News and Events

The W L Bragg Lecture of The University of Manchester 2011 will be presented by Physics Nobel Laureate Professor Kostya Novoselov, of the Schuster Laboratory, The University of Manchester. This is an open lecture and there is seating for 250. It will last slightly over an hour and will be followed by a soft drinks mixer.

The poster can be found here.Contact Professor John R. Helliwell for further information.

Our research group was one of the first to gain access to the 1 GHz spectrometer at Lyon following the vetting of our research proposal submitted under the EU-NMR access review procedure. In addition to the ultra high 1 GHz (= 23.5 Tesla) magnetic field, the spectrometer is also equipped with a cryo cooled probe and other accessories to render unsurpassed sensitivity. We successfully used these advanced conditions to carry out several multidimensional NMR experiments of RNAs and their complexes. The new vista in RNA research warrants an even higher field NMR spectrometer in the new decade and hopefully a Bruker 1.2 GHz spectrometer is looming on the horizon, pushing the frontier even further.

For a full report click here.

Professor Paul O’Brien and his research team in the School of Chemistry at The University of Manchester are joining forces with Murata Manufacturing Co. Ltd, a Japan based manufacturer, to form a new research collaboration

Murata, the world’s largest global manufacturers of electronic devices, has signed a deal with the University to work on a research and development collaboration in the field of nanotechnology. Murata is a major employer in Asia and currently employs over 33,000 staff.

Japan is the second largest Asian supplier of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) projects to the UK. It remains the most significant investor from Asia and continues to supply world-class innovation through high quality projects. In 2008/09, Japan contributed 81 new projects and created 1,405 new jobs, the sixth largest FDI source to the UK.

The Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA). and the region’s overseas team based in Japan together with UKTI have worked closely with Murata since 2007, when they first indicated an interest in forming an R&D collaboration in the field of nanotechnology with a UK university, to secure this partnership for the Northwest.

After detailed discussions with the NWDA and Professor Paul O’Brien the company have selected the University of Manchester as the academic institution with which they wish to form this partnership. 

Mark Hughes, NWDA Executive Director of Economic Development, said:

“This research collaboration is great news for the University of Manchester and testimony to the strength of the region’s reputation for research and development. The Agency has been working closely with Murata for some time to secure this for the region and I am pleased that work has now begun on the project, which may lead to further investment by Murata in future.”

Yukio Sakabe, Senior Corporate Advisor of Murata, said:

“We, Murata, feel very happy and honoured to be able to start collaboration works with The University of Manchester, with help from the NWDA. I am convinced that new technology and business in the field of nanotechnology are realised in future from this project collaborating with basic science of the university and engineering of Murata.”

Professor Paul O'Brien, Professor of Inorganic Materials at The University of Manchester, said:

“I very much welcome this collaboration with Murata, which provides access to skills and equipment in Japan and training for a Japanese scientist in some leading edge aspects of nanotechnology in my laboratories.”

Tom Baker - a final year PhD student of Professor David Proctor - has been awarded a Schering-Plough Postdoctoral Fellowship to work with Prof K. C. Nicoloau at Scripps, California, USA. As only one award was available to UK PhD students in organic chemistry and the fellowship provides $50,000 for two years, he had to overcome stiff competition. Tom, on the right in the picture, will be working on the total synthesis of presporolide, a putative natural product with an enediyne moiety. It is believed to be the biosynthetic precursor of sporolides a and b. It is anticipated to possess significant anti-cancer properties.

100s of students from schools all over the North-West were selected to participate in a Salters’ Chemistry Festival for secondary schools at The University of Manchester.

The Festival enabled the students to participate in the fun of chemistry, a varied social programme and for the pyrotechnically inclined the Flash-Bang show.

The Salters’ Chemistry Festival at The University of Manchester was sponsored by The Salters’ Institute and  Associates.

The Science and Innovation minister, Lord Paul Drayson, recently visited the Organic Materials and Innovation Centre (OMIC) in the School of  Chemistry to find out more about the ground breaking £5.7m Northern Way project to develop a supply chain in the North for Printed Electronics.  The briefing was held at OMIC in recognition of the key role the Centre has played in developing the project and the part it will play in helping to deliver the project over the next two years. The project will be lead by the UK Printable Electronics Technology Centre (PETEC) based in the Northeast.

Printed Electronics is an emerging disruptive global technology with a current market of around $1bn and predicted growth, based on recent estimates, to $48bn by 2017, rising to $300bn by 2027. This industry will require new materials and new manufacturing technologies and its outputs will be used in both conventional electronics such as displays as well as enabling new products. The project will be a key element in stimulating and generating a supply chain in the North from new materials to device integration.

