Mon 31 Mar 15:00: DNA-Encoded Chemical Libraries - A BIOLOGICAL RIG SEMINAR
The discovery of small organic ligands, capable of specific recognition of protein targets of interest, is a central problem in Chemistry, Pharmacy, Biology and Medicine. Traditionally, small organic ligands to proteins are discovered by screening, one by one, individual compounds from chemical libraries. However, the technology is cumbersome, very expensive and is typically limited to the testing of up to one million compounds. DNA -encoded chemical library (DEL) technology allows the construction and screening of much larger compound libraries, without the need for expensive instrumentations and logistics. DELs are collections of molecules, individually coupled to distinctive DNA fragments, serving as amplifiable identification barcodes. Binding compounds can be selected using affinity capture procedures, with the protein target of interest immobilised on magnetic beads. After this “fishing” experiment, the DNA barcodes can be PCR amplified and quantified using high-throughput DNA sequencing [1]. In this lecture, I will present theory and applications of DEL technology. I will also show examples of DEL -derived ligands, isolated in our laboratories, which have been tested in patients with cancer, with promising clinical results.
- Speaker: Professor Dario Neri - CEO and CSO of Philogen, Professor of ETH Zürich, Honorary Senior Visiting Fellow, Department of Radiology, University of Cambridge (UK)
- Monday 31 March 2025, 15:00-16:00
- Venue: Department of Chemistry, Cambridge, Wolfson Lecture Theatre.
- Series: Biological Chemistry Research Interest Group; organiser: Xani Thorman.
Tue 06 May 14:30: Bhopal 40 years on - What have we learned?
On the night of 2 and 3 December 1984 a toxic gas release from the Union Carbide pesticide factory in Bhopal, India caused thousands of deaths and hundreds of thousands of life-changing injuries. Forty years later, the rusting factory equipment still towers above buried hazardous waste in the abandoned factory. I visited the site of the former Union Carbide site in Bhopal India to try to understand what went so horribly wrong.
1. What caused the worst accident in the history of the chemical industry? 2. Why was the accident never properly investigated? 3. What can we learn about process safety from revisiting the accident? 4. Why has no clean-up been undertaken in 40 years?
- Speaker: Professor Fiona Macleod
- Tuesday 06 May 2025, 14:30-15:15
- Venue: Lecture Theatre 1, Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, West Cambridge Site.
- Series: Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology; organiser: ejm94.
Thu 18 Sep 13:00: Seminars in Cancer
Abstract not available
- Speaker: Professor Ahmed Ahmed, University of Oxford
- Thursday 18 September 2025, 13:00-14:00
- Venue: CRUK CI Lecture Theatre.
- Series: Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute (CRUK CI) Seminars in Cancer; organiser: Kate Davenport.
Universally Applicable and Ultra‐Long Life Cyclic Power Generation Induced by Interfacial Ion‐Oscillation
An electric power generating cell is developed based on potential difference driven reversible ion migration, which generates ultra-long life electric output over 8-month with a high short-circuit of over 40 mA and output power density of up to 6 W m−2, surpassing the values reported for many other sorts of typical electricity generators.
Abstract
Sustainable energy supply without relying on external power sources is one of the bottlenecks in achieving self-supportive wearable electronics and Internet-of-things (IoT) systems. Here a new type of universally applicable and ultra-long life cyclic power generation is developed induced by interfacial redox reaction-mediated ion-oscillation, which can provide cycling electric energy in a self-charging manner without extra pre-charge. Based on asymmetric manganese dioxide and molybdenum disulfide electrode pairs, the proof-concept electric potential difference power generating cell (EPDC) offers ultra-long life electric output over 8-month testing period for tens of thousands of cycles. A layer-stacking EPDC unit supplies a high direct current of more than 40 mA and a power density of ≈6 W m−2. Such recyclable power-generating process mainly relies on reversible ion migration at an asymmetric interface in response to relative variation of electric potentials. The universal applicability of EPDC is validated by a combination of diverse electrode pairs. Large-scale manufacture of EPDCs is achievable by industry-compatible auto-blade coating technology with on-demand power output, providing a long-acting power supply platform for self-charging electronic systems.
