University of Warwick

Cleaning clothes directly, or indirectly, affects everyone on the planet, making it hugely important in terms of energy and resource usage. Traditional methods of washing rely on high temperature, mechanical action and extended washing times - sometimes a tremendously social activity in the right environment, but one that we have come to realise has a negative impact in the way precious resources such as water, energy and even our time are used. An estimated 80% of the energy is used to heat water in a domestic wash and it is suggested that reducing a typical laundry cycle from 40 degrees C by 10 degrees reduces that energy usage by up to 40%. The technical challenge faced in a deceptively simple domestic wash is enormous. An average load contains 40 g of soil; heavily soiled washing may contain over 120 g, much of which comes from contact with our bodies. This soil and dirt is a complex, often poorly understood mixture of proteins, starches, carbohydrates, lipids, fatty acids, salts, clays and pigments, all associated with a wide range of fabrics. An equally complex mixture of detergents, enzymes and other chemicals that comprise a modern laundry agent are used to tackle the challenge of removing the soil and dirt from laundry fabric and keep it from re-entering cleaned clothes. In that process crystallized fat and lipid are the most difficult to remove at the low temperatures sought by the need to reduce energy and resource usage. It is precisely this challenge that we seek to address in our proposed research.Diamond and related synthetic carbon materials appear an unlikely choice of additive to the washing process, but they possess such special properties in terms of our ability to control very precisely their shape, size and surface chemistry that in fact they offer a fantastic opportunity. The materials we shall make are expected to interact with both the detergents used in the wash process and the unsolved problem of crystallized lipid particles on fabric in a unique way. Firstly they will make structures resembling small cells with the detergents and secondly these will aid the delivery of the nanodiamonds to the crystallized lipid adhering to the fabric. We shall use a combination of methods to study how the fluorescent nanodiamonds interact with the surface and then allow the lipid to be brought into solution. These include: a very sensitive method for measuring the amount of material adhering to a variety of test surfaces of differing underlying roughness and a means of directly observing the nanodiamond particles as they move across the 'soiled fabric' and lift off the grease. In this one-year, proof-of-principle project we shall develop both the new materials and methodologies to the point where we are able to say to what extent the novel additives bring about cleaning of the surfaces in a way that wasn't previously possible.In summary we believe that this innovation will be the step forward required to enable the removal of crystallized fat and lipid at much lower temperatures than currently possible. This has the potential to bring huge savings of energy and other resources to an essential, everyday task.

This MRC-funded doctoral training partnership (DTP) brings together cutting-edge molecular and analytical sciences with innovative computational approaches in data analysis to enable students to address important applied biomedical research questions in priority areas aligned with industry. This is a 4-year programme whose first year involves a series of taught modules and two laboratory-based research projects that lead to an MSc in Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research. The first two terms consist of a selection of taught modules that allow students to gain a solid grounding in multidisciplinary science. Students also attend a series of masterclasses led by academic and industry experts in areas of molecular, cellular and tissue dynamics, microbiology and infection, applied biomedical technologies and artificial intelligence and data science. During the third and summer terms students conduct two eleven-week research projects in labs of their choice.

Many hormones and neurotransmitters perform their function through a class of proteins called family B G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs). These include hormones such as GLP-1 and glucagon which are relevant to diabetes and other metabolic disorders especially common in the elderly, corticotrophin releasing factor, involved in stress and anxiety and parathyroid hormone, involved in maintaining bones. It has been known for over 10 years that many of the receptors for these agents can interact with accessory proteins called receptor activity modifying proteins (RAMPs). RAMPs are found throughout the body. However, until recently, the consequences of RAMP-receptor interactions remained unknown. Recent studies of a small number of these family B GPCRs has shown that RAMPs have important consequences for function and so it is now timely to extend this study to all 15 family B GPCRs. We have discovered that this can be achieved quickly, cheaply and easily by analysing the behaviour of human receptors and RAMPs in yeast and we will use this method to comprehensively explore how all the family B GPCRs found in humans are influenced by RAMPs. We will extend our studies to determine the consequences of these interactions using human cells. The results we generate will enable more sophisticated experiments to be performed to determine the physiological consequences of these interactions in in-vivo models. This is important as our data indicates that RAMP association can radically change the properties of an individual receptor; experiments that neglect to consider the effects of RAMPs can give misleading impressions of the true function of a receptor. Furthermore, it is likely that the association of the RAMP with a receptor will create a structure that can be selectively targeted by drugs.

Atomically thin layers of different two-dimensional materials can be stacked with atomic precision to create 2D heterostructures (2D-HS). This has led to the design of more efficient light emitting diodes for example, and the study of new phenomena such as an insulating to superconducting transition in graphene. In these heterostructures, electric fields perpendicular to the layers can be used to engineer the band alignments, control carrier concentrations, and even switch between metallic, insulating and superconducting states. These fields are usually induced by predefined metallic electrodes which give control over the field strength but are of fixed (microscale) geometry and have limited dynamic response. This project will develop an alternative approach. Strong electric fields can be formed at the surface of thin-film ferroelectric perovskite oxides, with the field patterned with nanoscale precision. The polarity of the field can be switched rapidly and even the spatial arrangement of the field can be controlled dynamically. This presents an exciting opportunity to create agile electronics by integrating perovskite ferroelectrics into 2D-HSs. Creating such a robust platform for electrostatically defining insulating and conducting regions in 2DMs, and for dynamically switching their conductivity, will allow us to explore new physical phenomena and to develop new electronic functionalities. The aim of this project is to explore new artificial heterostructure systems that combine ultrathin ferroelectrics with 2DMs, especially 2D van-der-Waals semiconductors, exploiting reduced dimensionality and interfacial interactions to control the properties and engineer new functionalities in these artificial materials. The project will focus on developing techniques for controlling the interface between the 2D-HSs and high-quality thin-film perovskite oxides grown at Warwick by pulsed laser deposition. Careful characterisation of this interface, and its effect on the electronic properties of the 2D-HSs, will be essential to the wider success of the project. The research will make use of the excellent microscopy and spectroscopy infrastructure at the University of Warwick, as well as international synchrotron-based facilities. It is tied closely to the EPSRC funded responsive mode grant EP/T027207/1, Ferroelectric gating for agile and reconfigurable 2D electronics.

MIBTP students undertake a period of training during their first year. This includes compulsory taught modules in statistics, programming, data analysis, AI and mini research projects. Project details MUST be updated once the student has started their PhD and if the project changes during the study period. This can be updated via the Batch Update facility.