̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)

It’s all in the wrist: energy-efficient robot hand learns how not to drop the ball

sc604 — Wed, 12 Apr 2023 03:23:34 +0000

Researchers have designed a low-cost, energy-efficient robotic hand that can grasp a range of objects – and not drop them – using just the movement of its wrist and the feeling in its ‘skin’.

AI shows how hydrogen becomes a metal inside giant planets

sc604 — Wed, 09 Sep 2020 15:03:16 +0000

Dense metallic hydrogen – a phase of hydrogen which behaves like an electrical conductor – makes up the interior of giant planets, but it is difficult to study and poorly understood. By combining artificial intelligence and quantum mechanics, researchers have found how hydrogen becomes a metal under the extreme pressure conditions of these planets.

̽��ֱ��researchers, from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, IBM Research and EPFL, used machine learning to mimic the interactions between hydrogen atoms in order to overcome the size and timescale limitations of even the most powerful supercomputers. They found that instead of happening as a sudden, or first-order, transition, the hydrogen changes in a smooth and gradual way. ̽��ֱ��results are reported in the journal Nature.

Hydrogen, consisting of one proton and one electron, is both the simplest and the most abundant element in the Universe. It is the dominant component of the interior of the giant planets in our solar system – Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune – as well as exoplanets orbiting other stars.

At the surfaces of giant planets, hydrogen remains a molecular gas. Moving deeper into the interiors of giant planets however, the pressure exceeds millions of standard atmospheres. Under this extreme compression, hydrogen undergoes a phase transition: the covalent bonds inside hydrogen molecules break, and the gas becomes a metal that conducts electricity.

“ ̽��ֱ��existence of metallic hydrogen was theorised a century ago, but what we haven’t known is how this process occurs, due to the difficulties in recreating the extreme pressure conditions of the interior of a giant planet in a laboratory setting, and the enormous complexities of predicting the behaviour of large hydrogen systems,” said lead author Dr Bingqing Cheng from Cambridge’s Cavendish Laboratory.

Experimentalists have attempted to investigate dense hydrogen using a diamond anvil cell, in which two diamonds apply high pressure to a confined sample. Although diamond is the hardest substance on Earth, the device will fail under extreme pressure and high temperatures, especially when in contact with hydrogen, contrary to the claim that a diamond is forever. This makes the experiments both difficult and expensive.

Theoretical studies are also challenging: although the motion of hydrogen atoms can be solved using equations based on quantum mechanics, the computational power needed to calculate the behaviour of systems with more than a few thousand atoms for longer than a few nanoseconds exceeds the capability of the world’s largest and fastest supercomputers.

It is commonly assumed that the transition of dense hydrogen is first-order, which is accompanied by abrupt changes in all physical properties. A common example of a first-order phase transition is boiling liquid water: once the liquid becomes a vapour, its appearance and behaviour completely change despite the fact that the temperature and the pressure remain the same.

In the current theoretical study, Cheng and her colleagues used machine learning to mimic the interactions between hydrogen atoms, in order to overcome limitations of direct quantum mechanical calculations.

“We reached a surprising conclusion and found evidence for a continuous molecular to atomic transition in the dense hydrogen fluid, instead of a first-order one,” said Cheng, who is also a Junior Research Fellow at Trinity College.

̽��ֱ��transition is smooth because the associated ‘critical point’ is hidden. Critical points are ubiquitous in all phase transitions between fluids: all substances that can exist in two phases have critical points. A system with an exposed critical point, such as the one for vapour and liquid water, has clearly distinct phases. However, the dense hydrogen fluid, with the hidden critical point, can transform gradually and continuously between the molecular and the atomic phases. Furthermore, this hidden critical point also induces other unusual phenomena, including density and heat capacity maxima.

̽��ֱ��finding about the continuous transition provides a new way of interpreting the contradicting body of experiments on dense hydrogen. It also implies a smooth transition between insulating and metallic layers in giant gas planets. ̽��ֱ��study would not be possible without combining machine learning, quantum mechanics, and statistical mechanics. Without any doubt, this approach will uncover more physical insights about hydrogen systems in the future. As the next step, the researchers aim to answer the many open questions concerning the solid phase diagram of dense hydrogen.