Butterfly-effect of Flexible Linker in Giant-molecule Acceptor: Optimized Crystallization and Aggregation for Enhancing Mechanical Durability and Approaching 19% Efficiency in Binary Organic Solar Cells
DOI: 10.1039/D4EE05456C, PaperQinrui Ye, Wei Song, Yong Bai, Zhenyu Chen, Pengfei Ding, Jinfeng Ge, Yuanyuan Meng, Bin Han, Xin Zhou, Ziyi Ge
Achieving a balance between power conversion efficiency (PCE) and mechanical robustness in flexible organic solar cells (OSCs) remains a significant challenge for small molecule acceptors (SMA) and polymer acceptors. Here,...
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Bottom‐Up Selective Growth of Ultralong Organic Phosphorescence Nanocrystals with Optimized Crystal Forms for In Vivo Optical Imaging
Ultralong organic phosphorescence (UOP) nanocrystals have attracted great attention in the field of in vivo optical imaging due to their ability to effectively minimize the interference of fluorescence background from biological tissues. In this work, a bottom-up strategy is proposed for preparing UOP nanocrystals with different crystal forms for in vivo biological imaging.
Abstract
Ultralong organic phosphorescence (UOP) materials are valuable for biological imaging to avoid interference from fluorescence background signals because of their delayed emission property. Obtaining nanocrystals with high phosphorescence quantum yield is a critical factor to achieve high-quality UOP imaging. Herein, a pair of host–guest UOP doped system with variable crystal forms for the host is constructed. By exploring the relationship between the crystal form of the host and the UOP of the doped system, the importance of host crystal form is revealed to achieve high quantum yield UOP in doped systems. Furthermore, to overcome the low crystallinity and numerous defects faced by traditional bottom-up strategies for nanocrystal preparation, a strategy is proposed for the selective preparation of nanocrystals with the target crystal form. Through controlling the evaporation rate of the solvent, the ordered growth of crystals can be effectively regulated to obtain nanocrystals with different crystal forms for bioimaging applications.
High-performance inverted perovskite solar cells and modules via aminothiazole passivation
DOI: 10.1039/D5EE01083G, PaperZewei Zhu, Bingcan Ke, Kexuan Sun, Chengkai Jing, Zhenhua Song, Ruixuan Jiang, Jing Li, Song Kong, Chang Liu, Sai Bai, Sisi He, Ziyi Ge, Fuzhi Huang, Yi-Bing Cheng, Tongle Bu
The passivation of undesirable defects in the perovskite light-absorption layer is an essential and effective strategy for improving the performance of perovskite solar cells (PSCs). Herein, a novel additive, 5-Aminothiazole...
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Rate matters
Nature Energy, Published online: 25 March 2025; doi:10.1038/s41560-025-01748-2
Rate mattersAmine oxides step up
Nature Energy, Published online: 25 March 2025; doi:10.1038/s41560-025-01749-1
Amine oxides step upGraphite-protected organic photoactive layer for direct solar hydrogen generation
Nature Energy, Published online: 25 March 2025; doi:10.1038/s41560-025-01737-5
Performance issues have limited the use of organic photoactive materials in direct solar water-splitting devices. Now, anodes containing a single-junction organic bulk heterojunction solar cell protected by a graphite sheet functionalized with an Earth-abundant electrocatalyst achieve a high water oxidation photocurrent density and days-long operational stability. Moreover, tandem devices achieve unassisted solar water splitting.Author Correction: Antagonistic-contracting high-power photo-oscillators for multifunctional actuations
Nature Materials, Published online: 25 March 2025; doi:10.1038/s41563-025-02218-6
Author Correction: Antagonistic-contracting high-power photo-oscillators for multifunctional actuationsThu 26 Jun 16:00: Title to be confirmed
Abstract not available
- Speaker: Jianbo Cui (The Hong Kong Polytechnic University)
- Thursday 26 June 2025, 16:00-17:00
- Venue: Centre for Mathematical Sciences, MR14.
