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SET2008 awards - Best Student in Materials Science
LONDON: 26TH September 2008. The winners of the 2008 Science, Engineering & Technology Student of the Year, have been announced at a prestigious ceremony in London's Royal Lancaster Hotel attended by more than 500 students, academics and business leaders.
The SET Awards (Science, Engineering & Technology Student of the Year) are Britain's most important awards for science and technology undergraduates.
Supported by British Industry, and Britain's leading scientific and technical institutions, the SET awards are multidisciplinary to reflect the wide range of degrees our universities have to offer.
The SET awards provide a showcase for educational excellence by publicly recognising the exceptional achievements of both students and universities. They are presented at a spectacular ceremony bringing together hundreds of technology students and academics, as well as senior figures from industry, government, science and the media.
Jennifer Tilley, a M.Eng student studying Materials Science at Trinty College, Oxford has been awarded the prestigious award for Morgan Crucible Award for Best Student in Materials Science. Her award was based on her 4th year project entitled ‘Creation of Surfaces Suitable for Immobilising Bioactive Proteins: Characteristics Affecting Immobilisation’. Jenni undertook her project at the University of Sydney and was supervised by Marcela Bilek at Sydney. The judges were impressed by her breadth of knowledge which she could clearly demonstrate with enthusiasm. They were further impressed by her ability to look at an existing problem (how do biosensors work?) with a fresh approach leading directly to a new insight into possible mechanisms.
Creation of Surfaces Suitable for Immobilising Bioactive Proteins: Characteristics Affecting Immobilisation
Protein immobilisation is the controlled attachment of bioactive proteins to surfaces. In order for engineering applications which exploit these immobilised proteins to be successful, they must meet the certain market demands and key immobilised protein parameters must be controlled. Unfortunately, neither the mechanism of attachment nor factors controlling these key parameters are understood.
Plasma Immersion Ion Implantation- (PIII-) treatment of polymer substrates is beneficial for protein immobilisation. It is suggested that this is due to the formation of strong, covalent bonds between the protein and the treated surface. The work in this project investigated the hypothesis that oxygen-containing groups incorporated into the PIII-treated surface upon exposure to air, and in particular carboxyl groups, are important in the formation of these strong bonds.
The exclusion of oxygen from PIII-treated polyethylene surfaces was investigated using a controlled atmosphere chamber and was found to have no effect on immobilisation for either catalase or horseradish peroxidase (HRP). Conversely, increasing concentrations of carboxyl groups, incorporated into polyethylene substrates using either poly ( ethylene-co-methacrylic acid (PE-co-PMMA) or plasma initiated graft copolymerisation of methacrylic acid, were found to be detrimental to the strength of immobilisation of both enzymes.
The results indicate that oxygen-containing groups, specifically carboxyl groups, are not important in the formation of strong bonds between PIII-treated surfaces and immobilised proteins. Instead, free radicals appear to be important. These findings are significant and are being prepared for publication.
