John is a Professor of Structural Biology focused on the global challenge of plastic pollution and leads a team of scientists researching natural enzyme discovery and engineering. Their work revealed the detailed workings of an enzyme that can digest polyethylene terephthalate (PET), and more recently, demonstrated that engineering these enzymes…
The “MAX”-phase of over 100 ternary carbides/nitrides was first identified in the 1960s.[1] The nomenclature is an abbreviation of the general formula of these 2D material ‘Mn+1AXn’, whereby M denotes a transition metal and A/X represent an A group element and carbon/nitrogen respectively.[2] They also display a very novel combination of properties…
Recent years have seen an explosion of interest in computational protein design, to either design new enzymes completely de novo or to redesign existing enzymes towards novel catalytic properties. The Kemp elimination reaction has been a particularly popular model system for both experimental and computational design studies, despite inherent challenges…
Homogeneous/biocatalysis in traditional aqueous media often suffer from poor substrate solubility, and difficult catalyst/product separation and subsequent catalyst recycle. Ionic liquids possess a number of tunable properties favorable for supporting homogeneous/biocatalysis integrity by adjusting ionic liquids hydrophobicity, hydrophilicity, acid-base properties and intermolecular interactions, hence, ionic liquids are emerging as a…
Enzyme-mediated damage repair or mitigation is commonly found in nucleic acids, while is rare in proteins. In human MAPK-ERK signaling cascade, we found that the damages through the elimination of phosphorylated Ser/Thr to dehydroalanine/dehydrobutyrine (Dha/Dhb) could generate aberrantly activated MEK kinases, which might alter or disrupt cell signaling. In the…
Exploiting polyolefin materials to create a circular economy is possible via catalytic chemical recycling, as they represent a highly refined hydrocarbon source with similarities to crude oil, and this is an important supplement to mechanical recycling of plastics. Whilst some polymers such as poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) are amenable to mechanical…
Catalysis is one of the most complex and diverse phenomenon in synthetic science. It can be classified in various ways, although mostly often this is done based on the physical nature of the catalyst. In this talk, Dr Bao Nguyen will discuss his own personal journey in catalytic research, going through chemical processes…
This talk will give an overview of my experiences in academia and my path to becoming an academic, hopefully offering advise and guidance for anybody thinking of going into a career in academia. I will also give an overview of my research on main group catalysis and how I developed my own…
Dr Rachel Cowen, Academic Lead for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion at the University of Manchester will share her perspective on current UK research and innovation practices and culture. She will highlight the need to embrace diversity within the research workforce and make recommendations so that we can all play our part in developing…
In this lecture, I will discuss the role of the support in directing the nanostructures of monometallic and bimetallic nanoparticles. The role of support in relation to the catalytic properties of monometallic and bimetallic nanoparticles using different liquid phase reactions will be discussed in detail. The reactions include aerobic oxidation…
