Category: Uncategorized

Glycans (sugars) coat all our cells and direct many biological processes, including pathogen recognition. We, and many others, are interested in multivalent display of glycans to enhance their avidity. But, this is often done on polydisperse scaffolds which can be challenging to reproduce in different locations.

In our latest work, part of a long collaboration with Prof Mike Ward (Warwick) we use self assembly around metal ions, to generate homo and heterogeneous glycan cages with precise and predictable geometry: we know where each sugar is, and how many their are!

Read the paper here!

We have a large interest in cryobiology, including the development of better, and less toxic, cryoprotectant solutions. In our latest work, we explored the use of glycerol and betaine as an alternative to the standard DMSO cryoprotectants, for the storage of t-cell models. T-cells are interesting as they are the basis of ‘Car-T’ cell based therapies, which are very potent therapies for blood cancers. We show that fine tuning the freezing rate, using some custom built thermal contact devices led to increased recoveries – 3C/min was far better than the near-universally used 1C/min.

Read the paper here!

We have another researcher vacancy to join our team, joint with Dr Marco Domingoes in the Henry Royce Institute. Head to our vacancy pages to find out more!

https://gibsongroupresearch.com/join-us/

WE have two postdoctoral vacancies open. These are for 1) to undertake life cycle analysis (not experimental work) on polymer cryoprotectants and the cold chain; 2) to work with an industrial partner to formulate new drug delivery devices. All vacancies are here.

We have several PhD vacancies to join our team in 2026. These projects are suitable for candidates form chemistry, biochemistry and cell biology backgrounds. The projects aim from new glycobiology tools for controlled delivery, polymers to bind/interface with ice crystals and polymers to recover/remediate metals. We have world-class facilites and a large multidisciplinary group of people.

Details here.

WE have a fully funded (For UK applicants only) PhD studentship to join our team. This will seek to replace animal products in the entire process of culturing, cryopreserving, and delivering cells, and cell-based therapies. Details here: https://www.findaphd.com/phds/project/new-polymer-biomaterials-to-expand-and-deliver-cells-with-animal-free-technologies/?p174750

We have a unique PhD opportunity joint with Peking University in China. Full details are here https://gibsongroupresearch.com/join-us/

We have a new vacancy to join the team. Details are here.

Our group is part of a Manchester based team, led by Prof Mike Shaver, who have been awarded a major grant from EPSRC to work with BUPA. This project will investigate single use plastics in healthcare and evaluate how we can we re-use and recycle these. Our role will include chemical characterization of the materials and ensuring they are suitable for human use, integrating animal-free technologies. The project will be hiring several Post-docs and a PhD (hosted in our team) soon. Press release is below:

https://www.manchester.ac.uk/about/news/university-of-manchester-and-bupa-combine-to-affect-change-on-environmental-impact-of-healthcare-sector/

We have 4 PhD vacancies to join our team, exploring sustainable biomaterials for biotechnology and health, new antimicrobials and diagnostics and more. Read here for details. https://wordpress.com/page/gibsongroupresearch.com/40