SPARC 2017 retrospect & prospects : Salford postgraduate annual research conference book of abstracts

Welcome to the Book of Abstracts for the 2017 SPARC conference. This year we not only celebrate the work of our PGRs but also the 50th anniversary of Salford as a University, which makes this year’s conference extra special. Once again we have received a tremendous contribution from our postgraduate research community; with over 130 presenters, the conference truly showcases a vibrant PGR community at Salford. These abstracts provide a taster of the research strengths of their works, and provide delegates with a reference point for networking and initiating critical debate. With such wide-ranging topics being showcased, we encourage you to exploit this great opportunity to engage with researchers working in different subject areas to your own. To meet global challenges, high impact research inevitably requires interdisciplinary collaboration. This is recognised by all major research funders. Therefore engaging with the work of others and forging collaborations across subject areas is an essential skill for the next generation of researchers

Study of the Possible Inhibition of Melanin Synthesis by Select Compounds

Previous research conducted in our laboratory had indicated that polysaccharides are capable of promoting the auto- or Cu(II)-mediated oxidation of select catecholic or indolic compounds into darkly colored, melanin-like pigments. We observed that select compounds, e.g., sinapyl alcohol, tyramine, octopamine, salicylic acid or others, were not oxidized into pigments by the presence of polysaccharides. Hence, these compounds were evaluated as potential inhibitors of the pigment formation. Using UV_Vis spectroscopic, endpoint and kinetic, measurements we observed that compounds like sinapyl alcohol, cinnamic acid, 3,4-dihydroxy benzoic acid, 5-hydroxy indole-3-acetic acid did inhibit the pigment formation from epinephrine. Compounds like octopamine or salicylic acid appeared not to affect the reaction. However, the presence of tyramine appeared to promote pigment formation from epinephrine or other starting compounds