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University of Warwick researcher to benefit from £80m Royal Society funding to develop sustainable plastics

The University of Warwick will be at the forefront of research into sustainable materials, thanks to a share of £80 million funding by the Royal Society….

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The University of Warwick will be at the forefront of research into sustainable materials, thanks to a share of £80 million funding by the Royal Society.

Credit: Credit: University of Warwick

The University of Warwick will be at the forefront of research into sustainable materials, thanks to a share of £80 million funding by the Royal Society.

 

Dr Hannes Houck has been announced as one of the recipients of the Royal Society’s flagship early career research schemes, distinguishing him as an outstanding scientist with the potential to become a leader in the field of sustainability.

 

Hannes’ research focuses on the development of new chemical building blocks that can be used to improve the sustainability of materials and specifically to make plastics easier to reuse. He is devising new conceptual approaches to form, break and reform the chemical bonds that make up many of our daily life plastics, improving their function and aiding their recycling.

 

Thanks to the grant, Hannes will start a new research group at the University of Warwick – recruiting post-doctoral and PhD researchers over the next eight years. The team will drive the understanding of photochemical processes and cross-linked materials, which are strong plastics we use in everyday life. These last a long time but at the end of their use are hard to break down – either being burned or placed in landfill.

 

The aim is to develop new materials which have strong bonds to make them durable, but which are reusable at the end of their life. The team will use techniques such as photochemical bonding – harvesting energy from light – to make materials, which can later be deconstructed at higher temperature and eventually reformed to recycle the plastic.

 

Dr Hannes Houck, Department of Chemistry, University of Warwick, said: “Being awarded this University Research Fellowship and becoming part of the Royal Society’s vibrant research community is a true honour. The support and longevity of this award will provide me with the unique opportunity to pursue blue-skies research ideas and create a thriving environment for the next generation of scientists to develop their research skills and foster their personal and professional growth.

 

“Together with my team, we will tackle fundamental and application-driven challenges to design advanced materials with improved functionality and sustainability. I am extremely grateful for the support I received throughout the application process from colleagues and mentors in the Department of Chemistry and the Institute of Advanced Study, which has brought me to this exciting new stage of my career.”

 

The Royal Society’s flagship early career research schemes are a sign of the investment in world leading researchers the UK needs to become a global science superpower. The long-term, flexible funding schemes provide researchers with the stability and support required to pursue innovative, cutting-edge scientific research, form international collaborations, and establish research groups.

 

Sir Adrian Smith, president of The Royal Society, said: “The importance of long-term funding for scientists at the early stages of their research careers cannot be understated. These scientists are fundamental to the future of research and innovation in the UK, and it is essential that we give them the support and stability they need to allow them to pursue novel and groundbreaking research. Through its globally competitive grant schemes, The Royal Society aims to ensure we attract the brightest scientists from across the world.”

 

The researchers will take up their new posts at institutions across the UK and Ireland from the start of October. They will be working on research projects spanning the physical, mathematical, chemical, and biological sciences.

 

For more information and the full list of recipients of the early career research schemes, visit: https://royalsociety.org/news/2023/10/early-career-researchers-funding-2023/

 

Notes to editors

 

The Royal Society is a self-governing Fellowship of many of the world’s most distinguished scientists drawn from all areas of science, engineering, and medicine. The Society’s fundamental purpose, as it has been since its foundation in 1660, is to recognise, promote, and support excellence in science and to encourage the development and use of science for the benefit of humanity. http://royalsociety.org.

 

Follow the Royal Society on X /Twitter (@royalsociety) or on Facebook (facebook.com/theroyalsociety)

 

Media contact

University of Warwick press office contact:

Annie Slinn 07876876934

Communications Officer | Press & Media Relations | University of Warwick Email: annie.slinn@warwick.ac.uk

 

The University of Warwick will be at the forefront of research into sustainable materials, thanks to a share of £80 million funding by the Royal Society.

 

Dr Hannes Houck has been announced as one of the recipients of the Royal Society’s flagship early career research schemes, distinguishing him as an outstanding scientist with the potential to become a leader in the field of sustainability.

 

Hannes’ research focuses on the development of new chemical building blocks that can be used to improve the sustainability of materials and specifically to make plastics easier to reuse. He is devising new conceptual approaches to form, break and reform the chemical bonds that make up many of our daily life plastics, improving their function and aiding their recycling.

 

Thanks to the grant, Hannes will start a new research group at the University of Warwick – recruiting post-doctoral and PhD researchers over the next eight years. The team will drive the understanding of photochemical processes and cross-linked materials, which are strong plastics we use in everyday life. These last a long time but at the end of their use are hard to break down – either being burned or placed in landfill.

