Science and Technology Facilities Council

Many clinically used drugs are amphiphiles, yet the effect of their amphiphilicity on their therapeutic activity is poorly understood. As cell membranes are the first barrier a drug encounters on route to its site of action, we propose that an amphiphilic drug's membrane activity will impact its clinical efficacy. Comprehensive quantitative detail on the membrane interactions of the amphiphilic β-blocker drug, (±) propranolol has been investigated, using a synergistic combination of surface area-pressure measurements, ellipsometry, Brewster angle microscopy and selective H/D contrast variation neutron reflectometry, and using Langmuir monolayers comprising zwitterionic, 1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (POPC) alone and with 30mol% of negatively charged, 1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phospho-1'-rac-glycerol sodium (POPG). The interaction of propranolol with the lipid monolayers was resolved in terms of changes in lipid morphology, the extent of lipid loss from the membrane, and the drug's favoured location and orientation within the membrane. Propranolol is proposed to interact with the lipid monolayers in three stages: (1) electrostatic binding to the lipid head groups, (2) drug-mediated lipid loss from the membrane, and (3) the re-organisation of the drug's hydrophobic region within the membrane lipid chains. At steady state, and regardless of lipid packing, the monolayer contains more drug than lipid molecules. Further, the presence of negatively charged POPG does not enhance the cationic drug's interactions with the monolayer, most likely due to the differential solubilisation of membrane lipid in the aqueous subphase. Significantly, these results demonstrate how a drug's amphiphilic nature can determine its membrane activity and thereby impact its clinical efficacy.

ABSTRACT Microplastic (MP) pollution in marine environments remains difficult to mitigate because conventional coagulants often lose effectiveness under high‐salinity conditions. In this study, two poly(isobutylene)‐derived poly(ionic liquid) (PIL) flocculants; polyisobutylene‐trihexyl(tetradecyl)phosphonium decanoate (PIB‐t‐TPD) and polyisobutylene‐1‐methyl‐3‐octylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate (PIB‐ImTFB), were synthesized and systematically evaluated for the aggregation of polypropylene (PP) and polystyrene (PS) microplastics in natural seawater collected from Penang National Park. Sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) was employed to enhance PIL dispersion and modulate interfacial interactions under saline conditions. Both PILs induced pronounced aggregation of PP and PS microplastics, with optimal performance observed at intermediate dosages (0.5–1.0 wt.% PIL in the presence of 1 wt.% SDS). Under these conditions, large and rapidly settling flocs were formed, with average aggregate sizes reaching ~142 μm for PS and ~198 μm for PP. Thorough analysis revealed that aggregation was governed by a synergistic interplay between surface charge attenuation toward the point of zero charge and hydrophobic polymer bridging mediated by the PIB backbone. At higher SDS or PIL dosages, charge reversal and steric stabilization led to partial particle restabilization and reduced aggregation efficiency. Compared with conventional polyaluminum chloride (PAC), the PIB‐derived PILs demonstrated superior aggregation efficiency, larger floc sizes, and enhanced turbidity removal in high‐ionic‐strength seawater. These results highlight PIB‐based PILs as tunable, metal‐free flocculants and promising candidates for microplastic remediation in marine environments.

A major challenge hampering the industrial and biological exploitation of lipases is the self-limiting effect of the lipolytic reaction. Defying sustained attention throughout history, the influence of lipase catalysed lipolysis on the internal structure of thin triglyceride films has proved elusive. An in-depth understanding of the lipolysis process at the triglycerides/aqueous interface will assist in creating innovative methods to enhance yields. This study furthers our understanding of the influence of solution pD (pH equivalent for aqueous solutions prepared with D2O) on the effect of lipolysis on the structure of thin triolein films. All experiments were performed at pD 7.0 or pD 8.5, either side of the apparent pKa of the primary product of the hydrolysis (oleic acid/oleate). Spectroscopic ellipsometry measurements were employed to kinetically track the changes in thickness of the triolein film after the introduction of 2 ppm Thermomyces lanuginosus lipase (TLL). Neutron reflectometry experiments revealed the internal structure of the thin films before and after TLL digestion, while fast kinetic measurements capturing changes to the reflectivity profile throughout lipolysis. Both techniques revealed significant variations in the physical properties and enzymatic conversion of the triolein films between pD 7.0 and pD 8.5.

Small angle neutron scattering (SANS) has been employed to examine the self-assembly behaviour of sodium 5-tetradecyl furan-2-sulfonate (STFS), an emerging anionic surfactant, in bulk dilute solutions. STFS was also studied in binary and ternary mixtures with a common non-ionic (hexaethylene glycol monododecyl ether, C12E6) and anionic (sodium dodecyl sulfate, SDS) surfactant to explore the shape, size and composition of the mixed systems in dilute solution. SANS confirmed that STFS alone formed prolate ellipsoidal micelles and transitioned to small polydisperse spherical core-shell micelles of 55±5Å diameter for mixed systems. Anionic/non-ionic STFS/C12E6 mixtures exhibited strong synergistic interactions, with a significant reduction in critical micelle concentration (CMC) and preferential incorporation of C12E6 into the micelle compared to bulk solution molar ratios. In contrast, STFS/SDS mixtures showed weaker synergism, with minimal SDS incorporation attributed to electrostatic repulsions. Ternary systems displayed intermediate behaviour, with STFS and C12E6 dominating micelle formation while SDS remained mostly excluded. At higher concentrations (10, 20mM) in SANS measurements the STFS/C12E6 tended towards more bulk solution molar ratio mixing behaviour whilst SDS stayed minimally incorporated into the micelle, regardless of concentration.

