School of Pharmacy

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Chris Parmenter

Senior Research Fellow, Faculty of Science

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Biography

I originally graduated from the University of Hull with an MChem degree in Chemistry with German. During the third year of the course I took an industrial placement at Röhm GmbH, Hanau, Germany. Whilst there I learned to perform polymerisations by copper mediated radical polymerisation. Upon my return to the UK, I interviewed at the Chemistry department in Warwick, which had a highly renowned polymer group.

My PhD was conducted in the research group of Dr ir Stefan Bon and focused on 'Smart' polymer vesicles. During my time working on polymer scaffolded vesicles for drug-delivery applications I successfully synthesised hydrophobic - hydrophillic block copolymers and began to characterise the vesicles by negatively stained Transmission Electron Microscopy. Promising results meant that I dedicated more time to TEM and trained to use the microscopes. Progression to the use of Cryo-TEM on a JEM 2011 yielded a range of images, which were used to construct a phase diagram of a block copolymer in varying aqueous solutions. A range of morphologies was observed including polymersomes, micelles and intermediate structures.

At the end of my PhD I moved to a Post-Doc role in the EM suite in the biological sciences department whilst working as a research fellow on the topic of FVIII blood clotting factor under the supervision of Dr Svetla Stoilova-McPhie I used a range of self-assembly approaches including the organisation of protein onto lipid tubes and phospholipid vesicles and became fully proficient in the use of both JEM 2011 and JEM 2010F instruments and their Gatan digital camera systems.

Independent use (sample prep, transfer and data capture) with the microscopes led to high quality images, which were analysed and used as the basis for publications. In my post as a Research Fellow in the Electron Microscopy and Imaging Suite I was responsible for daily alignment of the microscopes to ensure that the quality of the images were optimum. In the absence of the EM Suite manager I was responsible for management of the Suite and maintenance of the instruments. I provided users with advice on the use of the microscopes, practical assistance with sample preparation/ transfer and data collection, and was a point of support for any technical issues regarding the smooth running of the microscopes. I also regularly liaised with service engineers in order to troubleshoot or organise repairs to equipment. During this time I collaborated with the Structural Biology and Analytical Chemistry groups for a number of multi-disciplinary experiments, which resulted in five papers, of which I am first author on four.

In November 2009 I accepted a position in the Nottingham Nanotechnology and Nanoscience Centre (NNNC) as a Research Officer, where I am currently responsible for the running of the FEI Quanta 3D FIB-SEM machine. I am available to assist with sample characterisation from a wide range of academic departments and industrial users.

My particular interests are self-assembly of nanoscale molecules, particles, devices or structures (particularly, polymeric, biological or other 'soft' samples), although I am now expanding into materials science samples, (Semiconductor, electronic and metalurgic samples).

Please feel free to contact me with questions regarding what we can do or to arrange access through the EPSRC grants we currently hold (for external users).

Expertise Summary

Publications

  • Parmenter et al. Microscopy and Analysis, 22(6): 5-7 (EU), 2008
  • C.Parmenter and S. Stoilova-McPhie, FEBS Letters, 28 May 2008, Vol. 582, Issue 12, 1657-1660.
  • S. Stoilova-McPhie et al., J Thromb Haemost, 2008; 6: 76 - 82
  • C.D.J.Parmenter et al., Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 366 (2008) 288 - 293
  • C Parmenter and S Stoilova-McPhie, Microscopy and Analysis, 21 (6): S9-S11, 2007

Presentations

  • "Cryo-Electron Microscopy Study of Asymmetric PEG-PMMA block copolymers" - 10th French microscopy society meeting, Grenoble, June 2007
  • "Electron Microscopy of Polymer Scaffolded Polymer Vesicles" - Electrons to 3D Protein Structure: a workshop on Cryo-electron microscopy, Warwick, Sept 2005
  • "Design of synthetic membranes" - Macro Group UK, Sheffield, 2004.

Posters

  • "Cryo-Electron Microscopy Study of Asymmetric PEG-PMMA block copolymers" - 1st Place, Cryo Microscopy Group Meeting, Birmingham - Dec 2007
  • "The Structure of membrane bound FVIII" - Top 10 posters (Biology) - Sapporo, Japan, Sept 2006
  • "Cryo-EM of polymer scaffolded vesicles" - Macro Group Meeting, Sheffield, 2005

Selected Publications

School of Pharmacy

University of Nottingham
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Nottingham, NG7 2RD

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