chemistry because after 13 years in Zoology, I needed a change. Here, we work with information more than we do with books and I wanted to get experience in that.

he department welcomed researchers from academia and industry at the end of September when it held its annual Chemistry Networks event – a networking day for current and prospective research partners. Among the guests were pharmaceuticals firm Astra Zeneca, which sponsors a number of PhD students in the Synthesis Research Interest Group.

The second-year PhD students each produced a poster that they had to discuss and defend while the third-years competed to give the best 15-minute presentation. The winning presenters were asked to speak at the Chemistry Networks event (see story right), which took place on the final day. All the second-years presented their posters there.

“To ‘curate’ means to take care of.TheWhile weby our Knowledge Transfer Facilitator day, organised Yolande Cordeaux, is held to give an overview of are curatingDr data, we are the department and the wide array of science research “Such presentations have not in the past been a compulsory going on as here well.” within our five core research areas: curating people

part of the PhD programme,” says Deborah Longbottom, Head Biological, Materials Chemistry, Physical Chemistry, of Graduate Education. “But being able to stand up and talk to Synthetic Chemistry and Theory. Head of Department groups of people about your work is such aasked valuable that of our first-year Professor Johnwould Pyle told meskill if some PhD students trialguests: the “Our Chemistry we wanted to offer this as a learning opportunity across the Department made up of around 60 academic leads training programme they were offering.

I talkedis to Deborah board.” covering a truly wide of forefront science.”

Longbottom, our Head of Graduate Education, and shespectrum was very open to the idea. We ran the training in collaboration them and it was very successful. twofive years ago Interest Groups outlined Faculty members support the introduction with of these The That Chairswas of the Research and since then it has grown.

It is now a compulsory part of theby their members and presentations as a compulsory part of the PhD programme the work being undertaken PhD programme and I have customised the training materials because it adds to the students’ experience here. And they are its relevance to real world challenges and industrial specifically for this department.

And in addition to working not alone, says Deborah. applications such as drug discovery, oil recovery, ageing, with PhD students, I am now rolling out training to postdocs energy research, fuel cells and batteries, synthetic as well.

“The whole week was arranged by an organising committee medicine, computer memory and sensors. made up of PhD students and postdocs. The feedback from the While we’re curating data, we’re curating people as well. entire student body at the end of the weekAt was very positive. in Warsaw, another This year for the firstabout time, guests also heard from some the conference speaker talked Indeed, the majority would like this to be embedded the PhD students who had been taking part in the our role inincurating people as wellofasour data.

It struck a chord experience of every PhD student educatedwith in thisme. department. week-long Chemistry Showcase. (See story I thought,” ‘yes, that’s right’ . We havedepartmental to interact with left.) helping Professorthem Pyle develop told attendees: “This event has grown people, encouraging researchers and their skills so they know what theysince needlast to year. do and are not The winning talks were: About 20 companies are here, including going to jeopardise their funding collaborators in future by failing to new comply. old and and spin-out firms. We also • Biological: Daniel Chan, ‘Structural and Fragment Screening have representatives here from local government and Librarians like to help.

Studies on EthR-DNA by Native Mass Spectrometry’ the charitable sector. We hope you will all get a lot out As professionals, we enjoy helping • Materials: Olimpia Onelli, ‘Natural Disordered Photonic ofresearchers. the day andI’ve willbeen want to take forward work in areas of mentoring three ‘data champions’ in the department. Today I Structures as Inspiration for Novel Materials’ mutual interest.” watched one of them, a postdoc, voluntarily running a course • Physical: Alexander Carr, ‘Three-Dimensional Supershowing other researchers how to use a data management Resolution Imaging and Single-Particletool Tracking in The attendees clearly enjoyed the day. Cambridge for effective version-control of files.

It was very satisfying Eukaryotic Cells using a Double-Helix Point Spread ATSsharing (the Cambridge Academy of Therapeutic seeing him developing his skills and his knowledge Function’ Sciences) tweeted during the event: “Fascinating with others.

• Synthesis: Holly Davis, ‘A Single Ligand Enables the insight into the range of research @ChemCambridge.

Meta-Selective Iridium-Catalysed Borylation of Aromatic #ChemistryNetworks.”

The next big challenge...

Ammonium Salts and Amides via Ion Pairing and … in Chemistry is text and data mining – the computational Hydrogen Bonding’ And Bioscience tweeted: “Visiting our colleagues process of discovering and extracting knowledgeImpact from data as of the scholarly content in journals.

There’s conflictthis – afternoon for their Chemistry • Theory: Leen Kalash, ‘Computer-Aided such Design Multiin @ChemCambridge publishers wish to maintain control of how event. their content Target Ligands against Key Proteins in Neurodegenerative Networks #interdisciplinary #research.” is used.

It’s a skill that librarians are well placed to support Diseases’ researchers with.

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Karen Sir John Stroobants Sulston

Other speakers at Alumni Medal award ceremony included Professors He added: “John is a fabulous scientist Sir Shankar Balasubramanian and and we are very proud to be associated David Klenerman, who described with him. His scientific work has been their conception and development of recognised in many ways, including next generation Solexa sequencing by a Nobel Prize. He has also been a as a legacy of the Human Genome passionate advocate in areas where Dr Karen Stroobants is a postdoctoral researcher in the Centre for Misfolding SheTheir Project ledDiseases. in the UK by John.

Sir John Sulston – who worked on the science andtheir scientists interface with researches membrane protein aggregates and potential role in neurodegenerative diseases. work has contributed to doctors’ sequencing of the very first animal society – not least in arguing the moral ability to sequence individual human genome and went on to lead the UK position against the exploitation of the genomes rapidly, in less than a day, research in the Human Genome Project human genome for profit and helping themI to identify came” home thereby and toldenabling my mother was goingdrug to most rewarding thing forgenomes me as a scientist – has received the“The Department of keep in the public domain. resistance pathways in cancer patients become a chemist, ” she says. is discovering things, ” says Dr Karen Stroobants.

Chemistry Alumni Medal. It was awarded receiving chemotherapy and alter their canheld be many when your to him in a special“There ceremony at the daysProfessor Chrisexperiment Abell, Pro-Vice-Chancellor treatments accordingly.

It therefore means a great deal to her that, after there are a few days end of October. does not work. But then for Research at the University of receiving her undergraduate, Masters and PhD a year when an experiment suddenly works Cambridge and Professor of Biological is the degrees fromJohn theSulston University ofsecond Leuven,recipient she of out well, or you discover something, and that The medal is presented “for service Chemistry here in the department, secured a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellowship the Alumni Medal. The first was Dr Yusuf balances out the frustration.” to the community that has brought agreed. “Without John’s stand, we to fund her research the Centre for Misfolding Hamied inin2016.

And there will be more, honour to the University of Cambridge wouldn’t be in the situation we are now, Diseases (CMD).

Prof Pyle reminded the audience, which Department of Chemistry.” Head where we can use genomic information included many of the department’s of Department Prof John Pyle said: to drive medicine forward and create Karen’s research hasstudents. always straddled borders current “We attractthe great young “This medal recognises alumni of the more personalised and effective Karen’s interest in science started when she of chemistrypeople and biochemistry.

As part of her to this department.

I have no department who have major treatments.

That,atotoy me, ranks asMasters a very she had spent a year in industry with was amade girl. At home in Belgium, she had doubt that there are future winners of contributions to society, either locally high achievement. ” microscope and made an X-ray machine out of a Phillips Research in the Medal, Netherlands, on the Alumni whose “working work will bring or globally. It is an cardboard opportunitybox for us to to scan her stuffed toys. When she cardiovascular disease detection devices, where delight and honour to this department, thank and honourstarted them.” Chemistry lessons aged 14, one proved the final goalsitting was to takeaudience blood from in this now.a” patient and inject it into a chip-like device that could pivotal. “The day I learned about Marie Curie, I

receives Alumni Women in Chemistry Medal

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Beyond the bench

Outside the lab, Karen is current president of the Cambridge University Science and Policy Exchange (CUSPE), an organisation run by early Here she has been investigating the propensity career researchers that aims to provide insight of membrane proteins to misfold and selfinto the process of policy design, raise awareness assemble into amyloid fibrils, which are associated of the communications difficulty commonly with a wide range of medical conditions such experienced during science-policy exchanges and as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases. Up to build stronger links between its members and now, Karen explains, most studies have focused policy-makers. Karen, who has a strong interest in on cytosolic proteins, even though membrane science policy, believes in the importance of good proteins make up approximately 30 percent of communications between academia, industry, the human proteome. But in a paper published policy makers and society. She devotes time to in Biochemistry1, Karen and her colleagues CUSPE and other activities, including the policy work group of the Marie Curie Alumni Association, demonstrated that membrane proteins, like consider myself very lucky haveefforts spent might last ever PhD student Gabi Schneiderhoping that to “these be valuable cytosolic proteins, can form amyloid-like fibrils and contribute restoring the importance of under destabilizing conditions. time in Bill’s group; he’s a clever,toout-ofRauber.

