The latest issue of out bi-annual Newsletter aimed at prospective students for the Department of Chemistry at the University of Sheffield. Features include info on a Nobel Prize awarded to an ex-Sheffield Chemist, Sheffield students in a Chinese lab contest, and a focus on some of Department's Biological Chemistry research.

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ChemistryNEWSLETTERIssue 20 | October 2016
Department
Of
Chemistry.
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

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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. ●

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Nobel Prize awarded
to ex-Sheffield chemist
Professor 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.

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Students head out to
China for lab contest
Three 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

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Triple RSC
awards joy
The 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

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Industry placement
leads to awards nod
One 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.

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Enzyme study could
help cancer therapy
An 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.

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Further information on all our courses can be
found at www.sheffield.ac.uk/chemistry
Contact: Admissions Office
Email: chemistry-admissions@sheffield.ac.uk
Department of Chemistry
The University of Sheffield
Brook Hill
Sheffield S3 7HF
SheffieldChem