- Series: Applied and Computational Analysis; organiser: Georg Maierhofer.
Thu 26 Jun 15:00: Title to be confirmed
Abstract not available
- Speaker: Liying Sun (Chinese Academy of Sciences)
- Thursday 26 June 2025, 15:00-16:00
- Venue: Centre for Mathematical Sciences, MR14.
- Series: Applied and Computational Analysis; organiser: Georg Maierhofer.
Thu 08 May 15:00: Causal Representation Learning
Machine learning (ML) has shown great success in learning low-dimensional and semantically interpretable representations of high-dimensional data. Recent leaps in designing transformers have further proliferated representation learning. Despite such success, strong generalization — transfer of the learned representations to new problems — is still an unsolved problem. Addressing strong representation requires moving away from learning good enough representations to learning ground truth representation. As a key step toward strong generalization, causal representation learning (CRL) has emerged as a cutting-edge field that merges the strengths of statistical inference, machine learning, and causal inference. Its objective is to estimate the ground truth latent representation of the data and the rich structures that model the interactions among the variables in the latent space.
In this talk, we will explore the latest advancements in the emerging field of CRL . We will introduce the foundational concepts and motivations behind combining representation learning with causal inference. Following a brief history of CRL , we will describe its primary objectives and the theoretical challenges. We will then review the key approaches to address these challenges, including CRL with multi-view observations, CRL with interventions on latent variables, and CRL applied to temporal data. We will also highlight real-world application opportunities, discuss the challenges in scaling CRL to practical use cases, and discuss open questions for CRL related to theoretical and empirical viewpoints.
Bio: Ali Tajer received a B.Sc. and an M.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering from Sharif University of Technology, an M.A. in Statistics, and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Columbia University. During 2010-2012, he was a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Princeton University. He is currently a Professor of Electrical, Computer, and Systems Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. His research interests include mathematical statistics, machine learning, and information theory. He is currently an Associate Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Information Theory and a Senior Area Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing. In the past, he has served as an Associate Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing, an Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Communications, and a Guest Editor for the IEEE Signal Processing Magazine. He received the Jury Award (Columbia University), School of Engineering Research Excellence Award for Junior Faculty (Rensselaer), School of Engineering Classroom Excellence Award (Rensselaer), James M. Tien ‘66 Early Career Award for Faculty (Rensselaer), School of Engineering Classroom Excellence Award for Senior Faculty (Rensselaer), a CAREER award from the U.S. National Science and a U.S. Air Force Fellowship Award. He is a member of the 2025-2026 class of Distinguished Lecturers of the IEEE Information Theory Society.
- Speaker: Prof. Ali Tajer, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
- Thursday 08 May 2025, 15:00-16:00
- Venue: JDB Seminar Room, CUED.
- Series: Signal Processing and Communications Lab Seminars; organiser: Prof. Ramji Venkataramanan.
Thu 15 May 15:00: New Insights on High Wave Scattering by Multiple Open Arcs: Exponentially Convergent Methods and Shape Holomorphy
In this talk, we focus on the scattering of time-harmonic acoustic, elastic, and polarized electromagnetic waves by multiple finite-length open arcs in an unbounded two-dimensional domain. We begin by reformulating the corresponding boundary value problems with Dirichlet or Neumann conditions as weakly and hypersingular boundary integral equations (BIEs), respectively. We then introduce a family of fast spectral Galerkin methods for solving these BIEs. The discretization bases are built from weighted Chebyshev polynomials that accurately capture the solutions’ edge behavior. Under the assumption of analyticity of the sources and arc geometries, we show that these bases yield exponential convergence with respect to the polynomial degree.