They celebrated Bill’s work and evidence-informed policy in contributions a world currently the-box-thinking kind of scientist whose to teaching and research, ruledhave by ‘alternative facts’.” where he established himself initially in “It generally is more difficult to study membrane accomplishments a tremendous proteins, which often require expression and impact on materials research going on the areas of Mössbauer Spectroscopy, An Englishman, a Croation and an “I’m thinking about going into policy,” sheelectron adds. microscopy, clays purification procedures in lipid or detergent in both academic and industrial settings. transmission Albanian walked into a Materials environments before they can be studied,” “It’s something I love as much as chemistry.” What Bill is also an outstanding mentor, kind and heterogeneous catalysis before Chemistry If this sounds does Karen think the future will bring her? She says Karen.conference...

But membrane proteins have a and supportive.

I learned a lot from him. working more recently in the area of like it’s rather says: “With the right balance between science and higha joke, propensity toappropriate aggregate as because of their sense of humour!”I’m keepingpharmaceutical materials the former students, andKaren andAnd initiatives, my options open for science. He hydrophobic nature,postdocs which led her I love his policy was described as an exemplary group collaborators who came from far and now. The future will tell.” colleagues to suspect they might have an Former PhD student Chris Greenwell, leader and inspiring mentor. wide to mark Professor Bill Jones’ s important role in diseases associated with protein now a Professor of Earth Sciences at misfolding.celebrated a highly-regarded retirement Durham University, agreed. “Bill’s sense Dr Dritan Hasa, a recent postdoc of Bill’s researcher - and a mentor who inspired REFERENCES: Karen chose to them studyand lactose (LacY) of humour has caught many people who is now a Pharmaceutics Lecturer and challenged madepermease them 1.

Amyloid-like Fibrils from an α-Helical Transmembrane from Escherichia coli because it is an established out.

One year he told some of his Montfort laugh. In between presentations, on Protein, Karen Stroobants, JanetatR.De Kumita, NicolaUniversity, J. Harris, said: “I call Bill protein that has been well characterized.

The PhD students, just before their viva, a ‘beautiful mind’ . ItJ. is always a pleasure Dimitri Y. Chirgadze, Christopher M. Dobson, Paula topics from crystal engineering to team used different biophysical techniques such Booth, and Michele Vendruscolo, Biochemistry (2017), 56 they would also be tested on all the to have one-to-one meetings with mechanochemistry, speakers shared (25), pp 3225-3233 (DOI: 10.1021/acs.biochem.7b00157) as spectroscopy, X-ray fibre diffraction, circular postgraduate colloquia they’d attended him, it just opens your mind.” Nilwala memories of working with Bill, who dichroism spectroscopy and transmission electron 2. Transmembrane Proteins: Amyloids hidden in plain sight? during the year. This caused complete Kottegoda, Professor at the University came to Cambridge 1978protein. on a threemicroscopy to studyinthe The Biochemistry Nicholas L. Truex Bill’ andsJames S. of Nowick, Biochemistry consternation.

They didn’t realise Sri Jayewardenepura and a Principal year research fellowship and just paper was well received.

A has subsequent viewpoint (2017), 56 (36), pp 4735-4736 (DOI: 10.1021/acs. deadpan expression meant he was Scientist in the Sri Lanka Institute of biochem.7b00758) retired years later. article 39 described the work as setting the stage winding them up... ” Nanotechnology, says: “I gained many for future biophysical and biological studies of skills under Bill’s guidance and from him Dr Krešo Bučar came to work with Bill in membrane protein aggregation, concluding: Guests at Bill’ s conference ranged encouraging me to think differently. I 2011 an International Fellow “This as particular study isResearch important, because was a more independent person after transmembrane proteins make up such afrom largehis own former PhD supervisor, and is now a lecturer and Excellence percentage of the human proteome. ”2 Professor Sir John Meurig Thomas, to his my PhD than I was when I arrived.”

Research Fellow at UCL. He says: “I

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“The day I learned about Marie Curie, I told my mother I was going to become a chemist.“

Karen also admires Professor Dame Carol Robinson, who became the first female Professor in Chemistry both in Cambridge and Oxford, after taking an eight-year career break to take care of her children. But above all, there is Marie Curie. “I have been intrigued by her life path and accomplishments from the first time I heard about her, and she remains my most important role model.”

Celebrating Bill Jones

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He shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2002 with Sydney Brenner and Bob Horvitz, for cell lineage research in the nematode worm that gave access to genetic regulation of organ development. In parallel, John and Bob Waterston worked on the nematode worm genome, and were the first to sequence an entire animal genome. John became founding Director of the Sanger Institute in 1992 and from there led UK research in the Human Genome Project.

She built further on her experience of using them on her return to postgraduate research, this time characterising the interactions between proteins and inorganic complexes that were being developed as artificial enzymes. This experience proved helpful when, after her PhD, Karen’s curiosity turned to medical-related topics. When she discovered that the Centre for Misfolding Diseases uses biophysical techniques to study the protein aggregation important in Alzheimer’s and other diseases, it seemed an ideal match. After several visits, Karen started as a postdoc in the CMD in February 2015.

Karen has been influenced by several role models.

They include Professor Dame Athene Donald, the Master of Churchill College where Karen is a Postdoctoral By-Fellow. “She is not only a brilliant physicist but also has a profound interest in science policy.”

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Sir John, who prefers to be known as John, came to Cambridge first as an undergraduate in 1960 and stayed on to study for a PhD in organic chemistry under the supervision of Professor Colin Reese, who spoke at the ceremony about his memories of working with John.

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Alumni People

determine the risk of cardiovascular diseases by detecting certain molecules in the blood,” she says. It was there she began using the biophysical techniques that have become a theme in her research.

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ISSUE ISSUE 56 56 Winter Winter 2017 2017

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Antarctic Adventurers

Email your comments to: news@ch.cam.ac.uk Post your letters to: Chem@Cam, Rm142, Department of Chemistry, Lensfield Road, Cambridge CB2 1EW

Two recent graduates of ours were selected to travel to Antarctica on the ‘Homeward Bound’ programme, an initiative to help women with science backgrounds into leadership positions. PhD student Hannah Laeverenz Schlogelhofer and fellow Chemistry alumna Alison Davies – now a meteorologist at the Met Office – tell us about their journeys.

Alumni Correspondence

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wo recent graduates of the Department of Chemistry have been selected for an international leadership programme that culminates in a threeweek trip to the Antarctic.

backgrounds and areas of expertise,” she says. “I am ambitious, but I realise that reaching a senior position needs a range of skills and experience.

So for me it was really beneficial to start thinking about my skills beyond my academic ones, such as emotional intelligence, visibility, presentation rs Alison Davies studied Natural Sciences from matte skills andeonetworking. programme has given ithThe pr ccupied w r Pyle en so be es ve of Pr ha r I is work on – and a t ea g D bu in l 2010-2014, specialising in Chemistry for her last w al me so much to think about and u llo yo fo g he tin T ly missed mee e department.