Abstract The DarkSide-20k dark matter direct detection experiment will employ a $${21}\,\hbox {m}^{2}$$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mn>21</mml:mn> <mml:mspace/> <mml:msup> <mml:mtext>m</mml:mtext> <mml:mn>2</mml:mn> </mml:msup> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) array, instrumenting a dual-phase 50 tonnes liquid argon Time Projection Chamber (TPC). SiPMs are arranged into modular photosensors called Tiles , each integrating 24 SiPMs onto a printed circuit board (PCB) that provides signal amplification, power distribution, and a single-ended output for simplified readout. $$16$$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mn>16</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> Tiles are further grouped into Photo-Detector Units (PDUs). This paper details the production of the Tiles and the Quality Assurance and Quality Control (QA-QC) protocol established to ensure their performance and uniformity. The production and QA-QC of the Tiles are carried out at Nuova Officina Assergi (NOA), an ISO-6 clean room facility at LNGS. This process includes wafer-level cryogenic characterisation, precision die attaching, wire bonding, and extensive electrical and optical validation of each Tile. The overall production yield exceeds 83.5%, matching the requirements of the DarkSide-20k production plan. These results validate the robustness of the Tile design and its suitability for operation in a cryogenic environment.

This community case study presents the process a multi-partner project took to develop accessible and engaging science-related activities for children with SEND and their families. Designed for use in museums, community outreach events, or at home, these resources reinforce science learning beyond the classroom. The History of Science Museum, RAL Space and Iffley Academy—a specialist school for children and young people with complex special educational needs and disabilities (SEND)—co-created a suite of outreach activities to be used by educators, ambassadors, parents or guardians to engage pupils with SEND in science. The project followed a relational model of engagement with classroom consultations with the same 11 pupils over several months, guided by a community outreach officer. Students made direct, significant contributions to the design and content of the resources. Co-creation ensured the resources were accessible and fostered an inclusive whole-family learning experience. The project has influenced the museum's and RAL Space's approaches to inclusive resource development and evaluation, while significantly improving the students' science capital and social-emotional development.

This paper presents the results of total ionising dose (TID) irradiations that were performed on a prototype Integrated Circuit (IC). The IC was designed during the early R&D phase of the Silicon Vertex Tracker (SVT) detector. The SVT is a sub-detector system that is part of the ElectronProton/Ion Collider (ePIC) experiment. ePIC is estimated to become operational in early 2030s at Brookhaven National Laboratory (USA).

Access to clean drinking water is crucial for human health, but there are concerns that consumption levels of particular solutes may be linked to negative health outcomes. Many studies use data aggregated to area-level to assess consumption-health associations, but these do not account for differences in behaviour between individuals. Therefore, we combined publicly reported tap water chemistry from compliance data with estimated drinking water consumption within the home calculated from a water habits survey for 1970 UK adults from the TwinsUK cohort. The resulting average daily dose (ADD) estimate of key solutes (including nitrate, hardness, chlorine, selenium), multiple solutes dimensionally reduced to k-means clusters, and ingestion rate (IngR) were used as predictors in nested regression analysis, including stratification for employment status (as a proxy for time spent and home) and adjustment for age. Health outcomes included cardiovascular disease (CVD), CVD risk factors, eczema, sarcopenia, frailty, gastrointestinal disease and cancer. We found estimation of ADD significantly changed the distribution of solutes (ks-tests p<0.001). Overall, we identified few associations with health outcomes, with mixed or inconsistent signals across nested models. There were some exceptions, including increased odds of hardness predicting CVD risk factors in our employment strata (Hardness ADD OR:1.25, 1.09-1.48, p<0.002; age-adjusted OR: 1.22, 1.05-1.4, p<0.002) and eczema negatively associated with IngR in non-stratified models (IngR OR: 0.86, 0.77-0.96, p<0.01). We found no evidence of difference in ADD in twins discordant for health outcome. The lack of significant findings in solute-health pairings could be inferred as a positive result that supports UK drinking water as a safe source of hydration and therefore our results represent a positive public health outcome. Our study demonstrates an effective approach to estimate personalised exposure to water solutes that can inform researchers designing similar studies.

The Slicer Combined with Array of Lenslets for Exoplanet Spectroscopy (SCALES) is a 2–5 micron integral field spectrograph designed to directly image and characterize exoplanets. Around the time of SCALES’ commissioning, Keck Observatory will also receive a nearly 3000-actuator deformable mirror upgrade as part of the High-Order All Sky Keck Adaptive Optics (HAKA) project. HAKA, along with other adaptive optics (AO) improvements—such as predictive wavefront control, speckle nulling, and infrared pyramid wavefront sensing—will enhance contrast and image quality, improving exoplanet detection. Using simulations, we estimate SCALES’ achievable contrast before and after these AO improvements. From simulated Gaia and Roman planet populations, we predicted the number of planets SCALES can directly image. Our results suggest that these AO upgrades significantly increase the number of detectable planets. With Gaia data expected in 2026 and Roman data in the 2030s, SCALES will play a key role in exoplanet research while demonstrating the impact of AO advancements.