The 'Diff is how Cardiff is affectionately known. ADIFF is a European Researchers’ Night event, celebrating how EU-funded researchers are ‘making a difference’ to Welsh communities and beyond. This will be the first ever European Researchers’ Night celebration in Wales. The capital, Cardiff, is one of the fastest growing cities in the UK. Many people from the surrounding area travel to Cardiff for work, shopping and entertainment. The Cardiff Capital Region (CCR) encompasses the whole of South East Wales, home to a range of diverse communities including seven of the top ten most deprived areas in Wales. Over half of 16-24yr olds in Wales live here. Over 90% of 12/13 yr olds in the UK aspire to ‘help others’ in their working lives. Yet only 15% want to be a scientist. By focusing on how researchers are 'making a difference' to our lives and city we will engage a diverse range of young people and their influencers. Cardiff University is a large research-intensive institution, ranked 2nd in the UK for the impact of its work. Researchers will develop engaging hands-on activities supported by, award-winning specialists, Science Made Simple. These activities will be trialed at summer festivals, online where necessary, reaching some of the 20 million annual visitors to Cardiff and generating media coverage in the run-up to the main event. Researchers will also interact with schools online and/or in person to raise awareness and encourage young people into research careers The team will work with researchers and their community partners to create content to be delivered at the European Researchers’ Night celebrations in 2020. Unexpected encounters with researchers and pop-up events will take place in public spaces across the city centre and/or online over the weekend – bringing the researchers and their work to the public and showing how they are making a difference to the lives of people in Wales.

The assessment of human health from analysis of blood samples is one of the most widespread medical diagnostic procedures; with thousands of patients providing samples every day in hundreds of clinics and surgeries across the UK. However, it remains a slow process because samples have to be sent to a limited number of specialist central services in health trusts, with a turn-around of days between sample acquisition and assessment delivery. It is expensive, both in terms of direct cost of the analysis and downstream costs due to deterioration of patient health as a result of the time delay in accessing results. We propose a capillary driven, microscale disposable chip instrument for non-technical users that provides the established and understood diagnostic parameters. The basic device will consist of lasers and detectors integrated around a fluid channel to facilitate counting, scattering and wavelength dependent absorption measurements. This will differentiate red blood cells from white blood cells, discriminate between the main white blood cell types - monocyte, lymphocyte, neutrophil and granulocyte - and provide cell counts of these sub groups. Stage 2 builds on the same technology platform to enhance sensitivity and add functionality by making the cell under test an active part of the laser thus maximising light / cell interaction. In stage 3 we will label cells with fluorescent dye attached to metal particles (provided by Keyes group) and increase the absorption of particular cells, by up to 6 orders of magnitude, and also access fluorescent lifetime measurements (using an approach we have patented) allowing the analysis of cell function as well as cell discrimination. We have blood analysis expertise within the project to maximise the benefits of stage 1 and co-workers focussed on cell cycle and anti-cancer research will interact and maximise the benefits of the device that goes well beyond current blood test capability. The microscale system we will develop offers a number of advantages: Micro scaling reduces the volume of blood required changing the way blood-based diagnostics are used. Immediate and quasi-continuous monitoring of the haematological state is feasible and can be used in acute situations such as surgery or child birth. This also offers, with further development, a realistic route to continuous monitoring during everyday life. Semiconductor micro fabrication provides the route to mass manufacture of low cost systems. Shifts the cost of blood testing from technician to test kit and introduces a distributed cost model (pay per kit) rather than a single, major capital investment. Allows disposable chip format and provides uniformity and repeatability, contributing to the removal of the need for specialist operator - use at point of care, e.g. developing world. We will achieve all this by exploiting the properties of a quantum dot semiconductor system that we have developed and which provides particular advantages for integration and for laser based sensing at relevant wavelengths (a major one being the sensitivity to small changes in optical loss). In addition to the significant medical benefits resulting from the ability to widely deploy, low cost and enhanced clinical functionality devices we also see a significant commercial benefit to the UK, with an identified UK manufacturing supply chain. The project brings together a wide range of complementary experience, including semiconductor device design, fabrication and characterisation, microfluidics, systems analysis and data handling, blood analysis and cytometry and biophotonics and clinical validation.

