NEWS FROM OUR LAB
November 2021
Gates Foundation funding helped us develop a low cost enzymatic manufacturing route to the Covid-19 therapy Molnupiravir
The drug was recently approved for use in the UK
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-59163899
Well done to Will B, Bruna and Tom. You can see the results of their work here:
https://chemrxiv.org/engage/chemrxiv/article-details/61712092d7e1ee92092bf495
September 2021
Rachel and Rebecca’s review of ‘Sustainable Synthesis of Cosmetics Ingredients’ is out now in Natural Product Reports. This review really demonstrates The Beauty of Biocatalysis!
They both said, “This was a fascinating topic to research and we really enjoyed writing it!”
https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2021/np/d1np00027f
September 2021
Our paper on the ‘Synthesis of Pharmaceutically Relevant 2-Aminotetralin and 3-Aminochroman Derivatives via Enzymatic Reductive Amination’ has just been accepted in Angewandte Chemie!
Well done Joan, James and Vanessa in collaboration with Prozomix and Nouron!
August 2021
Congratulations to Will Birmingham whose paper is out now in Nature Communications. This is our collaboration wih BASF and Technical University of Denmark (DTU): ‘Toward Scalable Biocatalytic Conversion of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural by Galactose Oxidase using Coordinated Reaction Engineering’
The galactose oxidase variant showed improved oxgen binding with turnover numbers of over a million!
August 2021
It was great to finally see everybody face to face at our group BBQ!
July 2021
Congratulations to Becky Ruscoe who has been awarded one of five teaching internships offered by the School.
The internship allows post-docs who are planning an academic career to acquire teaching experience without having a negative impact on their research.
July 2021
We couldn’t be in Graz for Biotrans 2021 but we decided to celebrate a great conference with our own ‘last night’ event.
We even had music from the Schlossberg Terrace!
July 2021
We very much enjoyed attending Biotrans 2021, even though it was online.
Tom Thorpe gave a fascinating talk on a new activity for imine reductases – more details coming soon!
June 2021
We are pleased to announce that we have been awarded a prestigious Royal Society of Chemistry Horizon Prize.
The award is for the Discovery, Characterisation and Industrial Application of Biocatalysts for Reductive Amination Reactions and is jointly awarded to us, the Grogan group at The University of York, GSK and Prozomix.
May 2021
We welcome Ivelina Valeva to our group as our new technician for our Prosperity Partnership project.
The project is a collaboration with Prozomix and AstraZeneca. You can find out more about Ivelina on our members page!
May 2021
We’re looking forward to Biotrans 2021!
http://biotrans2021.uni-graz.at/
We can’t go to Graz but we can bring a little bit of Graz to Manchester!
April 2021
Our recent paper on continuous flow biocatalysis for cascade reactions is out!
You can read it here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/anie.202103805
Well done to Joan, James M and Ryan. This was an excellent example of collaboration with the Flitsch group and former group members Sebastian Cosgrove and Matthew Thompson.
PREVIOUS NEWS FROM OUR LAB
PREVIOUS NEWS FROM OUR LAB
February 2021
Professor Nicholas Turner was interviewed on ‘In the Active Site’ podcast
As part of Biotrans 2021, the scientists who are invited to give a lecture are interviewed. You can access the podcasts here http://biotrans2021.uni-graz.at/podcast.html
February 2021
Our recent paper on ‘RetroBioCat as a computer-aided synthesis planning tool for biocatalytic reactions and cascades’ was highlighted on the cover of Nature Catalysis.
This amazing cover art was done by Verena Resch from @luminous_lab. She also designed this website!
February 2021
PhD student James Marshall presented his work at the NextGenBiocat conference
James recently published his work on screening of metagenomic IREDs in Nature Chemistry. You can read the paper here https://www.nature.com/articles/s41557-020-00606-w
January 2021
Better late than never!
Our review on ‘Enzymatic late-stage modifications’ is out now: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/anie.202014931
This was a great collaborative effort with colleagues from AZ and the Flitsch group as part of our ‘Prosperity Partnership’ project and is Dr. Christian Schnepel’s first corresponding author paper!
January 2021
Lucian Pirvu joins our group as a Post-doctoral Research Assistant
Read more about him on our members page
May 2020
Professor Nicholas Turner has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS)
Fellows are elected based on excellence in science via a peer-review process and are thus some of the most eminent scientists from the UK.
CoeBio3 phase IV continues with the start of six new PhD students
CoeBio3 is the The Centre of Excellence for Biocatalysis, Biotransformations and Biocatalytic Manufacture. http://www.coebio3.manchester.ac.uk/
The centre is based in Manchester but supports PhD students at the University of York, The University of Liverpool and the University of Bristol. The program is supported by industrial affiliates from Merck, GSK, Novartis, AstraZeneca and more….
Professor Nicholas Turner will lead a “Prosperity Partnership” for
Developing new biocatalytic technologies for chemical manufacturing in the pharmaceutical industry
This AstraZeneca, Prozomix and The University of Manchester Prosperity Partnership will bring together their expertise to design and develop novel chemical manufacturing technologies, based upon engineered biocatalysts, with the aim of producing new therapeutic complex molecules.
Achieving this goal will require the generation of a new toolbox of biocatalysts that are able to catalyse particularly demanding transformations. This project has the potential to bring new medicines to patients, in addition to developing more sustainable manufacturing processes that reduce the impact on the environment.