Abstract
Antivirals currently only exist for 9 out of the 219 known human viral diseases, are virus-specific and lose efficacy upon viral mutation. A broad-spectrum antiviral, the equivalent of broad-spectrum antibiotics, is needed, especially in the fight against emerging viral outbreaks. Recent work has shown that highly sulfonated nanomaterials act in such a broad-spectrum antiviral manner due to multivalent interactions. This led to us producing the first ever fully-organic (sugar based) broad-spectrum virucidal antiviral and most recently synthetic polymer-based materials that also show broad-spectrum antiviral properties. These materials work via a newly proposed disruptive binding approach that effectively ‘pops’ the viral capsids. Evidence is provided by electron microscopy, molecular dynamic simulations and in-vitro, ex-vivo and in-vivo assays.My talk will introduce the importance of developing new antivirals, highlight the advantages to an extracellular virucidal approach and give examples of different materials that we have shown can be produced with such antiviral properties.
Biography
Sam completed his masters in Chemistry, from the University of Warwick, under the direction of Prof. Stefan A. F. Bon in 2009. His work at the time focused on hydrogen bonding interactions for gold nanorod assembly. From there he moved to the University of Cambridge where he worked in the Melville Laboratory for Polymer Synthesis under Prof. Oren A. Scherman, on the supramolecular assembly of nanomaterials via cucurbit[n]uril. Upon completion of his Ph.D. in 2013, Sam moved to the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) where he worked alongside Prof. Francesco Stellacci. His research focused on the synthesis of novel virucidal materials and the synthesis of Janus nanoparticles for targeted delivery. In 2017 he moved to the School of Materials at the University of Manchester to begin his independent career as a Dame Kathleen Ollerenshaw Fellow.
Sam’s group’s research focuses on virucidal material synthesis and development, viral detection and triggerable drug-delivery systems