 

The aim is to develop new materials which have strong bonds to make them durable, but which are reusable at the end of their life. The team will use techniques such as photochemical bonding – harvesting energy from light – to make materials, which can later be deconstructed at higher temperature and eventually reformed to recycle the plastic.

 

Dr Hannes Houck, Department of Chemistry, University of Warwick, said: “Being awarded this University Research Fellowship and becoming part of the Royal Society’s vibrant research community is a true honour. The support and longevity of this award will provide me with the unique opportunity to pursue blue-skies research ideas and create a thriving environment for the next generation of scientists to develop their research skills and foster their personal and professional growth.

 

“Together with my team, we will tackle fundamental and application-driven challenges to design advanced materials with improved functionality and sustainability. I am extremely grateful for the support I received throughout the application process from colleagues and mentors in the Department of Chemistry and the Institute of Advanced Study, which has brought me to this exciting new stage of my career.”

 

The Royal Society’s flagship early career research schemes are a sign of the investment in world leading researchers the UK needs to become a global science superpower. The long-term, flexible funding schemes provide researchers with the stability and support required to pursue innovative, cutting-edge scientific research, form international collaborations, and establish research groups.

 

Sir Adrian Smith, president of The Royal Society, said: “The importance of long-term funding for scientists at the early stages of their research careers cannot be understated. These scientists are fundamental to the future of research and innovation in the UK, and it is essential that we give them the support and stability they need to allow them to pursue novel and groundbreaking research. Through its globally competitive grant schemes, The Royal Society aims to ensure we attract the brightest scientists from across the world.”

 

The researchers will take up their new posts at institutions across the UK and Ireland from the start of October. They will be working on research projects spanning the physical, mathematical, chemical, and biological sciences.

 

For more information and the full list of recipients of the early career research schemes, visit: https://royalsociety.org/news/2023/10/early-career-researchers-funding-2023/

 

Notes to editors

 

The Royal Society is a self-governing Fellowship of many of the world’s most distinguished scientists drawn from all areas of science, engineering, and medicine. The Society’s fundamental purpose, as it has been since its foundation in 1660, is to recognise, promote, and support excellence in science and to encourage the development and use of science for the benefit of humanity. http://royalsociety.org.

 

Follow the Royal Society on X /Twitter (@royalsociety) or on Facebook (facebook.com/theroyalsociety)

 

Media contact

University of Warwick press office contact:

Annie Slinn 07876876934

Communications Officer | Press & Media Relations | University of Warwick Email: annie.slinn@warwick.ac.uk

 

 

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Insilico Medicine presents at Future Investment Initiative Conference in Riyadh

Executives from clinical stage artificial intelligence (AI)-driven drug discovery company Insilico Medicine will present on the impact of AI on biotechnology…

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October 20, 2023

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Executives from clinical stage artificial intelligence (AI)-driven drug discovery company Insilico Medicine will present on the impact of AI on biotechnology at the Future Investment Initiative (FII) Conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Credit: Insilico Medicine

Executives from clinical stage artificial intelligence (AI)-driven drug discovery company Insilico Medicine will present on the impact of AI on biotechnology at the Future Investment Initiative (FII) Conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Alex Zhavoronkov, PhD, founder and CEO of Insilico Medicine and Petrina Kamya, PhD, Head of AI Platforms and President of Insilico Medicine Canada will present on the topic “Will AI Rebuild Biotech?” on Oct. 26, 11:45am Arabic Standard Time. The event is available to be livestreamed. 

The FII Conference brings together the world’s foremost CEOs, policymakers, investors, entrepreneurs, and young leaders shaping the future of international investment and the global economy. The theme for this year’s conference is The New Compass — helping investors navigate the direction of their companies and the global economy and develop strategies for the future. 

In a difficult year for the biotech industry, Insilico Medicine has continued to advance its AI-designed therapeutics into the clinic. The company now has four drugs in clinical trials, including a lead drug for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis in Phase II trials that is the first AI-discovered and generative AI-designed molecule to meet this milestone. The company also has a novel QPCTL inhibitor for the treatment of advanced malignant tumors that has progressed to Phase I trials, and a novel USP1 inhibitor for the treatment of BRCA-mutated tumors that was recently licensed to Exelixis for $80m upfront and additional milestone and royalty payments. The Company’s novel drug for COVID-19 and related variants is also in Phase I trials. 

In all, the company has 31 drugs for 29 targets in its pipeline, many in the cancer space, as well as in fibrosis, central nervous system diseases, immunity and aging-related diseases. 