OMIC’s prime responsibility in the project will be the specification and small scale synthesis of the organic semiconductors which form the cornerstone of printed electronics. This reflects the considerable expertise in the design, synthesis and formulation of the organic semiconductors and dielectrics for printed electronics. OMIC will also support the chemical companies selected to scale-up the synthesis of the organic semiconductors.

Lord Drayson indicated he was very impressed with the progress that had been made to bring together all the key stakeholders in the supply chain and how excellence in the science base is being used to help to build a supply chain in this emerging technology. This feedback was reflected later by Lord Drayson in a posting on Twitter “At University of Manchester / Chemistry - Excellent initiative in printable electronics with Northern Way:PETEC. implementing strategic focus”
Link to OMIC – click here

Scientists at The University of Manchester have developed an experiment that sheds new and fascinating light on how life on Earth might have begun

Prof John Sutherland, Matthew Powner and Dr Beatrice Gerland from The School of Chemistry have broken new ground by synthesising almost from scratch two of the four building blocks of RNA, which is the self-replicating molecule that many scientists believe could be the original molecule for life.

The researchers believe they have shown how it was possible to make all the building blocks of RNA – which can carry and transmit information from one generation to the next – from the simple chemicals that would have existed on Earth four billion years ago.

At this time, the Earth was like any other lifeless planet that had yet to experience the radical transformation of living and breathing creatures.

Prof Sutherland said: “We have made the building blocks of RNA from what was around on the early Earth and is still around in interstellar space and in the atmosphere of Saturn’s moon Titan.

“We haven’t yet made the RNA molecule itself but we’ve made two of the four building blocks. It suggests that making the molecule is possible.”

The findings are published in the latest edition of the leading science journal Nature.

The research has made headlines around the world and has been reported in The Independent, The New Scientist and The New York Times.

The work has been funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) through the provision of a postdoctoral fellowship and a PhD studentship.

Scientists have created a molecular device which could act as a building block for future generations of superfast computers

The researchers have created components that could one day be used to develop quantum computers - devices based on molecular scale technology instead of silicon chips and which would be much faster than conventional computers.

The study, by scientists at the Universities of Manchester and Edinburgh and published in the journal Nature, was funded by the European Commission.

Scientists have achieved the breakthrough by combining tiny magnets with molecular machines that can shuttle between two locations without the use of external force. These manoeuvrable magnets could one day be used as the basic component in quantum computers.

Conventional computers work by storing information in the form of bits, which can represent information in binary code - either as zero or one.

Quantum computers will use quantum binary digits, or qubits, which are far more sophisticated - they are capable of representing not only zero and one, but a range of values simultaneously. Their complexity will enable quantum computers to perform intricate calculations much more quickly than conventional computers.

Professor David Leigh, of the University of Edinburgh's School of Chemistry, said: "This development brings super-fast, non-silicon based computing a step closer.

"The magnetic molecules involved have potential to be used as qubits, and combining them with molecular machines enables them to move, which could be useful for building quantum computers. The major challenges we face now are to bring many of these qubits together to build a device that could perform calculations, and to discover how to communicate between them."

Professor Richard Winpenny, of the University of Manchester's School of Chemistry, said: "To perform computation we have to have states where the qubits speak to each other and others where they don't - rather like having light switches on and off.

"Here we have shown we can bring the qubits together, control how far apart they are, and potentially switch the device between two or more states. The remaining challenge is to learn how to do the switching, and that's what we're trying to do now."

The School of Chemistry has received a special Valentines treat – a state-of-the-art Q-TOF Mass Spectrometer

The equipment has been transferred to the University by Lilly Speke Operations, part of a global pharmaceutical company whose business is stongly rooted in a culture valuing honesty, hard work and caring for their community, wherever they're located around the world.

The Spectrometer was not feasible to sustain on the Lilly site, so they generously relocated it to the School of Chemistry in recognition of a long and successful partnership.

Technical Services Manager John Robinson said: “This will benefit students and staff, not just now, but for many years to come.

"Part of the conditions of the agreement includes the University allowing Lilly access to our equipment should they need it but more importantly, the School of Chemistry has a modern spectrometer to add to its already extensive facilities.”

Thanks to the generosity of Lilly, the School will now be able to expand its research in terms of the variety of techniques and the volume of output using some of the latest technology available.

John added: “We look forward to continuing our long and successful relationship with Lilly Speke.”

More than two thirds of our research staff have been judged to be carrying out world leading and internationally excellent research in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE).

The School was ranked fourth out of 33 based on research power, which is a measure of quality of research multiplied by the number of staff returned. It also returned the fourth highest number of staff to the RAE, compared to other chemistry departments.

This establishes the School of Chemistry at The University of Manchester as one of the largest and most research-intensive departments of chemistry in the UK.