All living organisms contain proteins - nanoscale molecular machines which have a myriad of functions. A large fraction of these proteins are "electron transfer" proteins which, as the name suggests, are capable of moving electrical charge from one place to another - either within the protein or between proteins. Such proteins are absolutely essential to the physics of life, controlling biological processes as varied as respiration, photosynthesis and the creation of organic molecules from basic elements (hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, etc.). Although they actually function at essentially the single molecule level, most of our understanding of electron transfer (ET) proteins comes from experiments performed on large assemblies of protein molecules, not individual molecules. This is perhaps not surprising since it is usually difficult to locate a single molecule, or to obtain a measurable signal from just one molecule. Many traditional measurements therefore look at the optical properties of an assembly of molecules in solution. Others measure the electrical properties of metal surfaces covered in a layer of molecules. The aim of our project is to develop a new way to measure individual ET protein molecules, and use these measurements to gain a better understanding of the ET process (directly relevant to theorists and a prerequisite for any biolectronic applications). To do this we first make two electrical contacts to the protein, and then incorporate it as part of an electrical circuit. By measuring how easy it is to pass current through the circuit, we can examine just how the protein functions to transfer electrons. We can also change other properties of the protein (such as a metal centre which is common in ET proteins) to examine their role in the ET process. The first problem is how to make a reliable electrical contact to a single molecule. Fortunately, the methods already developed in protein engineering allow this to be done: it is possible to modify the protein surface to introduce specific chemical groups which strongly attach the molecule to a metal surface. This is achieved by altering the genetic material encoding the protein, so that the required chemical groups can be placed at precisely known positions in the protein. Multiple identical copies of the modified protein are produced in this way. The second problem is how to examine just a single molecule. This has become possible over the past few years following the invention of the scanning tunnelling microscope or STM. This instrument allows an almost atomically-sharp metal tip to be brought close to a (sufficiently flat) metal surface; if the distance between tip and surface is small enough (around one nanometre - a millionth of a millimetre - or so) electrons in the tip can pass to the surface when a voltage is applied between them. The tip and surface don't have to touch, but the electrons pass because of the quantum mechanical "tunnelling" effect. By scanning the tip across the metal surface under computer control, it is possible to measure exactly how flat the surface is, and even form an image of individual metal atoms. If our protein molecules are sprinkled on the surface, it is possible to use the STM to see exactly where they have adhered, and to put the tip in contact with them. This completes our electrical circuit. Measuring electron transfer through proteins in this way has not previously been done, and lets us explore the protein with a high degree of control. But it is not interesting simply for its own sake - it means we can better understand just how ET proteins operate at the level of a single molecule. Also, development of bioelectronic components using ET proteins, which is a subject of rapidly growing interest, ultimately depends on our ability to study them at the single molecule level and with electrical contacts.

Through an interactive science show which combines presenter-led demonstrations with 3D video fly-throughs of the Martian surface, we will show audiences that space exploration is an exciting and current scientific field in which the UK is a significant partner. Planetary science is by nature interdisciplinary, drawing on all STEM subjects. This project aims to encourage students to make these links, and to connect with core-curriculum science at the various key stages. The project will promote UK contributions to planetary science by drawing on STFC-funded research. This will include results from past and current orbital and rover missions, as well as looking at future missions such as ExoMars Rover and ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter. We will inspire students to consider careers in STEM, in particular by using Mars exploration as an inspirational theme for current and future challenges in science and technology. We will also gather together a series of classroom resources, based on a combination of updating existing materials from ESERO-UK, ESA and NASA, with some newly produced content from the project team. We will incorporate Mars resources into existing primary and secondary teacher training CPD programmes (Space Made Simple, ESERO-UK).

The Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil leak from the Macondo well into the Gulf of Mexico illustrate the twin compromises made when we exploit petroleum and its derived products: Firstly, the extreme environment where the leak occurred is a symptom of petroleum oil's finite supply and its increasingly expensive production. Secondly, chemicals and products made out of petroleum, including the 6.6 million litres of dispersants used to manage the spill, tend to be toxic and persistent in the environment. Biosurfactants are the various chemicals produced by nature to help change the surfaces that occur between things - for example, the stickiness forces in a new born baby's scrunched up lungs are weakened by biosurfactants and enable her to breathe in for the first time, and other remarkable things. Biosurfactants produced through fermentation have the potential to outperform traditional surfactants for many tasks, such as cleaning up after oil spills, decontamination ground left toxic by old factories, improving the quality of personal care products like face creams or household products like laundry powders. Not only this, they are also fundamentally more sustainable through their whole life from when they are made to to when they are disposed of. However, the cost of production of biosurfactants is currently far too high to make their widespread use possible - by weight they are ten or a hundred times more expensive to buy than gold. This is because the currently available fermentation production capacity is based around old reactor technology. This research will advance the process engineering science underlying the high cost of biosurfactant production and deliver a coordinated set of solutions which will enable commercial viability, and therefore more widespread exploitation, of biosurfactants.Based on this success, the research group will also work to apply this way of adding new engineering to reduce production cost to a wider range of what could be very useful biologically produced materials, chemicals and fuels and help make them become everyday things like petrol and washing powders are today.