I soreworks ni of th well.now two as.an Operational went and group of amazing women to discuss it with when entyears, ere both alum ev w al e ed W M ký ni vs m ro ey el Hthe I hope the Alu ysis: Meteorologist with Met Office. For her, analthe I get stuck.” sband, Micha ctro mise of my hu the journal Ele in ed ar pe ap after the sad de at th three-week trip on a ship to explore Antarctica on m hi of at Charles e obituary ical Chemistry r of PhysHomeward drawn from th so es of the Homeward Bound expedition in December Bound an ambitious international Pr e to , ký , camis v Heyrovs uating in 1957 eate Jaroslaof urfulfillment ter gradprogramme af La el d, Institute the influence and e heighten an ob 2016 was the a long-held dream. th N aiming to ity e ed rs th the son of harles Unive He then join C h. at ris ry or N ist d em al “Michael was nces, udied ch of Scaiebackground with Ron impact women in science, cademywith kA ue. Michael st vaof al Photoeffect) lo ic os m ch he ze oc C tr e d with and maths on ec th University, Prag ke El of or ) (in w ry D he ist “I’d wanted to go to Antarctica since I was really Ph e, technology, engineering, medicine m s ag he hi ical C ite his study for stitute of Phys about it,” she daily and desp Cambridge to ký Indocumentaries s health rovssaw young J Heyand , he was there policy and decision-making. e 16 th r 20 ments. Sadly, hi te of cu [la d do en hy e ily th m fa til un ký p vs U ro of Polarograp e. his lif sed Hey “Experiencing rest of for the says. ns, and organi with translatio where he stayed ed lp he , ns it for myself was io Around the world, publicat collaborators on an as ad ro ab humbling as it feels s the organisation on visit 2017. el pany his father deteriorated in e Nob m th co e ac iv ld ce re ou w like one of the last to says, “women are m in 1959 s father and ol hi kh ith oc w St y r el to te os sis ký his rovs orked cl el wwildernesses. true It Professor Hey w Michael and under-represented in s, Micha was the visit by te – did not allo “For many year n ra io ig pt em ce ht ex ig ly m on leadership positions. e family ably thewas a magical place: ably fearing th assistant. Prob – presum regimeexcept silent, for the Thoughs they are a ist un m m co Prize. The hanism effect, mecsignificant ic noise of the boat and ta percentage ol ov ot . el ph e th of g in Jitka to trav ions of nd and interact r, the occasional crashk contributed to our understa ye of college graduates -la le ub do ectric pyridyl ’s scientific wor rticles in the el of the biand ichaelnewly-formed the workforce, ars, Mfrom on interaction teractions of pa tr in ec e, el od πtr ed ec “Over many ye at el yl and its ig cury from the mercalving n of bipyrid e. He invest tio od on tr n uc icebergs they are in the ec io ed el ct or tr ed du re ec riz er, and el of oxygen . e of the pola e surfac particular th duction of wat in re ith hy ic w the glacier front. ” ap yt minority when it ns al gr io at ro d la oc an and phot that of po molecules rface, catalytic chemistry, and su of e y od or comes to executive tr st ec hi el e e th ion with th ly interested in Hannah working in the lab. strong man of deep as w A The trip, which el e. ha decision-making nc ic ie sc M . e derivatives -2002.) ed from activ 29, 2001 comes at the end ofmany contemporaries had retir roles.” Homeward analysis 2017, ro ct le (E r .” te af ity s d integr work year year-long initiative inuedato Bound hopes that by giving them leadership d dedication an “Michael cont n, he epitomise io at uc ed c ifi nt ie to foster leadership skills in women scientists sc d and strategic skills, a sound understanding of an ic humanist and create an international network to support the science, and a strong network, “they will be ) D (1964–1968 ka, Ph rovswas ey H i them, not the only highlight for her, she aj R able to impact policy and decisions towards a s. rd Best rega says. “The other woman in my cohort were really sustainable future.” inspirational and had a huge range of ages,

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ive for the ite data arch ll te sa e es to aid ac AKARI sp frared sourc e in th f … o f o m ey o ew rv fr The r revi sky su Greetings s are born. oing a majo leted an allere I was d planet system cy. It comp n d ge an A ar n st o ti Tokyo, wh how plora formed and erospace Ex ing current laxies were Japanese A ga a in inform w o at h d f o cy g ga in le d e an th st f to our under re the impac ts to measu s. n io at agency wan rv obse d follow-up research an rence 'sky KARI confe A e e m th ti at t ird visit e ea k I had a gr rinking sa is was my th d h T d l. an te d o o h e ese fo yed it.

Tokyo Dom I really enjo Eating Japan d rd floor of the an yo k o 3 and T the 4 smart in Sapporo lots of very banquet' on llaborators ologies and co n e ch av te h g I in to Japan any interest g country, m A fascinatin science. lk to about people to ta ing star and ist, research em ch o rofessor tr as I did with P ere I'm an y h p ip o w tr sc t ty o ea si tr gr er ec ed in the etre sp en Univ It was a dicals form k at the Op e sub-millim ra ac th b m m o m o fr I' fr a tr w le ectroscopy ng spec And no e full circ ospheric sp dge, detecti m ri n. I've com at b io ft at am le C I rm in fo Though w using planet 994-98) toproducts. istry, I'm no my PhD (1 o h r em p fo ch C s o F ie tr H av as Paul D hunting for er!) for ides and week I was ademic care ere, halo-ox st h ac la sp ; o an ch r m ar fo at t rese developing upper e basis in my curren ents we are ld not be th d u D u o h st P w y D s it h m g P in (think x molecule dge from ne of my the comple the knowle and with o y d d a, u tr an st ec ls il to sp y sk op those interstellar m spectrosc signatures in phase sub-m s ga g n halo-oxide yi lo p periment em niverse. a unique ex ons of the u gi re g in rm ar-fo found in st shows ty.

The picture yo Universi Gate at Tok ed R e th Me at ) ty r (1994-98 en Universi Helen Frase r D my , Optrip, o n ro st opportunities it can offer her after she completes In the year leading up to the Antarctica the A in r re Senior Lectu

Alison in the Antarctic.

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“Getting to see

women selected take part in leadership coaching. her PhD research (into the nutrient interactions and experience between algae and bacteria and the cooperative “It’s been a very big component of the training,” Antarctica for networks that they form). “The opportunity to be says Alison’s fellow Chemistry alumna Hannah part of a growing network of women in science is Laeverenz Schlogelhofer, who will be travelling myself was key. Homeward Bound aims to take 1,000 women to Antarctica in February 2018. Hannah took her incredible and Natural Sciences degree here, graduating in 2013, on this journey over 10 years. The idea of this Greeting humbling as it s from... to work network seems to me so visionary and supportive and later returned to the department The Aust World So ra li a n la O r Chas – uparticularly on a project with Dr Silvia Vignolini a feels like one tback wh to someone like me who has always allpart enge.of by d ct ere I’ve b Hans Th sunligprogramme e ols e n really academic life but is not yet sure Nanotechnology doctoraliretraining trup enjoyed a ht 30 yea s p and I co-f art of the of the last true rs ounme dedinththe a desigit take future. ” scientific faculty m before embarking onHher PhD studies in the ago. It’swhere is 3,0 n will 00 km competiti aving fun a n aginwildernesses. ” event acro on to fin g the Bri ... In the Physics and Plant Sciences Departments. ss Austra dgestone d the wo 1960s, I The Spac lia for ca rld’s most did myHannah e Race w rs powere “An important part of leadership efficis PhD witadds: as on and ient electr d only electroch h John A ic car. these pothe emist.asSto gyou a r in narrative that tell yourself about yourself: “We’re learning about ourselves, know how w e th in r e sources w ce then, I’ Departm increasin ve beenito can put youedown ent Homeward re key or of Chem forlift up. The to lead others, you first haveg utopta know ke of yourself. n a fascin spayou istry, rese renewab cecra ating jou ft . arching fu It le w fu a e s a lo rneyou ls.Bound training helps have That has includedW a ‘life skills inventory’ that y onidentify el cells. t of fun – the electrwhy you e had a g and turn o c h e re m at trip e ic d assesses our personality traits and behavioural that narrative and to make it positive, so that a m l ro e into an .. a . Emigra Armstron ting to Ayou can really be the best version of yourself. It’sd to sustainabilit g set his ” traits from a 360-degree perspective. y u st v le ia ra ft boot o lia in 196 the visitor to n the surf 9. I” walk the Depa ahugely ed into m ce of thvaluable. rtment o epic journ e m y f new offic oon. I im Chemistr ey into e at almo Like Alison before her, Hannah has mediately y, whose spaacmix e. of st the exa pioneerin thought ct minute g of Agar’s work on personal and professional motivations for taking READ MORE: Neil friend To The pictu fuel cells m h re a B Find out more about the Homeward Bound d sh acon, a re enabled A part in Homeward Theowdaughter s... Me (l of an gular worlBound. p o eft) at th ll d’s first so o 11 to un Austrian father and a Germanlamother who spentis year’s Worl programme at: https://homewardboundprojects. dertake th r car in w d Scom.au/about/ hich, in 1 is olar Cha 983, he tr llenge wit her holidays ski-touring David A in the mountains, she a v h e ll H e d ans Thols 4,500km J Rvalued and AM trup an says “I have always being acro See more about Hannah’s Antarctica PhDoutdoors ss Austupcoming Honoreally ScD FTS rary Rese ra lia from to d his Quiet Achie E rch F and in remote places where ayou are trip, and the progress of her fund-raising Perth to ver - the ellosurrounded w, Comm Sydney. onwealth support it, at: https://chuffed.org/project/ by the natural• environment.”

Scie

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David w as one of the orga And for her too, the trip to Antarctica is nisers of the

much more about the ideas, networks and

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ntififemale-scientists-journey-to-antarctica-and-intoc and Ind ustrial R esearch O leadership rganisati Physical on Chemists ’ 50 Year Reunion last July.

