̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - Matthew Gaunt

Cambridge academics win European Research Council Advanced Grants

cg605 — Tue, 26 Apr 2022 11:14:19 +0000

Nine Cambridge academics have won Advanced Grants awarded by the European Research Council (ERC). This is the greatest number of grants won by a UK institution in the 2021 round of funding.

Cambridge receives new funding to support PhD students in science and engineering

sc604 — Mon, 04 Feb 2019 09:00:00 +0000

̽��ֱ��funding, from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and industrial and institutional partners, will support the establishment of five new CDTs at Cambridge. ̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ�� will be a partner institution in an additional four new CDTs. ̽��ֱ��results of the latest CDT funding round were announced today by EPSRC at an event in London.

In total, EPSRC is supporting 75 new CDTs across the UK, representing a total investment of £446 million. ̽��ֱ��Centres’ 1,400 project partners have contributed £386 million in cash and in-kind support, and include companies such as Tata Steel and Procter and Gamble and charities such as Cancer Research UK. ̽��ֱ��funding represents one of the UK’s most significant investments in research skills.

Science and Innovation Minister Chris Skidmore said: “As we explore new research to boost our economy with an increase of over £7 billion invested in R&D over five years to 2021/22 – the highest increase for over 40 years – we will need skilled people to turn ideas into inventions that can have a positive impact on our daily lives.

“ ̽��ֱ��Centres for Doctoral Training at universities across the country will offer the next generation of PhD students the ability to get ahead of the curve. In addition, this has resulted in nearly £400 million being leveraged from industry partners. This is our modern Industrial Strategy in action, ensuring all corners of the UK thrive with the skills they need for the jobs of tomorrow.

“As Science Minister, I’m delighted we’re making this massive investment in postgraduate students as part of our increased investment in R&D.”

CDT students are funded for four years and the programme includes technical and transferrable skills training as well as a research element. ̽��ֱ��centres bring together diverse areas of expertise to provide engineers and scientists with the skills, knowledge and confidence to tackle today’s evolving issues and future challenges.

̽��ֱ��importance of developing STEM skills is a key part of the Government’s Industrial Strategy, ensuring that all areas of the UK embrace innovation and build the skills the economy needs to thrive.

̽��ֱ��five Cambridge-led CDTs are:

CDT in Future Propulsion and Power, led by Dr Graham Pullan (Department of Engineering)
CDT in Integrated Functional Nano (i4Nano), led by Professor Jeremy Baumberg (Department of Physics)
CDT in Future Infrastructure and Built Environment: Resilience in a Changing World (FIBE2), led by Professor Abir Al-Tabbaa (Department of Engineering)
CDT in Sensor Technologies for a Healthy and Sustainable Future, led by Professor Clemens Kaminski (Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology)
CDT in Automated Chemical Synthesis Enabled by Digital Molecular Technologies, led by Professor Matthew Gaunt (Department of Chemistry)

̽��ֱ��first cohort of students in the new CDTs will begin their studies in October.

Professor Lynn Gladden, EPSRC’s Executive Chair, said: “ ̽��ֱ��UK’s research base makes the discoveries that lead to innovations and these can improve lives and generate income for the UK. Centres for Doctoral Training have already proven to be successful in attracting the world’s brightest minds and industry support to address the scientific and engineering challenges we face. This new cadre will continue to build on previous investment.”

̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge has received new government and industrial funding to support at least 350 PhD students over the next eight years, via the creation of new Centres for Doctoral Training (CDTs).

Photo by Sweet Ice Cream Photography on Unsplash

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright © ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – as here, on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

Yes

Synthesis made simpler

bjb42 — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 09:33:47 +0000

̽��ֱ��hydrocarbons found in crude oil and plants are the raw materials from which we synthesise vitally important products such as drugs and plastics. But the steps needed to convert the starting materials into functional commodities for further processing can be complicated and costly. ̽��ֱ��reason: the carbon–hydrogen chemical bond that needs to be broken during the synthetic process is one of the strongest bonds known. Chemists led by Dr Matthew Gaunt are devising new techniques to achieve the same synthetic results in a single step.

Catalytic converters

At the cornerstone of synthetic chemistry is the need for molecules to have reactive ‘handles’ to stick them together. To break the carbon–hydrogen bond and enable it to bind to another molecule, the conventional route has been to convert the starting material into a series of reactive intermediates.

‘We want to get away from having to synthesise molecules in this way, which can be time-consuming and creates waste products,’ says Dr Gaunt. ‘Instead, we’ve focused on a new way of catalysing reactions that can theoretically work on any starting material, transiently making it reactive enough to bind to any other starting material in a single step.’

̽��ֱ��technique – called metal-catalysed carbon–hydrogen bond functionalisation – is based on the ability of certain metals to ‘muscle in’ between the carbon and hydrogen and become the reactive handle needed to join the starting materials together. Importantly, the metal is released after it has linked two molecules, so that it can go and find more molecules to join together. This means that only a small amount of metal catalyst is needed to generate a large quantity of high-value product.

̽��ֱ��work has focused on joining a range of simple hydrocarbons together and identifying the best metal catalyst for the reaction. ̽��ֱ��aim is to convert simple molecules into complex molecules, for example new medicines or biologically interesting complex natural products. However, one of the most ambitious reactions would be to convert methane into methanol. ‘Nature and expensive chemical reactions can do this; imagine what a breakthrough it would be if we could perform this cheaply in a few minutes at room temperature,’ says Dr Gaunt. ‘It might even be possible to convert methane into octane as an alternative source of petrol.’

Rule breakers

̽��ֱ��research is putting a new perspective on the rules that govern how organic molecules are synthesised from simple components. Last year, Dr Gaunt’s group discovered a technique, published in Science magazine, which causes aromatic hydrocarbon rings to react in a way that was not deemed theoretically possible.

Using a copper catalyst, they showed that a new and unexpected bond was targeted in the reaction process. Importantly, the bond is part of a structure that is common in synthetic drugs. By finding a simple means to make this bond reactive, Dr Gaunt’s team has opened up a new landscape of synthetic drugs that chemists can potentially make.

̽��ֱ��group is now looking beyond the test tube to living cells. ‘If we could find a way to target a chemical reaction on a protein that we know causes a certain disease, we could switch it off chemically.’ A core principle has been to carry out the reactions as close to ambient temperatures as possible, to increase the reaction’s energy efficiency and its adaptability to physiological scenarios.

A synthetic revolution

Dr Gaunt recently won a Leadership Fellowship from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and, with additional funding from the European Union, Leverhulme Trust and industry, his group is now developing and streamlining the techniques. ‘We hope that not only will approaches like these be used increasingly alongside the conventional methods for organic synthesis but also that our research might encourage a step change in how chemists think about making molecules and unlocking latent reactivity.’

For more information, please contact Dr Matthew Gaunt (mjg32@cam.ac.uk) at the Department of Chemistry.

Research is bringing closer the conversion of simple organic molecules into drugs, plastics or potential new fuels in a single step.

We’ve focused on a new way of catalysing reactions that can theoretically work on any starting material, transiently making it reactive enough to bind to any other starting material in a single step.

Dr Matthew Gaunt

A palladium catalyst in action

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Licence. If you use this content on your site please link back to this page.

Yes