The Rational Design of an Exosome Membrane Modification Platform
31 January - 31 March 2020
(note that Professor McGillivray will remain at the University of Bristol until 20 Jan 2021 once his BBMVP has come to an end in March)
Biography
Duncan McGillivray is an Associate Professor in Physical Chemistry at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, whose research is focussed on the physical basis of biologically-relevant materials and how to adapt colloidal systems and surfaces to control how they behave. His research group study a wide range of topics, including low-waste surface coating methods, improving antimicrobial materials, understanding the impacts of nanoplastics and heavy metals on biological systems, developing surfaces that can be used for spintronic devices, novel functional food encapsulation, and membrane-active proteins and model membranes.
Summary
Professor Adam Perriman’s Group has recently developed a new class of artificial membrane-binding protein constructs for injectable cell therapies. These hybrid protein-polymer surfactant bioconjugates spontaneously insert into the plasma membranes of cells and can be used to improve the properties of therapeutic cells, e.g., by providing homing and hypoxia resistance. This proposal is focussed on elucidating the structure of proteinpolymer surfactant conjugates assembled on the membranes of large unilamellar vesicle (LUV) exosomemimics, so that these constructs can be developed as next generation advanced therapy medicinal products.
Associate Professor McGillivray is hosted by Adam Perriman, Professor of Bioengineering in the School of Chemistry
Planned lectures and talks include:
General public talk: Micro- and Nanoplastic waste and health
What impacts on health might occur from the vast mountain of plastic waste humanity has generated over the last 70 years is a very topical question. We have only just begun to be aware of the ubiquity of plastic waste in the micron and nanometer scale in seawater, freshwater, our food and air, and the effects of this on organisms, and especially human health, is largely unknown. This will build on the McGillivray group’s research on the topic, the recent World Health Organisation report on plastic waste in drinking water, and the NZ Prime Minister’s Chief Science Advisor’s recent report “Re-thinking Plastics in Aotearoa New Zealand” to which A/Prof McGillivray was a contributor.
Graduate student seminar: Neutron and X-ray scattering for complex biological systems
Neutron and X-ray methods used on non-crystalline materials are a powerful set of techniques that can elucidate structure down to nanometer resolution in complex systems, in real or near-real time, and while the system is responding to perturbation or extreme conditions. Some of the possibilities available will be illustrated using examples from protein aggregation and denaturation under stress, antimicrobial membrane studies, complex coacervate formation and shellfish growth.
Departmental Lecture: Protein coronas around nanoparticles – control of biological identity Nanoparticles that are in biological media collect biological adherents that fundamentally control the apparent identity of the particles, and their fate in system. Protein adherents may denature and cause aggregation of particles, while charge patterns on the surface of nanoparticles (for example from polysaccharide coatings) have been shown to dramatically change the ability of the nanoparticle to penetrate cellular membranes. The implications of these protein coronas, and the changes they may make to the toxicity of even otherwise reasonably harmless materials (such as nanoplastics), have been investigated to help understand what if any concerns need to be addressed.
Dates, times and venues to be confirmed