Insilico continues to develop its proprietary end-to-end Pharma.AI platform, which uses generative AI in biology, chemistry and clinical development to identify targets and disease hypotheses, design novel drug candidates, and predict the outcomes of clinical trials. This platform is supported by an AI-powered robotics laboratory that performs target discovery, compound screening, precision medicine generation and translational research. The Company continues to expand its global presence, with headquarters in New York City and Hong Kong, AI R&D teams in Abu Dhabi and Montreal, and labs in Shanghai and Suzhou.

 

About Insilico Medicine

Insilico Medicine, a global clinical stage biotechnology company powered by generative AI, is connecting biology, chemistry, and clinical trials analysis using next-generation AI systems. The company has developed AI platforms that utilize deep generative models, reinforcement learning, transformers, and other modern machine learning techniques for novel target discovery and the generation of novel molecular structures with desired properties. Insilico Medicine is developing breakthrough solutions to discover and develop innovative drugs for cancer, fibrosis, immunity, central nervous system diseases, infectious diseases, autoimmune diseases, and aging-related diseases. www.insilico.com

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Americans are having a tough time repaying pandemic-era loans received with inflated credit scores

Borrowers are realizing the responsibility of new debts too late.

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46 mins ago

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October 20, 2023

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With the economy of the United States at a standstill during the Covid-19 pandemic, the efforts to stimulate the economy brought many opportunities to people who may have not had them otherwise. 

However, the extension of these opportunities to those who took advantage of the times has had its consequences.

Related: American Express reveals record profits, 'robust' spending in Q3 earnings report

Credit Crunch

GLASTONBURY, UNITED KINGDOM - JANUARY 12: In this photo illustration the Visa, Mastercard and American Express logos are seen on credit and debit cards on March 14, 2022 in Somerset, England. Visa, American Express and Mastercard have all announced they are suspending operations in Russia and credit and debit cards issued by Russian banks will no longer work outside of the country. (Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images)

Matt Cardy/Getty Images

A report by the Financial Times states that borrowers in the United States that took advantage of lending opportunities during the Covid-19 pandemic are falling behind on actually paying back their debt.

At a time when stimulus checks were handed out and loan repayments were frozen to help those affected by the economic shock of Covid-19, many consumers in the States saw that lenders became more willing to provide consumer credit.

According to a report by credit reporting agency TransUnion, the median consumer credit score jumped 20% to a peak of 676 in the first quarter of 2021, allowing many to finally have “good” credit scores. However, their data also showed that those who took out loans and credit from 2021 to early 2023 are having an hard time managing these debts.

“Consumer finance companies used this opportunity to juice up their growth at a time when funding was ample and consumers’ finances had gotten an artificial boost,” Chief economist of Moody’s Analytics Mark Zandi told FT. “Certainly a lot of lower-income households that got caught up in all of this will feel financial pain.”

Moody’s data shows that new credit cards accounts that were opened in the first quarter of 2023 have a 4% delinquency rate, while the same rate in September 2022 was 4.5%. According to the analysts, these levels were the highest for the same point of the year since 2008.

Additionally, a study by credit scoring company VantageScore found that credit cards issued in March 2022 had higher delinquency rates than cards issued at the same time during the prior four years.

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Credit cards were not the only debts that American consumers took on. As per S&P Global Ratings data, riskier car loans taken on during the height of the pandemic have more repayment problems than in previous years. In 2022, subprime borrowers were becoming delinquent on new cars loans at twice the rate of pre-pandemic levels.

S&P auto loan tracker Amy Martin told FT that lenders during the pandemic were “rather aggressive” in terms of signing new loans.

Bill Moreland of research group BankRegData has warned about these rising delinquencies in the past and had recently estimated that by late 2022, there were hundreds of billions of dollars in what he calls “excess lending based upon artificially inflated credit scores”.

The Government's Role

WASHINGTON, DC - APRIL 29: U.S. President Donald Trump's name appears on the coronavirus economic assistance checks that were sent to citizens across the country April 29, 2020 in Washington, DC. The initial 88 million payments totaling nearly $158 billion were sent by the Treasury Department last week as most of the country remains under stay-at-home orders due to the COVID-19 pandemic. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Because so many are failing to pay their bills, many are wary that the government assistance may have been a financial double-edged sword; as they were meant to alleviate financial stress during lockdown, while it led some of them to financial difficulty.

The $2.2 trillion Cares Act federal aid package passed in the early stages of the pandemic not only put cash in the American consumer’s pocket, but also protected borrowers from foreclosure, default and in some instances, lenders were barred from reporting late payments to credit bureaus.

Yeshiva University law professor Pam Foohey specializes in consumer bankruptcy and believes that the Cares Act was good policy, however she shifts the blame away from the consumers and borrowers.

“I fault lenders and the market structure for not having a longer-term perspective. That’s not something that the Cares Act should have solved and it still exists and still needs to be addressed.”