Numerical examples will illustrate the accuracy and robustness of the proposed methods, with respect to both the number of arcs and the wavenumber. Additionally, we demonstrate that, for general weakly and hypersingular BIEs, the solutions depend holomorphically on perturbations of the arc parametrizations. These results are crucial for establishing the shape holomorphy of domain-to-solution maps arising in boundary integral equations, with applications in uncertainty quantification, inverse problems, and deep learning, among others. They also raise new questions—some of which you may have the answer to!
- Speaker: Carlos Jerez Hanckes (University of Bath)
- Thursday 15 May 2025, 15:00-16:00
- Venue: Centre for Mathematical Sciences, MR14.
- Series: Applied and Computational Analysis; organiser: Georg Maierhofer.
Thu 27 Mar 16:00: 'Targeting CD4+ T Cells to Enhance Tumour Immunity'
This Cambridge Immunology and Medicine Seminar will take place on Thursday 27 March 2025, starting at 4:00pm, in the Ground Floor Lecture Theatre, Jeffrey Cheah Biomedical Centre (JCBC)
Speaker: Professor Awen Gallimore, Co-Director of Systems Immunity Research Institute, Cardiff University
Title: “Targeting CD4 + T Cells to Enhance Tumour Immunity”
Host: Maike De La Roche & Tim Halim, CRUK Cambridge Institute
Refreshments will be available following the seminar.
- Speaker: Professor Awen Gallimore, Co-Director of Systems Immunity Research Institute, Cardiff University
- Thursday 27 March 2025, 16:00-17:00
- Venue: Lecture Theatre, Jeffrey Cheah Biomedical Centre, Cambridge Biomedical Campus.
- Series: Cambridge Immunology Network Seminar Series; organiser: Ruth Paton.
Operando single-particle imaging reveals that asymmetric ion flux contributes to capacity degradation in aged Ni-rich layered cathodes
DOI: 10.1039/D5EE00267B, Paper Open Access   This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence.Zhengyan Lun, Alice Jane Merryweather, Amoghavarsha Mahadevegowda, Shrinidhi S. Pandurangi, Chao Xu, Simon M Fairclough, V. S. Deshpande, Norman Fleck, Caterina Ducati, Christoph Schnedermann, Akshay Rao, Clare P. Grey
Extensive worldwide efforts have been made to understand the degradation behavior of layered Ni-rich LiNixMnyCo(1−x−y)O2 (NMC) cathodes. The majority of studies carried out to date have focused on thermodynamic perspectives...
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Small modification, Striking Improvement: Super-Fast Charging Over a Wide Temperature Range by Simply Replacing n-propyl Acetate with Isopropyl Acetate
DOI: 10.1039/D4EE05789A, PaperShengyao Luo, Mengqi Wu, Said Amzil , Tonghui Xu, Qing Ming, Lei Zhang, Jie Gao, Shuang Tian, Yisen Qian, Donghai Wang, Yajun Cheng, Yonggao Xia
The combination of high-nickel cathodes with lithium metal anodes is widely considered a promising solution to alleviate range anxiety. Alternatively, challenges such as limited fast-charging capacity and rapid degradation persist...
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Thu 17 Apr 17:00: Cambridge RNA Club - ONLINE
Dr. Adam Cawte: Persistent association with chromatin facilitates the spreading and retention of Xist RNA on the inactive X-chromosome.
Prof. Isaia Barbierii: mRNA 5’-cap trimethylguanosine synthase TGS1 promotes oxidative phosphorylation in acute myeloid leukaemia.
- Speaker: Dr. Adam Cawte (University of Oxford, UK), Dr. Isaia Barbieri (University of Turin, IT)
- Thursday 17 April 2025, 17:00-19:00
- Venue: Online (Zoom).
- Series: Cambridge RNA Club; organiser: cambridgeRNA.
Tue 20 May 16:00: Title to be confirmed
Abstract not available
- Speaker: Rajalakshmi Nandakumar, Cornell University
- Tuesday 20 May 2025, 16:00-17:00
- Venue: Online.
- Series: Mobile and Wearable Health Seminar Series; organiser: Cecilia Mascolo.