Skip to content

Justina Heslop

New Epigenetics Paper by Roman Belle and Team

Congratulations to Roman Belle on the publications of ‘Reading and erasing of the phosphonium analogue of trimethyllysine by epigenetic proteins‘. We are very happy to have published this work in great collaboration between academic groups in the UK, the Netherlands, Spain and Denmark. Thanks to all involved: Jos J. A. G. Kamps, Jordi Poater, Kiran Kumar, Bas J. G. E. Pieters, Eidarus Salah, Timothy D. W. Claridge, Robert S. Paton, F. Matthias Bickelhaupt, Akane Kawamura, Christopher J. Schofield & Jasmin Mecinović. The work was supported by the European Research Council, Cancer Research UK, EPSRC, Clarendon Scholarship, the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research, the Spanish MINECO, and a World Bank Education… Read More »New Epigenetics Paper by Roman Belle and Team

Celebrating International Womens Day

International Women’s Day is an opportunity to celebrate the successes of women in our group and appreciate all the supportive allies we have. The theme for the IWD 2022 campaign is #BreakTheBias and we encourage everyone to celebrate women’s accomplishments, raise awareness about bias, and take action to achieve gender equality.  We can proactively take the steps, however small, to call out bias, even when it comes from people who are close to us, and question the stereotypes that still hold us back.  Unfortunately we still live in a world yet free from inequality, bias, stereotypes and discrimination.  In many places women are still excluded from forms of decision making… Read More »Celebrating International Womens Day

CEM Peptide Conference 2022

A contingent of the Kawamura group were delighted to attend the CEM peptide conference in Liverpool last week on new frontiers in peptide synthesis and therapeutic applications. We were lucky to hear about recent advances in synthesis technologies from CEM representatives such large scale solid phase peptide synthesis. This even included a practical demonstration on one of their machines. Leading academics in the field also gave inspiring talks on breakthroughs in peptide chemistry and a number of applications of peptides in therapeutics and biology. Of course, it wouldn’t be a trip to Liverpool without mention of the Beatles. Thankfully, the organisers treated us to a bus tour which included historic… Read More »CEM Peptide Conference 2022

Novo Nordisk Collaborator Visit

This week the Kawamura group was thrilled to host Dr Martin Münzel, scientific director in research chemistry at Novo Nordisk. Martin is a long-time collaborator with the group and gave a fascinating talk on the use of mRNA display in drug discovery workflows as well as engaging in some stimulating conversations about peptide chemistry. Martin is also a MosMed CDT industrial supervisor to group member Tom Smith. We’d love to have you back anytime, Martin!  

Harriet Stanway-Gordon wins EPSRC Doctoral Prize Fellowship

We look forward to welcoming Harriet Stanway-Gordon to the Kawamura group in April to start her EPSRC Doctoral Prize Fellowship and start on her journey to develop an independent research career. Harriet who is a SNES Medicinal Chemistry PhD student was recently awarded the prestigious EPSRC doctoral prize fellowship.  Harriet was supervised by Prof. Mike Waring where she was developing new methodology to synthesis DNA-encoded macrocycles. The EPSRC Doctoral Prize gives Harriet the opportunity to apply the methodology to synthesise encoded libraries of cyclic peptide small molecule hybrids.  Due to their unique properties, these compounds have the potential to act as drugs for thus far intractable protein classes, opening up novel… Read More »Harriet Stanway-Gordon wins EPSRC Doctoral Prize Fellowship

Great North Museum Science Fair

The Kawamura Group had a great day at the Great North Museum (GNM) Family Outreach Science Fair on 24th February 2022. The fair was part of the series of events to mark 150 years of Science, Agriculture and Engineering at Newcastle University.  It celebrated the shared history of collaborations between GNM and Newcastle University.  Open to the general public as part of GNM’s half-term programme, it involved a series of different activities showcasing research from across the faculty. It was a fantastic opportunity to share our research and to engage the next generation of scientists. It was also a great opportunity for the PGRs in the group to gain some… Read More »Great North Museum Science Fair

Kawamura Group 2021 Highlights

2021 has continued to be challenging for all of us, however the group has continued to progress and we have much to celebrate. The much anticipated Kawamura group Winter Symposium took place at last on 16th Feb 2022.  We reflected on two years since the group celebrated official handover of the Chemical biology labs (Feb 2020).  In this time we have more than doubled the footprint of the group, forged ahead with equipment purchases and set-up the synthesis/cold room space.  Thanks to all the hard work of the group! At the symposium we had a fantastic overview from the team showcasing all the diverse and exciting research happening across the… Read More »Kawamura Group 2021 Highlights

Celebrating International Day of Women and Girls in Science

On International Day of Women and Girls in Science we are proud to celebrate the achievements of the intelligent, hard-working and passionate women in our group.  We have welcomed several new female scientists to the team including PhD students; Filomena Saulino (Oct 2020), Emma Wadforth (Oct 2021), Oliwia Rebacz (Oct 2021), and masters students (Jan 2022); Valeria Cobiltean, Hannah Hamilton. PDRA  Marie-Helene Ruchaud joined the team in September 2021, she is currently developing quantitative cellular assays to investigate inhibitors of SARS-Cov2. Chiara Maniaci was awarded a prestigious BBSRC Discovery fellowship in February 2020 and continues to make great progress with her research. Joanna Bonnici returned to the group in June… Read More »Celebrating International Day of Women and Girls in Science

Welcome to our Mchem Students!

A warm welcome to our new Mchem Students, Oliver Crosby, Valeria Cobiltean and Hannah Hamilton who joined the group in January 2022. We hope to give them a rich experience learning from the diverse and fascinating science happening in the group and getting involved in our outreach activities.

We are recruiting!

We are recruiting! If you are interested in joining a vibrant, friendly and inclusive chemical biology team and work in a brand new chemical biology lab in the heart of Newcastle city centre, please apply here. We are looking to appoint two highly motivated and ambitious Research Assistants/Associates in Chemical Biology. We would like you to be suitably qualified with knowledge of: –    Organic Chemistry / Chemical biology –    Cell biology This is an exciting opportunity to contribute to the Cancer Research UK programme funded work on histone demethylases (KDMs), a class of enzymes involved in epigenetic signalling. Dysregulation of some KDMs is strongly linked to cancer and some are… Read More »We are recruiting!