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Alumni

story.

ISSUE ISSUE 56 56 Winter Winter 2017 2017

Alumni

“I wanted to specialise in Astrophysics – until Chemistry seduced me.” So says alumnus Angelo Amorelli.

“Being here brings back memories,” says Angelo Amorelli as he looks round a large lecture theatre in the Department of Chemistry. “Thirty-six years ago, I was sitting here myself. The presentation tools today are different – computers rather than chalk boards – but the content and intellectual stimulation never goes away.”

Dr Amorelli is now Vice-President of Group Research at BP and enjoys the fact that this role brings him back to Cambridge regularly because of BP’s research collaborations with the university. In October, as every year, he came along to the department with a group of his colleagues for BP Day. This offers an opportunity for executives from the company to hear from PhD students about their research, and for students and academics to attend the BP Keynote Lecture. (See story, page 7.)

joining BP: I went into a refining process group where I could practise catalysis at large scale.”

And he has stayed at BP ever since, taking the opportunities to work in a variety of areas and countries. “I was always in love with science and felt my career would be framed by working in technology. But my journey has been quite varied. Though I’m a chemist by discipline, I’ve also worked as a process engineer at an oil refinery, as an economist in corporate strategy and planning, and in business development.

And I have gone back to technology: I spent a long time in renewables (solar, wind, biofuels and hydrogen) and helped create BP’s alternative energy business.”

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“For a company like ours, it’s great to engage with academics and students working on the latest research,” Dr Amorelli says. “Some of the projects are funded by us. Others may not be, but stimulate ideas for us to pursue in the future.

That’s an exciting aspect of participating in a day like this.”

Dr Amorelli came to Cambridge as an undergraduate in 1981 to study Natural Sciences and ended up falling in love with Chemistry. “I originally wanted to specialise in Astrophysics, but after taking different courses, Chemistry seduced me. In my final year, Professor John Meurig Thomas was lecturing on catalysis and that really excited me. That’s ultimately what led me into

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Such activities have taken him around the world.

Dr Amorelli spent time in India and China as part of his work. “I lived in China for four years, working with academics and our businesses in that country,” he explains. “China has huge energy challenges to sustain its economic development so that was a really stimulating period of my career.”

BP Day in the department also gives the company an opportunity to recruit students for roles at the company going forward. And Dr Amorelli has some advice for anyone pursuing that path: “My career has given me a lot of interesting opportunities. I’d advise any entrants into BP to pursue jobs that they find stimulating and are going to enjoy doing because that is how you are going to do well.”

The Chemistry of wine We held our very popular "Call My Bluff" wine tasting event again in September as part of the University of Cambridge Alumni Festival. Three ‘bluffers’ – Head of Department Professor John Pyle, Dr Silvia Vignolini and Dr Nick Bampos – held forth on the qualities and properties of the wines being tasted. Audience members had to decide who was telling the truth and who was bluffing, thus proving the untruth of the proverb "In Vino Veritas."

Tasks for the guests included 'guessing the grape' of the two sparkling wines on their tables, completing a wine quiz, and choosing their team

names, which included "Blanquetty Blanc" and "Knowledge Holds You Back”. (Editor’s note: Not necessarily apropos of Cambridge…)

Watch out for next year's event which, as this year, will take place as part of the Alumni Festival.

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Physical Chemists reunite 50 years on It is famously said that if you can remember the 1960s, you were not there. Nevertheless, 50 years on in July more than 20 postgraduate and postdoctoral researchers from that era travelled to Cambridge from across the world to celebrate the time we spent together in the (then) Department of Physical Chemistry. At the start of the decade the legendary Nobel Laureate Professor Norrish was at the helm, followed later by Professor Linnett. Not surprisingly the department had great strength in photochemistry and kinetics, but was also active in electrochemistry and theoretical chemistry. Each of these areas was represented in the July gathering.

The reunion began in the Lensfield Road building.

Professor Sanders’ welcome address gave a vivid picture of the department’s achievements and the challenges faced today in maintaining world class status. We then moved outside for a group photo next to the official lab photograph from 1967 on which many of us featured! Lunch followed at the Panton Arms, a favourite watering hole in the 1960s. In the evening, we dined at Emmanuel

College with Professor Brian Thrush as guest of honour. The toasts were to ‘absent friends’ and the department. We finally took our leave after lunch the following day at The Orchard in Grantchester with friendships renewed and promises to do it again soon!

After Cambridge, many of us assumed roles in academia or research institutes. Others took up new challenges in industry or the public sector.

Some moved out of science altogether. All, however, share affection for the time we spent in Cambridge and will look back on this reunion as a very special celebration of that time. We left grateful to the department for hosting us, and that its future looks to be assured. If any readers from our time who we failed to contact would like to join our network, an electronic copy of the reunion publication, ‘A Treasury of Short Memoirs’, can be obtained from David Rand by emailing David.Rand@csiro.au John Connor 1963-1969

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Life after Cambridge

ISSUE 56 Winter 2017

Email your comments to: news@ch.cam.ac.uk Post your letters to: Chem@Cam, Rm142, Department of Chemistry, Lensfield Road, Cambridge CB2 1EW

Alumni Correspondence 4.7mm

2.35mm ith matters preoccupied w en be ve ha I t following is g you all bu partment. The missed meetin de ly e re th so of I l. ni el w th alum t went ký. We were bo mni Medal even ichael Heyrovs I hope the Alu M d, alysis: an an sb ro ct hu le y mise of m the journal E in ed ar pe ap after the sad de rles m that hemistry at Cha e obituary of hi r of Physical C drawn from th so es of to Pr e , m ký ca rovs 1957, te Jaroslav Hey graduating in stitute e Nobel Laurea rsity and, after th ve of ni n U en joined the In s so th e rle e th ha H C h. at ris ry or N ist d em al “Michael was udied ch of Sciences, with Ron ue. Michael st vak Academy al Photoeffect) lo ic os m ch he ze oc C tr e ec th University, Prag D (in El he worked with mistry) of study for his Ph despite his age, d of Physical Che an te itu ily st da In e er Cambridge to ký rovs dly, his health he was th [later the J Hey documents. Sa e end of 2016, ily th m fa til un ký p vs U ro of Polarography e. his lif sed Hey for the rest of ns, and organi with translatio where he stayed ed lp he , ns io publicat collaborators on road as an 17.

20 in ther on visits ab fa s hi ny pa deteriorated m ceive the Nobel ould acco m in 1959 to re s father and w ol hi kh ith oc w St y r el to os ký ked cl eyrovs el and his siste s, Michael wor

by Professor H t allow Micha sit vi no e d th di – as w te “For many year n ra emig ceptio e family might ably the only ex ably fearing th assistant. Prob um es pr – e m gi munist re s Prize. The com fect, mechanism . el photovoltaic ef e th of of g in ns Jitka to trav io nd dersta interact uted to our un uble-layer, and c work contrib the electric do ifi in nt s ie le sc the bipyridyl ic ’s rt of el pa n ha io ars, Mic on interact teractions of tr in ec e, el its od πtr ed ec “Over many ye at el ig ercury bipyridyl and e invest ction on the m troreduction of ed electrode. H ec riz el la d po an e , th er of oxygen redu at of . w rface icular ion of graphy in part ions with the su atalytic reduct molecules and d that of polaro lytic and photoc an , ta ry ca ist e, ac em rf ch su ory of ectrode sted in the hist ion with the el deep strongly intere as w el ha nce. A man of ic M . from active scie derivatives ed 01-2002.) tir re 20 , d 29 ha , s 17 ntemporarie analysis 20 co ro y ct an le m (E r .” te af ity years d integr inued to work d dedication an “Michael cont n, he epitomise io at uc ed c ifi d scient humanistic an 964–1968) rovska, PhD (1 ey H i aj R s. rd Best rega

r Pyle Dear Professo

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We had a e electroc d turned hemical ro great trip me into a .. ad to sust . Emigra Armstron n ting to A ainability g set his ustralia in via the left boot visitor to 1 on the su 969. I wa the Depa rface of th lked into rtment o epic journ my new e moon. f Chemis ey into sp office at I immedia try, whose almost th ace. tely thou pioneerin e exact m ght of Ag g work o inute Ne a r’ s friend T n fuel cell The pictu il om Baco s had ena re shows. n , a regula b le .. d Me (left) world’s fi A p o r ll o 11 to un at this ye rst solar dertake th ar’s Worl car in wh d Solar C is ich, in 19 hallenge 83, he tr with Han David A avelled 4 J Rand A s Tholstr ,500km a up and h M PhD S cross Au Honorary is Quiet c stralia fro D FTSE Research Achiever m Perth Fellow, C - the to S y dney. ommonw ealth Scie • Dav n ti fi c and Ind id was on ustrial R e of the o esearch O rganisers rganisati of the Ph on ysical Ch emists’ 5 0 Year R eunion la st July. S ee page 1 9 for sto ry.