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Storm Babet caused dangerous floods as the ‘dry side’ of Scotland isn’t used to such torrential rain

The storm came from an unusual direction and dumped exceptional amounts of rain along the east coast.

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46 mins ago

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October 20, 2023

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Storm Babet has caused havoc across the UK, with strong winds and rough seas along the east coast, record breaking rainfall and river levels in Scotland, overtopped flood defences, closed roads and railways and sadly at least two deaths. The impacts are not over as further rain is expected.

The risk was clear well before the event. Storm Babet was officially named by the UK Met Office on Monday October 16 and a rare red weather warning was issued on the Wednesday, 32 hours before the heaviest rain started.

Red weather warnings are used by the Met Office to communicate extreme weather events that pose a risk to life. This was only the fourth time a red warning had been issued for rainfall.

The Scottish Government’s Resilience Operation was activated, flood defences were closed, roads and bridges shut, households evacuated and emergency rest centres opened. These advance warnings undoubtedly kept many people safe.

How did forecasters know it was coming?

Meteorologists were tracking the storm using satellites and weather observations. Every day they became more confident about when and where the heaviest rainfall would land.

Storm Babet is an unusual weather system. Storms that hit the UK in the autumn and winter normally come from the west across the Atlantic, but Babet instead travelled from Portugal, picking up moisture from the Bay of Biscay before being trapped over the UK by a hard-to-budge high pressure system across Scandinavia. This resulted in a prolonged period of wet and windy weather and widespread flooding.

The heaviest rainfall has been over the Angus hills in eastern Scotland, visible in white and black in the map below. As UK weather systems tend to come from the west, dumping their rain over the first hills they encounter, the eastern side of Scotland is usually protected from the worst of the weather. That is why forecasters were particularly concerned.

Babet causes rain across almost the entire British Isles at once. Map shows rainfall from 6pm October 19 to 6am October 20 2023: the white and black colours show the areas of heaviest rainfall. Starling Roost Weather integrated radar (Data: Met Office), CC BY-SA

The previous highest 24-hour rainfall in the area was 100mm recorded in November 2022, with 60mm-70mm recorded during Storm Frank in 2015. The rainfall from Storm Babet is already over 160mm. Unlike those in western Scotland, rivers in the region are simply not big enough to carry that much rainfall without bursting their banks.

Map of Scotland
Scotland has a rainy side and a dry side. Met Office, CC BY-SA

What hydrologists knew

Hydrologists such as myself study how water moves across and through the landscape, which is key to forecasting floods. Alongside the exceptionally high rainfall, other factors made Angus and south-east Aberdeenshire particularly vulnerable. The hills funnel water into steep rivers that rise quickly and rush towards the sea, so towns and villages along them are no strangers to floods.

In this instance, heavy rain ten days ago meant that the ground was already saturated. Instead of soaking into the ground, any rain that fell during Storm Babet would quickly have flowed into the streams and rivers causing them to overflow.

A storm like this is far beyond anything experienced in living memory of those in the region. Without any first hand knowledge to rely on, computer models help forecasters identify where the biggest floods will be. With Babet, hydrological models were able to pinpoint the area of concern (the red weather warning) to the rivers draining off the Angus hills.

Annotated map of Scotland
Flood forecasting model from the day before the storm peaked. The purple and red colours show the rivers expected to see the highest flows. Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) / UKCEH, CC BY-SA

Similar models predicted that the South Esk river would rise above its flood defences in the town of Brechin, meaning flood warnings could be issued and the difficult decision to evacuate 400 residents to safety could be made on Thursday afternoon rather than in the middle of the night. It turned out to be good decision, as by Friday morning the river in Brechin was at its highest level on record, and had indeed breached its defences.

Preparing for more extreme events in the future

This is yet another reminder that the climate is changing and we will see more extreme rainfall, putting more people at risk. The “Clausius-Clapeyron” relationship states that for every 1°C increase in air temperature there is 7% more moisture – meaning that there is more rainfall in a given downpour.

The relationship between this and flooding is more complex since it also involves interactions with the landscape (How have urban areas expanded? Are there many trees? What sort of farms are there? Are rivers forced into embankments or allowed to meander through floodplains?).

But understanding these interactions is urgent. The Brechin flood defences were completed in 2016 and designed to protect the town from floods up to a 1-in-200-year event. No one expected them to be topped less than ten years later.

Despite the devastation evident today, the value of advance warnings for Storm Babet for saving lives, property and infrastructure is clear. To help the UK be better prepared for floods, many hydrologists – including me – are working together through the new UK Flood Hydrology Roadmap to further improve the science and data underlying those warnings.

Linda Speight does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

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