1

ChemistryNEWSLETTERIssue 20 | October 2016

DepartmentOfChemistry.

3 Nobel Prize awarded to ex-Sheffield chemist

4 Students head out to China for lab contest

6 Industry placement leads to awards nod

7 Enzyme study could help cancer therapy

2

Thanks for coming to one of our open days.We hope it helps you with making your decision.

Over the next few pages you can find out what’s new in the Department of Chemistry, and see what some of our staff and students have been up to. There’s also information, below, about the next steps in your application.

We hope to see you again soon.

Professor Mike Ward Head of Department

Thank you for taking an interest in studying chemistry at the University of Sheffield. Once you’ve made your final shortlist of universities to apply to, you’ll be able to submit your application through UCAS.

In most cases, the deadline for submitting your application will be 6pm on Friday 15 January. However, we’ll be carefully reviewing applications as soon as they start arriving in late September, so feel free to submit yours earlier. You’ll get a notification

from us as soon as your application arrives. We’ll then either invite you for an interview or make you a direct offer.

Either way, you’ll be invited to a Departmental Open Day – these take place regularly between November and March and are another chance for you to look around our facilties, meet our staff and students, and get to know us even better before you make your firm and insurance choices in UCAS. ●

3

Nobel Prize awarded to ex-Sheffield chemistProfessor Sir Fraser Stoddart spent 20 years as a researcher in our department. Now, along with Jean-Pierre Sauvage and Bernard L. Feringa, he has been awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his work on molecular machinery.

Sir Fraser joined the University of Sheffield in 1970 as our Imperial Chemical Industries Research Fellow. He later became a lecturer, then Associate Professor of Chemistry.

Work conducted by his Sheffield research group in 1991 was cited and praised in the Nobel Prize announcement on 5 October, for helping the field of molecular machinery take a ‘big leap forward’.

Our Head of Deparment, Professor Mike Ward, said: “On a personal note, Professor Stoddart was the external examiner for my PhD thesis back in 1989 and I also went on to do postdoctoral research with another of the winners, Professor Jean-Pierre Sauvage, in Strasbourg during the 1990s.

“I am delighted, not just that my PhD examiner and postdoc supervisor has been honoured in this way, but that the area in which I grew up as an academic and in which both I and my colleague Professor Jim Thomas are still very active, has been given such recognition.

“It is wonderful to see Professor Stoddart’s work in supramolecular chemistry honoured in this way. He, along with the other two winners, popularised the field of molecular topology in which molecules

can be mechanically interlinked without a chemical bond between them, or can be folded up into elaborate structures such as complex knots.”

Sir Fraser joins five other Nobel Prize winners associated with the University of Sheffield, three of whom either worked or studied in the Department of Chemistry on the way to winning their prizes: Lord Porter, Richard Roberts and Sir Harry Kroto. ●

Sir Fraser is now based at Northwestern University in Chicago Image credit: Northwestern University

You’ll learn more about the chemistry behind this research in third and fourth year segments taught by Jim Thomas.

4

Students head out to China for lab contestThree of our undergraduate students took a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Nanjing in China over the summer. They went with Dr Julie Hyde to compete in the 10th National Undergraduate Chemistry Laboratory Tournament.

The competition takes place every two years and this year 43 universities from across China took part. It was the first time that universities from outside China were able to compete too, with the University of Michigan invited to participate alongside the University of Sheffield.

The Sheffield team was made up of Amy Smith, Dan Reader and Jack Watson. They spent five days in Nanjing, completing a mixture of organic, inorganic and physical chemistry experiments which were set on the day. The tournament ended with an

awards ceremony where Sheffield, Michigan and Nanjing students were presented with a Special Award for their efforts.

Dan said: “The tournament was a really great experience, meeting new friends and seeing chemistry in a different culture.”