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ISSUE 56 Winter 2017

Misfolding proteins

“The day I learned about Marie Curie, I told my mother I was going to become a chemist.“

Here she has been investigating the propensity of membrane proteins to misfold and selfassemble into amyloid fibrils, which are associated with a wide range of medical conditions such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases. Up to now, Karen explains, most studies have focused on cytosolic proteins, even though membrane proteins make up approximately 30 percent of the human proteome. But in a paper published in Biochemistry1, Karen and her colleagues demonstrated that membrane proteins, like cytosolic proteins, can form amyloid-like fibrils under destabilizing conditions.

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Karen Stroobants Women in Chemistry

Dr Karen Stroobants is a postdoctoral researcher in the Centre for Misfolding Diseases. She researches membrane protein aggregates and their potential role in neurodegenerative diseases.

“The most rewarding thing for me as a scientist is discovering things,” says Dr Karen Stroobants.

“There can be many days when your experiment does not work. But then there are a few days a year when an experiment suddenly works out well, or you discover something, and that balances out the frustration.”

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Karen’s interest in science started when she was a girl. At home in Belgium, she had a toy microscope and made an X-ray machine out of a cardboard box to scan her stuffed toys. When she started Chemistry lessons aged 14, one proved pivotal. “The day I learned about Marie Curie, I

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came home and told my mother I was going to become a chemist,” she says.

It therefore means a great deal to her that, after receiving her undergraduate, Masters and PhD degrees from the University of Leuven, she secured a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellowship to fund her research in the Centre for Misfolding Diseases (CMD).

Karen’s research has always straddled the borders of chemistry and biochemistry. As part of her Masters she had spent a year in industry with Phillips Research in the Netherlands, “working on cardiovascular disease detection devices, where the final goal was to take blood from a patient and inject it into a chip-like device that could

Karen also admires Professor Dame Carol Robinson, who became the first female Professor in Chemistry both in Cambridge and Oxford, after taking an eight-year career break to take care of her children. But above all, there is Marie Curie. “I have been intrigued by her life path and accomplishments from the first time I heard about her, and she remains my most important role model.”

Beyond the bench Outside the lab, Karen is current president of the Cambridge University Science and Policy Exchange (CUSPE), an organisation run by early career researchers that aims to provide insight into the process of policy design, raise awareness of the communications difficulty commonly experienced during science-policy exchanges and build stronger links between its members and policy-makers. Karen, who has a strong interest in science policy, believes in the importance of good communications between academia, industry, policy makers and society. She devotes time to CUSPE and other activities, including the policy work group of the Marie Curie Alumni Association, hoping that “these efforts might be valuable and contribute to restoring the importance of evidence-informed policy in a world currently ruled by ‘alternative facts’.”

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She built further on her experience of using them on her return to postgraduate research, this time characterising the interactions between proteins and inorganic complexes that were being developed as artificial enzymes. This experience proved helpful when, after her PhD, Karen’s curiosity turned to medical-related topics. When she discovered that the Centre for Misfolding Diseases uses biophysical techniques to study the protein aggregation important in Alzheimer’s and other diseases, it seemed an ideal match. After several visits, Karen started as a postdoc in the CMD in February 2015.

Karen has been influenced by several role models.

They include Professor Dame Athene Donald, the Master of Churchill College where Karen is a Postdoctoral By-Fellow. “She is not only a brilliant physicist but also has a profound interest in science policy.”

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People

determine the risk of cardiovascular diseases by detecting certain molecules in the blood,” she says. It was there she began using the biophysical techniques that have become a theme in her research.

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“It generally is more difficult to study membrane proteins, which often require expression and purification procedures in lipid or detergent environments before they can be studied,” says Karen. But membrane proteins have a high propensity to aggregate because of their hydrophobic nature, which led Karen and her colleagues to suspect they might have an important role in diseases associated with protein misfolding.

Karen chose to study lactose permease (LacY) from Escherichia coli because it is an established protein that has been well characterized. The team used different biophysical techniques such as spectroscopy, X-ray fibre diffraction, circular dichroism spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy to study the protein. The Biochemistry paper was well received. A subsequent viewpoint article described the work as setting the stage for future biophysical and biological studies of membrane protein aggregation, concluding: “This particular study is important, because transmembrane proteins make up such a large percentage of the human proteome.”2

“I’m thinking about going into policy,” she adds.

“It’s something I love as much as chemistry.” What does Karen think the future will bring her? She says: “With the right balance between science and policy initiatives, I’m keeping my options open for now. The future will tell.”

REFERENCES: 1.

Amyloid-like Fibrils from an α-Helical Transmembrane Protein, Karen Stroobants, Janet R. Kumita, Nicola J. Harris, Dimitri Y. Chirgadze, Christopher M. Dobson, Paula J. Booth, and Michele Vendruscolo, Biochemistry (2017), 56 (25), pp 3225-3233 (DOI: 10.1021/acs.biochem.7b00157) 2.

Transmembrane Proteins: Amyloids hidden in plain sight?

Nicholas L. Truex and James S. Nowick, Biochemistry (2017), 56 (36), pp 4735-4736 (DOI: 10.1021/acs. biochem.7b00758)

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People

As I see it…

Clair Castle “To ‘curate’ means to take care of. While we are curating data, we are curating people as well.”

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Being the librarian here is more about managing information than it is about printed collections.

I used to work for the University’s Department of Zoology, looking after a very valuable collection of rare natural history books going back to the 15th century. Many contained beautiful illustrations of specimens collected by early travellers and explorers, like the Victorian ornithologist John Gould who went to Australia in the 1840s to document the animals there. I miss that part of my job. But I came to Chemistry because after 13 years in Zoology, I needed a change. Here, we work with information more than we do with books and I wanted to get experience in that.

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I got involved with Research Data Management because...

It was becoming an increasing obligation for researchers to make their papers open-access. Higher Education funders and research councils were stipulating that the research should be accessible by the taxpayers who are funding it.

As a result, we needed to know how to help researchers comply with this requirement. And now, there’s a requirement in many cases for the research data that supports the published paper to be made openly available too. So the challenges of research data management have spiralled. In this department, datasets can range from spreadsheets to magnetic resonance images to dynamic simulations that can be terabytes of data each. That’s a huge amount of information and we are now training researchers in ways to store it, share it and preserve it for their own benefit as well as for that of society.

I am training PhD students to manage their research data.

The University’s Office of Scholarly Communication was looking for people to help them with research data management. They also wanted to train PhD students in this, to help get them into good research habits for the future. They

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asked me if some of our first-year PhD students would trial the training programme they were offering. I talked to Deborah Longbottom, our Head of Graduate Education, and she was very open to the idea. We ran the training in collaboration with them and it was very successful. That was two years ago and since then it has grown. It is now a compulsory part of the PhD programme and I have customised the training materials specifically for this department. And in addition to working with PhD students, I am now rolling out training to postdocs as well.

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She used to manage business collections and curate rare volumes of natural history. Now, as Department of Chemistry Librarian, Clair Castle works more with data than books. As she told a meeting of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions in Warsaw earlier this year, research data management is a big challenge for departments like Chemistry. But collaboration and training mean it is not insurmountable.

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While we’re curating data, we’re curating people as well.

At the conference in Warsaw, another speaker talked about our role in curating people as well as data. It struck a chord with me. I thought, ‘yes, that’s right’. We have to interact with people, encouraging researchers and helping them develop their skills so they know what they need to do and are not going to jeopardise their funding in future by failing to comply.

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Librarians like to help.

As professionals, we enjoy helping researchers. I’ve been mentoring three ‘data champions’ in the department. Today I watched one of them, a postdoc, voluntarily running a course showing other researchers how to use a data management tool for effective version-control of files. It was very satisfying seeing him developing his skills and sharing his knowledge with others.

The next big challenge... … in Chemistry is text and data mining – the computational process of discovering and extracting knowledge from data such as the scholarly content in journals. There’s conflict – publishers wish to maintain control of how their content is used. It’s a skill that librarians are well placed to support researchers with.

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Nobel

Quick as a Flash

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he past, as L P Hartley observes at the start of The Go-Between, “is a foreign country: they do things differently there.”