Reference:
Bingqing Cheng et al. ‘Evidence for supercritical behaviour of high-pressure liquid hydrogen.’ Nature (2020). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-2677-y.

Researchers have used a combination of AI and quantum mechanics to reveal how hydrogen gradually turns into a metal in giant planets.

̽��ֱ��existence of metallic hydrogen was theorised a century ago, but what we haven’t known is how this process occurs

Bingqing Cheng

̽��ֱ��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.

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Cambridge start-up raises £40 million in funding to develop new cancer treatments

Anonymous — Fri, 16 Jun 2017 04:00:00 +0000

Among the investors in the new funding round is Cambridge Innovation Capital, which invests in companies based on valuable intellectual property in the Cambridge Cluster, or with links to the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge. ̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ�� is the largest investor in Cambridge Innovation Capital (CIC), which was founded by Cambridge Enterprise, the ̽��ֱ��’s commercialisation arm, in 2013.

Bicycle Therapeutics is developing a new class of drugs called ‘Bicycles’, which are based on small protein chains, or peptides, which have been chemically constrained, and have a similar shape to a bicycle wheel. They have been designed to combine the best features of small molecule and antibody based drugs. ̽��ֱ��science behind the creation of Bicycles is based on work initiated at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology by Professor Sir Greg Winter, a pioneer in monoclonal antibody development and the Master of Trinity College, working together with Professor Christian Heinis from the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne.

‘Bicycles’ have a range properties which make them an excellent choice as a potential drug. They have the binding capacity and specificity of an antibody, but can penetrate tissue such as solid tumours easily because of their relatively small size. In addition, due to their small size and peptidic nature, they are cleared from the body via the kidneys, allowing them to be designed in such a way as to maximise their efficiency while minimising the chance of any side effects.

Bicycle Therapeutics’ most advanced potential product, known as BT1718, is the first example of its Bicycle Drug Conjugate® (BDC) technology, in which the Bicycle is targeted to bind specifically to malignant tumours and is harnessed to a chemical payload designed to destroy cancer cells once it reaches its target.

BT1718 targets a cell surface protein called Membrane Type 1 Matrix Metalloproteinase (MT1-MTP). MT1-MTP occurs in high concentration in many solid malignant tumours. Consequently BT1718 may have the capacity to become a treatment for a range of cancers which currently do not have good treatment options such as ‘triple negative’ breast cancer and non-small cell lung cancer. It is expected to enter clinical trials in 2017 in partnership with Cancer Research UK.

Bicycle Therapeutics is not the first start-up in which Professor Winter has been involved. Cambridge Antibody Therapeutics, the discoverers of rheumatoid arthritis drug Humira, and Domantis were both based on his work on therapeutic monoclonal antibodies. This work has enabled great improvements in the treatment of cancer and immune disorders and, as a result, many of the world’s blockbuster pharmaceutical drugs are based on the techniques he developed.

“ ̽��ֱ��pre-clinical studies to date show Bicycles have many of the attributes needed to be an effective medical treatment,” said Dr Michael Anstey, Investment Director at CIC. “ ̽��ֱ��next big step is to take this into humans and if they show the same characteristics this will be very exciting. Bicycle Therapeutics is an ambitious company, with a world-class team, that has all the ingredients for another Cambridge success story.”

“I am delighted that Bicycle Therapeutics has secured this new funding to enable the team to move multiple programmes into the clinic,” said Professor Winter. “Bicycles are different from both antibodies and small molecules, with some of the benefits of each, giving them the potential to deliver an exciting new class of therapeutics across different diseases.”

“This financing represents an important validation of our approach, while providing Bicycle Therapeutics with the resources to continue to turn our bicyclic peptide technology into important new treatment options for patients,” said Dr Kevin Lee, Bicycle Therapeutics’ CEO. “We are grateful for the strong support from our investors as we move BT1718 rapidly towards the clinic and continue to advance our other preclinical programmes, that have the potential to treat cancer and other debilitating diseases.”

Cambridge-based start-up company Bicycle Therapeutics has recently raised £40 million from a range of investors to bring its cancer drug candidates to clinical trials.

Bicycle Therapeutics is an ambitious company, with a world-class team, that has all the ingredients for another Cambridge success story.

Michael Anstey

Bicycle Therapeutics

Bicyclic peptides

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. For image use please see separate credits above.

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