• Aston Institute for Membrane Excellence held its official academic launch event on 13 September
• More than 100 biologists, chemists, physicists and engineers gathered at Aston University to learn about the research and its potential impacts
• There were talks on biomimetic membranes, Alzheimer’s disease and sustainable polymers.

Aston Institute for Membrane Excellence (AIME) hosted its official academic launch at Aston University on 13 September, with more than 100 guests and international speakers in attendance.

Biology, chemistry, physics and engineering academics from universities around the UK, along with international collaborators, regional partners, industry representatives, funders and business partners attended the event which included talks, followed by a poster presentation, networking and lunch.

AIME is a globally unique, cross-disciplinary institute to develop novel biomimetic membranes, set up with a major grant of £10m from Research England. The AIME team will focus on the development of bioinspired, highly selective polymer structures for applications in water purification and waste remediation, nanoparticles loaded with therapeutic molecules to treat disorders ranging from chronic wounds to neurological injuries, and the purification of individual membrane proteins with polymers to study them as drug targets.

A video from Aston University Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive Professor Aleks Subic was followed by a welcome from AIME manager Paul Knobbs and a short segment from Professor of Pharmacology, David Poyner, remembering the late Emeritus Professor Ian Martin, one of the early pioneers of membrane biology at Aston University.

AIME co-lead Professor Roslyn Bill, from the School of Biosciences, with fellow co-lead Professor Paul Topham from the department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry (CEAC), gave an introductory address explaining how the different research disciplines complement each other. Professor Bill’s research focuses on aquaporin-4 proteins in brain cell membranes, which move water in and out of brain cells and are an important drug target to treat traumatic brain injury and the catastrophic swelling that results from that. Professor Topham has developed polymer discs that can extract aquaporin-4 from cell membranes, allowing drug testing.

Professor Bill said of the Research England funding:

“The funding allows biologists and chemists to cross-fertilise each other’s membrane science. For example, Paul’s team can take tiny discs that contain the membrane proteins that we’re interested in as biological drug targets, and stitch the molecules together to make them into water purification membranes.”

The next presentation came from Professor Jeff Iliff, from the University of Washington in the US, who is a leading neuroscientist and expert in brain health and sleep. Professor Iliff is one of the discoverers of the brain’s waste clearance system, known as the glymphatic system. His research examines the link between sleep, glymphatic efficiency and the development of dementia as we age. He told the audience that people who sleep more than seven hours a night, especially in midlife, are at a much lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s. Older people with Alzheimer’s have much less aquaporin-4 in brain cells that wrap around blood vessels, so the protein plaques and tangles that are thought to lead to Alzheimer’s cannot be cleared. A promising line of Alzheimer’s treatment or even prevention could be drugs to change the location of aquaporin-4, which is research that he is conducting together with Professor Bill and the AIME team.

Sustainable polymer chemistry was the topic of the talk by Professor Andrew Dove, a professor of sustainable polymer chemistry at the University of Birmingham. Currently the UK recycles around 10% of its plastic, though it has a target of 40%. He discussed the importance of designing for end-of-life, recycling options, upcycling polymers into new materials, and the use of biobased plastics. Sustainability is a key part of AIME.

The final talk, ‘Bridging the interdisciplinary gap: what exactly is a "membrane"?’ was introduced by Dr Torsten Bak Regueira, chief technology officer at Danish biomimetic membrane company Aquaporin and a visiting professor at Aston University. The company develops domestic and industrial water purification membranes based on highly efficient aquaporin proteins.

Dr Regueira said:

“The key to creating our cutting-edge membrane was to bring people from different expertise fields together. The things that we have focused on at Aquaporin are protein chemistry, polymer chemistry and membrane chemistry. All of these areas are needed in building the membrane.

“We wanted to break down the barriers between the disciplines and the collaborative environment at Aquaporin allows us to create solutions that wouldn’t otherwise be possible. AIME is doing exactly that.”

In an innovative, and successful effort to show how the AIME researchers are learning each other’s languages, Dr Matt Derry, a senior chemistry lecturer, presented the biological aspects of AIME’s membrane research, while Professor Alan Goddard, a biotechnology professor, explained the chemical side of the polymerisation techniques needed to create the polymer membranes.

Professor Paul Topham said:

“The AIME launch was a great success! The energy in the room was palpable. It is satisfying to already see some exciting collaborative opportunities on the horizon and we’re really looking forward to building on that over the coming months and years.”

AIME will also hold a showcase event on 23 October 2024 in collaboration with Arup and Bruntwood SciTech as part of Birmingham TechWeek. For more information and tickets please visit the Eventbrite page.