They certainly did things differently in Cambridge after the Second World War. The country was still constrained by rationing, so food was scarce. But government surplus stock was available and could be bought very cheaply. That was a boon to enterprising scientists like Professor Ronald Norrish (who as a child had conducted his first chemistry experiments in the garden shed) and George Porter, a former radar engineer officer in the navy, who came to work with him in 1945.

“We could get the equipment for next to nothing,” Professor Thrush says. “Local scrap merchants had rows of rather fancy valves, and the radio receivers that were used for radar. We could buy such things for not much more than the cost of their weight in scrap metal.”

Unlikely as it sounds now, the device Norrish and Porter built with these items would go on to win them the Nobel Prize for their “studies of extremely fast chemical reactions, effected by disturbing the equilibrium by means of very short pulses of energy”.

Their work opened up a new way of looking at

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The original flash photolysis unit

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short-lived species in elementary chemical reactions, in particular the molecular fragments known as free radicals. (“This would lead to lots of jokes during the McCarthy era,” Professor Thrush recalls. “Norrish once went to the USA and when officials asked the subject of his lectures, he foolishly replied ‘free radicals’. It took him four hours to get through immigration…”)

Norrish and Porter wanted to study, by flow techniques, the free radicals produced in gaseous chemical reactions using short pulses of light. To progress this work, they decided to make a flash lamp of the kind photographers use, but thousands of times more powerful.

“To get enough free radicals to measure, you need to use a very intense light source,” Prof. Thrush says. “Norrish’s first idea was to use a very powerful searchlight to focus ultra-violet light on flowing gases and to break the molecules up sufficiently that you could see the free radicals produced. But the searchlight mirrors proved to be poor reflectors of ultraviolet light.”

Professor Norrish

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So Norrish and Porter turned to using the flash discharge tubes that had been developed for use in night-time aerial photography of enemy targets

by British planes. “These were brighter by orders of magnitude,” says Professor Thrush, “though with a very short duration, so that a second flash had to be used to record the absorption spectrum of the resulting products.”

He became Norrish’s research student in 1950 and was involved in building the second, improved, flash photolysis unit. “Free radicals only last about a thousandth of a second so you need to observe them quickly using a second flash of light taking a long path through the reaction vessel to photograph an absorption spectrum. (The photograph shows the original unit in which the two flashes were timed by a rotating wheel.) I designed and built an electronic timer to control the period between the two flashes, and I got it down by a factor of a hundred. And that was for my PhD.” The flash photolysis method Norrish and Porter developed would later be lauded in the Nobel Prize presentation speech for enabling the study of many fast reactions that scientists previously had only been able to guess at. The award of the Nobel Prize

Professor Thrush

to the two men came, by happy coincidence, two days before Norrish’s 70th birthday. “I had already arranged a dinner to celebrate it and George had been invited to present him with a Festschrift written by his former students who were there. And it was quite a dinner: it began at seven in the evening and we finally got up from the table at 2 am!”

The work of Norrish and Porter has had quite a legacy over the years, says Professor Thrush. “The technique of flash photolysis has found many applications and the equipment used has ranged from commercial bench-top items to the large grating spectrographs of Gerhard Herzberg’s group in Ottawa, who obtained and analysed the spectra of many small free radicals, which the Cambridge group had sought.”

“This fundamental 1.68mm science has led to a revolution in our understanding of atmospheric chemistry, including the ozone hole and climate change.”

Professor Jeremy Sanders adds: “This fundamental science has led to a revolution in our understanding of atmospheric chemistry, including the ozone hole (and how to cure it) and climate change.”

READ MORE: “The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1967”. Nobelprize. org. Nobel Media AB 2014. www.nobelprize.org/ nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1967/

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Professor Ronald Norrish and Lord Porter built their first flash photolysis unit to study extremely fast chemical reactions in the late 1940s. They did so using army surplus kit bought for a song from local scrap merchants. The resulting work opened up a new field of research and won Norrish and Porter the Nobel Prize for Chemistry. On the 50th anniversary of the prize Professor Brian Thrush, Norrish’s former research student, tells the story.

ISSUE 56 Winter 2017

‘Blue halo’ helps bees Vignolini Group

Sixty years after Lord Todd won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, his work and legacy is remembered

by Professor Sir Shankar Balasubramanian.

His work, carried out with Dan Brown, established the correct chemical structure of nucleic acids, allowing James Watson and Francis Crick to then determine the three-dimensional structure of the DNA double helix. Todd mastered the synthesis of adenosine di- and tri-phosphates (ADP and ATP) as well as developing chemistry for the synthesis of dinucleotides. Together with Michelson (1955) he achieved the synthesis of a dinucleotide with a 3’ to 5’ phosphate diester linkage, marking the first step towards developing methods for oligonucleotide and ultimately DNA and RNA synthesis. Todd was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1957 in recognition of his contributions to nucleotides and nucleotide coenzymes.

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In those days the chemical structures of complex biomolecules had to be defined and proved by degradation to simpler components followed by organic synthesis. Todd completed the total synthesis of a wide variety of natural products, though was best recognised for his synthesis of nucleotides and nucleotide coenzymes. During the 1940s, he contributed to the understanding of the structure and conformation of nucleosides, particularly establishing the beta configuration of the glycosylic linkage. He also pioneered synthetic

An interdisciplinary group of researchers including Chemistry’s Dr Silvia Vignolini has found that ‘messy’ microscopic structures on the petals of some flowers manipulate light to produce a blue colour effect that is easily seen by bees.

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methods for phosphorylating nucleosides to form nucleotides, the constituent building blocks for the nucleic acids (RNA and DNA), and a number of coenzymes.

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“Organic chemistry deals with matters of truly vital importance and in some aspects it may prove to hold the keys to life itself.” These words are taken from the Nobel Lecture given by Lord Todd, who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1957.

This year we celebrate the 60th anniversary of the award to Lord Todd, who was appointed Professor of Organic Chemistry here in 1944. He worked during the golden era in which organic chemistry made enormous contributions to our understanding of natural products important to biology.

“His work... allowed James Watson and Francis Crick to determine the threedimensional structure of the DNA double helix.”

hese nanostructures scatter light particles in the blue to ultraviolet colour spectrum, generating a subtle effect that scientists have christened the ‘blue halo’.

By manufacturing artificial surfaces that replicated ‘blue halos’, scientists were able to test the effect on pollinators, in this case foraging bumblebees. They found that bees can see the blue halo, and use it as a signal to locate flowers more efficiently.

AN ALUMNUS REMEMBERS LORD TODD what passed between us except for my interrogator’s final words, delivered in a strong Scottish brogue: “Remember, laddie, many are called, but few are chosen!”When the examination results were published, I was not among the happy few who were summoned to the Department of Organic Chemistry to become ‘Toddlers’...”

Lord Todd, a tall man, was reclining so far back in his chair that I was obliged to converse throughout with the soles of a pair of shoes which rested atop the highly-polished desk. I have no memory of

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David Rand: I had the temerity in the early 1960s to seek an interview with Lord Todd with the prospect of conducting postgraduate research on nucleotides. It was an unnerving experience. I entered a room that surely was more befitting a stately home than a chemistry laboratory.

The researchers conclude that these “messy” petal nanostructures likely evolved independently many times across flowering plants, but reached the same luminous outcome that increases visibility to pollinators – an example of what’s known as ‘convergent evolution’. “We had always assumed that the disorder we saw in our petal surfaces was just an accidental by-product of life – that flowers couldn’t do any better,” said senior author Professor Beverley Glover, plant scientist and director of Cambridge’s Botanic Garden.

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The study was conducted by a multidisciplinary team of scientists from the Departments of Plant Sciences, Chemistry and Physics along with colleagues from the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew and the Adolphe Merkele Institute in Switzerland.

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While the ridges and grooves on a petal surface line up next to each other “like a packet of dry spaghetti”, when analysing different flower species, the researchers discovered they vary greatly in height, width and spacing – yet all produce a similar ‘blue halo’ effect. In fact, even on a single petal these lightmanipulating structures were found to be surprisingly irregular. This is a phenomenon physicists describe as ‘disorder’.

“The huge variety of petal anatomies, combined with the disordered spacing of their nanostructures, would suggest that different flowers should have different optical properties,” said Vignolini.

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Research

“However, we observed that all these petal structures produce a similar visual effect in the blue-to-ultraviolet wavelength region of the spectrum – the blue halo.”

“It came as a real surprise to discover that the disorder itself is what generates the important optical signal that allows bees to find the flowers more effectively.

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“Many flowers lack the genetic and biochemical capability to manipulate pigment chemistry in the blue to ultraviolet spectrum,” said Vignolini. “The presence of these disordered photonic structures on their petals provides an alternative way to produce signals that attract insects.” And the research may have applications beyond enhancing our understanding of how flowers attract pollinating insects.

