#MondayMaterials Episode 12 – Dr Christopher Blanford
Meet the Department 9 November 2015
I first came across Dr Christopher Blanford’s name a few years ago. I worked for the Faculty of Life Sciences in my previous role at the University, and in that role I used to help look after the Manchester Institute of Biotechnology’s website. Christopher is a research group leader within that institute, and I clearly remember reading about the work he is doing with his group and being impressed by its range of possible applications.
Fast forward a few months, and early in my new role, and Dr Aravind Vijayaraghavan was mentioning the name Christopher Blanford to me while we prepared for the very first episode of #MondayMaterials. I decided right then that I’d have to include him in the series.
But Christopher is a very busy man and it took a while for us to get together. I, for one, am glad that we did;
Can you please describe your research, for the layman, in ten sentences or less?
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGjddPrS85k&w=560&h=315] For the last seven or eight years what I’ve been looking at is how we take enzymes, biological catalysts, and stick them onto conductive materials.The idea is that, if we can engineer that interface between something that’s a conductor and an enzyme, we’re able to harness this sort of natural, really efficient catalyst for anything from energy generation to producing fine chemicals in the future.
But these are fairly large materials and they don’t always work, depending on how they stick down. Sometimes they spread out, sometimes they stick on the wrong way and they stop working. But the idea is that, if we can feed electrons in and out of these enzymes, we have a way of really revolutionising both how we’re going to have portable energy generation and how we’re going to be able to make things like pharmaceuticals and biofuels more efficiently in the future.
Thanks, Chris. That sounds extremely exciting. You touched on this, but could you tell us a bit more about how your research could benefit the general public?
Well, I think because we’re doing materials engineering there’s always going to be that idea of what the end application is going to be.
So the way I sold this originally, when I got some fellowship money from the ESPRC, was; can we make something that’s going to be about the size of a rechargeable battery but is going to work anywhere from seven times to ten times longer than that.
The idea is that, if you’ve got a chemical fuel that is going to store energy much, much better than a battery can, and by working with things like ethanol or methanol injected into your fuel cell, into your phone, instead of worrying about having to charge it every day, twice a day, you’re going to do it about once a week. Great if you’re going on holiday – you don’t have to worry about adapters.
That’s sort of the consumer benefit. But the idea is that if we’re to be able to make chemicals in a way that’s more atom-efficient, that’s hugely important. So instead of having to worry about loads of solvent going in, what we’re doing is we’re using electricity off of the grid and skipping a lot of the steps and the synthesis and the work up by using the natural selectivity of these catalysts.
To me, that’s the more societal benefit. Where we’re getting the same products that we had out originally, pharma and fuels, but we don’t have all the waste that’s associated with it.
And how did you first get interested in your research area?
Sure, so my background is a bit mixed up. I started out doing chemical engineering, then I did a mixture of materials science and chemistry, and then did some post-doctoral work in chemistry.
I really got interested in the enzyme electrochemistry working with Fraser Armstrong at the University of Oxford. I was coming in with a real materials science perspective as we were going through and I thought I could bring some of my knowledge of materials like carbon to what he was doing with the enzyme electrochemistry.
And as it happened they had an enzyme that I was able to get a lot of interesting results out of. Something that could do one of the reactions that we used in fuel cells, but doing it more efficiently than materials like platinum that we have to mine out of the ground.
It was literally a catalyst that grows on trees, which we could use for this renewable energy generation.
Great, thank you. Going back a bit further, then, could you tell us who or what first inspired your interest in science?
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ov3Fp3jvfY&w=560&h=315] I’ve always been interested in science. I’ve been in an environment where that’s been encouraged. Not necessarily having scientists as family members, but the idea of being able to have chemistry sets when you were growing up, which I think is hugely important.And chemistry sets that do something, not the ones that have had all the cool things taken out. Where things can go wrong or bubble or fizz, rather than just little colour changes. I think those are hugely important. You see Kickstarters for these out there, so that we can have chemistry sets with the danger left in.
Model rocketry was a lot of fun growing up. Things that explode just really… You know, an explosion gets me into the subject. So, yeah!
Brilliant answer, I totally agree. So as well as exploding chemistry sets, what else do get up to outside of work? What do you do in your spare time?
So the main passion for me is cooking.
I love cooking and I see a real synergy between chemistry and cooking. Particularly for me it’s modernist cooking, where we’re taking ingredients that we wouldn’t necessarily put together and breaking it down into the flavour elements that you would have so that you get new textures, new flavours. Essentially, bringing chemistry into the kitchen and making something edible on the outside, in the end, with that.
So alongside that is eating and experiencing the same thing.
So, it’s chemistry at home and chemistry at work.
Another great answer. So, one more question to go. Can you tell us how has working here in Manchester has benefited your work and research?
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tm0JvhdOSd4&w=560&h=315] Oh, it’s fantastic!Manchester was something, I’ve got to say, I didn’t actually consider for a place to hold my research group when I moved here in 2011. I came for a visit and felt an immediate synergy with the people across the different faculties and across the different schools within them.
The MIB, for me, has been a great home because it’s hooked me up with both the life sciences and the physical sciences in a way that I hadn’t had in the environments that I’d worked with in the past. And it’s opened up these new avenues of research, such as this industrial biotechnology; making things in a more green, enzymatic way that would be new avenues for the research I’m doing.
Since a lot of the conducting materials we work on are carbon, there’s the obvious synergy with the graphene that’s coming out of Manchester as well.
We’ll be seeing whether graphene is something that will be able to benefit work on industrial biotechnology as this very high surface area conductive material that we can modify using standard chemical techniques.
Wow – thanks so much, Christopher. It sounds like you’re involved in so much important and fascinating work! Just try to keep the explosion to the chemistry sets, I suppose.
What a great episode of #MondayMaterials. I never stop being surprised at all the great work being done in the School.
On that note, we’ll be heading back to the Design, Fashion, and Business side of things in two weeks time when we talk to Fashion Marketing lecturer Dr Patsy Perry. she’s doing some really interesting and important work, so make sure you come back to hear all about it!
See you then!
BiofuelsCarbonChemistry setsConductive materialsCookingEnzymesMaterials ScienceMobile phonesPharmaceuticalsThe Department of MaterialsThe University of Manchester
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