Amy said that it was “a great opportunity to practice my practical skills in an unfamiliar environment with little preparation. It allowed me to realise my strengths and weaknesses and to further my understanding in the field of chemistry”. ●

Amy Smith with Michael Payne from the University of Michigan Jack Watson

5

Triple RSC awards joyThe Royal Society of Chemistry has presented three Sheffield chemists with prizes for their research achievements.

Dr Sarah Staniland was given the 2016 Harrison-Meldola Memorial Prize for her work on biomineralisation, the process that allows organisms to produce minerals. This prize is the RSC’s top award for early career researchers, usually given to exceptional scientists under the age of 35.

Our Head of Department, Professor Mike Ward, received the 2016 prize Supramolecular Chemistry, which is only given to one researcher every two years. The award was in recognition of Mike’s work with alkyl phosphonates, small molecules which bind inside the cavities of hollow molecules to form cages that could be used to detect chemical weapons, such as nerve gas.

Dr Nick Warren also won a prize for his work on biocompatible hydrogels that can be used to store stem cells. He won the health and wellbeing category in the RSC Emerging Technologies competition, and was presented with his award by comedian Hugh Dennis at a ceremony in London. ●

Visit www.sheffield.ac.uk/chemistry for the latest news from our department.

Dan Reader with Quihan Li from the University of Michigan

Dr Julie Hyde with Professor Chengjian Zhu from Nanjing University

The awards ceremony

6

Industry placement leads to awards nodOne of our undergraduate students, Shannon North, was shortlisted for a National Undergraduate Employability award. She spent a year working at ink manufacurers Diamond Dispersions, who nominated her for the prize.

Shannon started her Chemistry with Study in Industry four-year MChem course in 2012. In her third year, she took an internship at Diamond Dispersions, where she was asked to oversee quality control on several products.

Using her chemistry knowledge, Shannon helped the company solve a complex chemical problem with one of their dyes, and was put forward for a National Undergraduate Employability award.

Shannon was one of five students, out of

around 400 hundred who were nominated, to be shortlisted in the Best Student Contribution to a Small to Medium-Sized Employer category. She attended the ceremony in London alongside Lawrie Campbell and Isobel Savage, two other University of Sheffield students that were nominated in other categories.

Now Shannon has completed her MChem, she is starting a PhD with us here in Sheffield, working in the polymer science group led by Professor Steve Armes. ●

Shannon, centre, with Louise Cooper from the University of Sheffield placements team, students Lawrie Campbell and Isobel Savage, and Dr Julie Hyde, who helps our students organise industry placements.

7

Enzyme study could help cancer therapyAn international team of scientists have learned how blocking a particular type of enzyme could pave the way for new cancer treatments. The study was led by Professor Jane Grasby, our Professor of Biological Chemistry.

Flap endonuclease 1 (FEN1) is an enzyme that removes single-stranded flaps of DNA that appear when the human body replicates, repairs and replaces damaged DNA. Studies have shown that cancer patients with a poor prognosis often have cancer cells with higher levels of this type of enzyme.

Cancer cells also rely more heavily on FEN1 to repair them than other cells. Therefore, a drug which blocked FEN1 could selectively kill cancer cells, because without the enzyme, the cancer cells would become unable to make repairs.

Jane worked with researchers from drug discovery companies Pelago Bioscience and AstraZeneca. The team took detailed images of the way that inhibitor substances bind

and block FEN1, to show exactly how to stop the enzyme repairing cancer cells.

Jane said: “We have worked on understanding the secrets of FEN1’s role in human DNA replication and repair for many years. It’s been an exciting privilege for us to work with AstraZeneca and apply this knowledge to potentially intervene in a serious human disease.” ●

A small molecule potential drug bound to the active site of FEN1.

You’ll learn more about the chemistry behind this research, and other areas of biological chemistry, in the Biological Chemistry segments of our courses, where Jane is one of the lecturers.

8

Further information on all our courses can be found at www.sheffield.ac.uk/chemistry

Contact: Admissions OfficeEmail: chemistry-admissions@sheffield.ac.uk

Department of ChemistryThe University of SheffieldBrook HillSheffield S3 7HF

SheffieldChem