“We were interested in the way that plants use these simple but messy nanostructures for light management – and found that though they are simple one-dimensional structures, they are really powerful. This could potentially help us understand how to improve light management in man-made structures,”Vignolini says.

REFERENCE: Moyroud, E. et al. ‘Disorder in convergent floral nanostructures enhances signalling to bees. Nature; 18th October 2017; DOI: 10.1038/nature24285

Do you have memories of Lord Todd? If so, please share them with news@ch.cam.ac.uk

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Remembering our Nobel Laureates

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“If you can put the boron in selectively at the desired position then you have numerous avenues open for its elaboration in very short order.” This is a particular advantage in drug discovery where the ability to make many analogues as quickly as possible is highly sought after.

s usual, Royal Society University Research Fellow Dr. Robert Phipps is thinking about molecules. “I’m trying to create molecules in a selective and different way,” says Robert, who was recently awarded a prestigious €1.5 million European Research Council grant to further his research into exploring new approaches to molecule assembly.

(See story on page 11).

of fantastic molecular structures, but Robert and his research group are interested in incorporating them into new catalyst designs.

“Considering in biology how effectively enzymes use non-covalent interactions to perform nature’s catalysis and achieve amazing feats of selectivity, we thought maybe we could learn something from that. It’s quite a different approach to how we as synthetic chemists would traditionally go about making molecules,” he says.

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New molecules have many applications, from consumer goods such as paints and computer chips to the fungicides used in industrial agriculture. They are perhaps used most widely in the pharmaceutical industry to develop drugs ranging from antibiotics, anti-inflammatories and asthma treatments to the latest anti-cancer drugs.

Synthetic chemists tend to be most familiar using covalent bonds to assemble molecules. Robert says: “If you go back to a fundamental level, the normal way we think about chemical bonds is we think about two atoms with a shared pair of electrons between them, which is what we’re taught as undergraduates.

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“But there is this parallel type of interaction which is called a non-covalent interaction—in the simplest sense it’s still two atoms interacting with each other, but they’re not sharing a pair of electrons in the same way. The attraction is typically weaker and the key aspect for us is that it is readily reversible.” This type of interaction has been used extensively by supramolecular chemists to construct all manner

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“And in fact over the last 15 years there’s been a new field of chemistry emerging called organocatalysis, where synthetic chemists have realised they can incorporate these non-covalent interactions into small molecule catalysts. You don’t need the elaborate structure of an enzyme to get synthetically useful levels of selectivity.”

A major concern in this area is how to control enantioselectivity – the selective synthesis of one mirror image form of a molecule over the other.

Whilst this is an important goal, the Phipps group sees the potential in harnessing these interactions to tackle a different selectivity challenge – that of regioselectivity, which necessitates being able to control what position in a molecule a reaction occurs at.1 “This is very important because, to use the example of pharmaceuticals, the shape of the molecule is hugely significant. You could have the same molecular formula, but a different shape could cause a totally different effect in the body,” says Robert.

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ed by Professor Tuomas Knowles, Chemistry researchers have created microscopic versions of the cocoons spun by silkworms. The tiny capsules, invisible to the naked eye, can protect sensitive molecular materials and could prove a significant technology in areas including food science, biotechnology and medicine. Writing in the journal Nature Communications, the researchers suggest that these “micrococoons” are a potential solution to a common technological problem: how to protect sensitive molecules that have potential health or nutritional benefits but can easily degrade and lose these favourable qualities during storage or processing. The study argues that sealing such molecules in a protective layer of silk could be the answer.

Last year, PhD students Holly Davis and Madalina Mihai found that they could use an ion-pairing interaction between a negatively charged catalyst and a positively charged substrate to control the position at which the C-B bond formation occurred.2

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Researchers in the Phipps group have developed novel catalysts which are able to engage in noncovalent interactions with substrates. With judicious design, they are able to control positional selectivity in the conversion of common C-H bonds to versatile C-B bonds in a range of different molecules.

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Knowles Group

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Silk micrococoons could protect sensitive molecules

In their early explorations, group members have been focusing on the conversion of an aromatic carbonhydrogen bond to a carbon-boron (C-B) bond. C-B bonds are very versatile, meaning they can be transformed into numerous other types of bonds, including carbonnitrogen, -oxygen, -halogen, and of course carboncarbon bonds.

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Tailoring catalysts to incorporate non-covalent interactions

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“The use of ion pairs to influence this type of positional selectivity was quite unprecedented. Up until now most people would think the lack of directionality would scupper such a strategy, but our study showed this not to be the case,” says Robert about their work.

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for storage,” Professor Knowles says. “A conceptually simple, but powerful, solution is to put them in tiny capsules. These are typically made from synthetic polymers, which can have a number of drawbacks. We’ve been exploring the use of fully natural materials for this purpose and are excited by the potential to replace plastics with sustainable biological materials for this purpose.”

Furthermore, Holly also discovered that the catalyst they had designed to operate in ‘ion-pairing mode’ was also able to operate very well in ‘hydrogen-bonding mode’.

If the substrate molecule contained a hydrogen bond donor, such as an amide, the anionic catalyst was able to engage in a hydrogen bonding interaction which was also highly effective in directing the position of C-B bond formation. Working together with PhD student Georgi Genov, they found the scope to be very broad and the results of the study were published very recently.3

The capsules were made using a specially-developed microengineering process that combines the power of microfluidic manufacturing with the value of natural silk. The process mimics on the microscale the way in which Bombyx mori silkworms spin the cocoons from which natural silk is harvested. The resulting micron-scale capsules comprise a solid and tough shell of silk nano-fibrils that surround and protect a centre of liquid cargo, and are more than a thousand times smaller than those created by silkworms. The same technology could also be used in pharmaceuticals to treat a wide range of severe and debilitating illnesses. In the study, the researchers successfully showed that silk micrococoons can increase the stability and lifetime of an antibody that acts on a protein implicated in neurodegenerative diseases.

Robert emphasises that these studies are just the beginning. “We are very excited about these results as they prove that our approach is not only viable but also has the potential to be very powerful and general.”

REFERENCES: 1.

HJ Davis, RJ Phipps: Harnessing non-covalent interactions to exert control over regioselectivity and site-selectivity in catalytic reactions. Chem. Sci. (2017) 8, 864. DOI: 10.1039/C6SC04157D 2.

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HJ Davis, MT Mihai, RJ Phipps: Ion Pair-Directed Regiocontrol in Transition Metal Catalysis: A Meta-Selective C–H Borylation of Aromatic Quaternary Ammonium Salts. J. Am. Chem. Soc. (2016) 138, 12759. DOI: 10.1021/jacs.6b08164

REFERENCE: Silk micrococoons for protein stabilisation and molecular encapsulation, Nature Communications 8, 15902 (2017).

HJ Davis, GR Genov, RJ Phipps: Meta Selective C-H Borylation of Benzylamine, Phenethylamine and Phenylpropylamine-Derived Amides Enabled by a Single Anionic Ligand. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. (2017) 56, 13351. DOI: 10.1002/anie.201708967

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Thermal gradients shown by numbers

New compound targets brain tumours

Frenkel Group

A new compound that in tests has shrunk brain tumours without causing harmful side effects has been developed by a team of researchers including the Department of Chemistry’s Professor Robert Glen. he research, which also involves collaborators at Cambridge’s Addenbrookes Hospital and the University of Nantes, has just been published in the journal Brain.

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Together, the researchers have been studying a potential new treatment for glioblastoma, the most common and lethal primary brain tumour in adults.

“In humans, glioblastoma is a very nasty disease,” says Professor Glen. “Following diagnosis, most patients only live 15-16 months even after surgery to remove the tumour, chemotherapy and radiotherapy.”

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Traditional cancer therapies target the tumour itself.

But to try and find a chink in this cancer’s armour, the researchers have taken a different route. They have designed a compound, known as MM54, which is an antagonist that blocks the action of an important g protein-coupled receptor called apelin. The natural agonist for the apelin receptor is a peptide, secreted in the blood vessels around the tumour, which helps to sustain them.

“The antagonist MM54 blocks the expression of this peptide and in doing so, it denies the tumour the growth potential it needs to survive,” says Professor Glen.

When researchers in Nantes grew tumourspheres from human glioblastoma cells in vitro, the researchers could see the apelin blocker MM54 slowing their growth. Further tests in the lab have shown the compound shrinking the tumour in vivo. “One of the

Experimental Medicine and Immunotherapeutics at Addenbrookes Hospital. It was while looking for potential drug targets for vascular disease that they discovered MM54, the first competitive antagonist (or blocker) for apelin, a receptor on the surface of cells that carries specific signals from the outside of the cell to the inside. They then looked to see what MM54 could do.

Now a team of researchers from Frenkel’s group, in collaboration with Christoph Dellago of the University of Vienna, have confirmed this prediction.

It was reported in the literature that apelin is involved with blood vessel formation. This was of interest because researchers have been exploring for years how to block angiogenesis – the production of blood vessels – in tumours. Additionally, apelin turned out to have other effects, such as maintaining cell viability in low oxygen (ischaemic) environments like the centres of tumours.

Using molecular simulations, the team were able to demonstrate that a pair of heated or cooled colloidal particles in a dipolar solvent behave like oppositely charged electric or magnetic monopoles. In particular, they showed that the field distribution around these particles agrees quantitatively with the theoretical predictions for a pair of oppositely charged electric or magnetic monopoles. However, in other respects, the nonequilibrium colloidal particles do not behave as monopoles: they cannot be moved by a homogeneous applied field.

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most exciting images from the Brain paper is the complete arresting of tumour growth and reduction in tumour size after dosing with MM54,” Professor Glen says.

He adds, “We think this compound could also work on a number of other tumours, for example, tumours developed in lung cancer, renal cancer and colorectal cancer. Blocking the action of the apelin receptor blocks the messages that sustain the cancer.”

Professor Glen has been collaborating for several years with Dr Anthony Davenport at the Division of

REFERENCE: Elizabeth Harford-Wright, Gwennan Andre-Gregoire, Kathryn A Jacobs, Lucas Treps, Sophie Le Gonidec, Heloise M Leclair, Sara Gonzalez-Diest, Quentin Roux, François Guillonneau, Delphine Loussouarn, Lisa Oliver, François M Vallette, Fabienne Foufelle, Philippe Valet, Anthony P Davenport, Robert C Glen, Nicolas Bidere, Julie Gavard: Pharmacological targeting of apelin impairs glioblastoma growth. Brain, awx253, https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awx253

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lectric charges are ubiquitous, yet isolated magnetic charges (‘magnetic monopoles’) have never been detected in experiments. In 2016, Professor Daan Frenkel predicted that heated or cooled nanoparticles should interact with each other as if they are monopoles and that they should move in inhomogeneous fields1. However, unlike normal electrical charges, they would not move under the influence of an applied homogeneous field.

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For these reasons, apelin looked like a promising target, so Glen and his Cambridge colleagues set up a collaboration with researchers in Nantes to test MM54 (and also a newer version antagonist called MM193) in different models of the cancer glioblastoma. The subsequent testing has looked so promising, with MM54 showing remarkable anti-cancer properties in the models, that the researchers are now hoping to move it to the next stage.

Lead author, PhD student Peter Wirnsberger said: “This intriguing result advances our understanding of the complex interactions in nanoscale systems out of thermal equilibrium. It is likely that there are many closely related phenomena in nanoscale devices.

However, the effect has not yet been observed in experiments.”

“The Brain paper shows that apelin receptor expression is up-regulated in these cancers – i.e. that the cancer cells are interacting with the apelin peptide derived from endothelial cells in the blood vessels around the cancer. We’re trying to switch off that mechanism.”

REFERENCE: 1 Hot nanoparticles in polar or paramagnetic liquids interact as monopoles, Frenkel D (2016) J Phys Chem B 120:5987-5989.

RESEARCH: Numerical evidence for thermally induced monopoles, Wirnsberger P et al, (2017) PNAS 114:19, 4911-4914.

Professor Glen adds, “It’s very exciting. This is a different kind of cancer treatment entirely because unlike the current therapy, temozolomide, this is not a genotoxic drug, and it is synergistic with the current therapy.”

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ISSUE 56 Winter 2017

Noticeboard

Research

Recognitions and awards

Predicting medicine’s ‘Black Swans’ Bender, Goodman & Colwell Groups 19.0mm

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he first project of the Cambridge Alliance on Medicines Safety will be a three-year collaboration to predict the safety of current and future medicines.

Members of the Bender, Goodman and Colwell research groups, all located in the Department of Chemistry, will work together to analyse data to determine the links between a compound’s structure and its potential adverse effects when used as a medicine. The project focuses on what the team call “Black Swans” – the toxic effects of compounds that could have been predicted in hindsight.

Up to now, this type of data analysis has been difficult to perform because of the lack of available data, both in quality and quantity. Now the researchers will not only have access to public sources, but also to the historical compound profiling data held by GlaxoSmithKline, which has funded the three-year project.

Professor Clare Grey Elected a Fellow of the Electrochemical Society.

Awarded the 2017 Société Chimique de France French-British prize.

Named as the first ever recipient of the International Solid State Ionics GalvaniNernst-Wagner Mid-Career Researcher Award.

The team will examine the data using high throughput screening techniques and mathematical analyses to derive Adverse Outcome Pathways (AOPs) that reveal the links between compounds and their adverse effects.

Professor Michele Vendruscolo Awarded the Giuseppe Occhialini Medal and Prize jointly by the Institute of Physics and the Italian Physical Society.

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“Currently, this step is difficult to perform due to paucity of data as well as many AOPs not being sufficiently quantitative in nature, which is what the current project aims to improve upon,” said Dr Andreas Bender, one of the group leaders.

He expects other major pharmaceutical companies to join the project, which will provide even further data for analysis.

The Cambridge Alliance on Medicines Safety is part of the Cambridge Academy of Therapeutic Sciences (CATS), which has been operational since March 2017. CATS aims to connect industry and academic expertise to drive therapeutic development. It spans across disciplines in the University, as well as teaching and research aspects related to drug discovery and development.

READ MORE: Cambridge Alliance on Medicines Safety: www.ats.cam.ac.uk/what-we-do/cambridgealliance-medicines-safety Cambridge Academy of Therapeutic Sciences: www.ats.cam.ac.uk

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Dr Volker Deringer Awarded a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship.

Professor Ali Alavi Elected to the International Academy of Quantum Molecular Science.

Recognition Immaterial, a start-up founded by alumnus Dr Andrew Marsden, has made the top 20 in the Innovation Forum’s Imagine IF! global accelerator programme and will pitch for thousands of dollars in prizes in an international head-to-head in December. Andrew completed his undergraduate degree in Chemistry here before studying for a PhD in Protein Biophysics.

Appointments and promotions

Upcoming events

New teaching fellows We are delighted to have appointed two new teaching fellows in the department.

Lewis Lectures Speaker: Professor Lutz Gade, Heidelberg University

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Dr Robert Less is a joint teaching fellow between the Department and Murray Edwards College in inorganic chemistry.

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Dr Stephanie Smith is a joint teaching fellow between the Department and Pembroke College in organic chemistry.

We are looking forward to working with them both over the next three years.

210.0 x 297.0mm Promotions The Department of Chemistry is pleased to announce several academic promotions.

Stuart Clarke, Sophie Jackson and Erwin Reisner (below left) have been promoted to professor, Silvia Vignolini has been promoted to a readership, and Janet Kumita (below right) has been promoted to principal research associate.

Congratulations to our colleagues on their accomplishments.

27 February 2018: ‘Identification of Active Species and Mechanistic Pathways in the Enantioselective Catalysis with 3d Transition Metal Pincer Complexes’.

Wolfson Lecture Theatre, 14:00-15:00.

1 March 2018: ‘Perylene-Based Poly(N-Heterocycles): Organic Semiconductors, Biological Fluorescence Probes and Building Blocks for Molecular Surface Networks’.

Wolfson Lecture Theatre, 14:00-15:00.

Chemistry Open Day 17 March 2018 For details of more talks taking place in the department, please see www.ch.cam.ac.uk/talks/all-upcoming

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Season’s Greetings from the

Department of Chemistry

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‘Tis the season for... giving and receiving Prestigious awards such as the Nobel Prize rightly recognise groundbreaking research. But an additional reward is when we see that research applied in tackling significant real-world problems.

Genomic information is now being used to drive medicine forward, enabling more personalised and effective treatments for cancer patients. Such life-changing discoveries wouldn’t be possible without the work of scientists like our Alumni Medal recipient Dr John Sulston, who led the UK’s contribution to sequencing the human genome, and our academics Shankar Balasubramanian and David Klenerman whose development of next-generation sequencing has helped dramatically speed up the process and reduce the cost.

If you would like to help us find the next Nobel Laureate or life-changing discovery by supporting our students, researchers and academics, or providing the environment and the tools they need to excel, please contact Head of Department Professor John Pyle at chemhod@hermes.ch.cam.ac.uk