Some great talks and networking at the Royal Society of Chemistry Interest Group for Chemical Biology and Bioorganic Chemistry postgraduate meeting at York University on 4th April. Great to be back to in-person conferences! It was a great opportunity for our early career researchers to share their latest research with colleagues from across a broad range of chemical biology backgrounds.
We are delighted to announce that Chiara Maniaci has been selected to attend the prestigious 71st Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting in June. Chiara will join a cohort of 611 of the most qualified young scientists from 91 countries after a rigorous selection process. She was nominated by the Royal Society and assessed on academic ability, motivation, and extra-curricular activities in a multi-stage process. The meeting will take place in Lindau, Germany from 26 June – 1 July, the participants will be able to meet each other and around 30 Nobel Laureates in person. The Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings foster the exchange among scientists of different generations, cultures, and disciplines. Chiara… Read More »Chiara selected to attend the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting!
On Tuesday 15th March we hosted a Chemical biology workshop at Newcastle University, involving academics across the faculty of medicine science and the school of natural and environment science. Ten academics delivered flash presentations on diverse areas of research (see below). A great way to get the group talking and learning about the chemical biology research going on across the university. Engineered protein polymers for high performance, multi-functional biomaterials Daniel Peters and David A Fulton Structure guided drug discovery for loss-of-function diseases Wyatt Yue (Cyclic) peptide discovery platform Akane Kawamura In vivo Non-invasive Small Animal Molecular Imaging Services Saimir Luli Mass spectrometry tools in drug discovery Matthias Trost Biocatalysts… Read More »Chemical Biology Workshop
Delighted to share the first publication of our collaboration with Martin Munzel and colleagues at NovoNordisk ‘An integrated platform approach enables discovery of potent, selective and ligand-competitive cyclic peptides targeting the GIP receptor‘. Thanks to all involved: Bhaskar Bhushan, Daniele Granata, Christian S. Kaas, Marina A. Kasimova, Qiansheng Ren, Christian N. Cramer, Mark D. White, Ann Maria K. Hansen,Christian Fledelius, Gaetano Invernizzi,Kristine Deibler, Oliver D. Coleman, Xin Zhao, Xinping Qu, Haimo Liu, Silvana S. Zurmühl,b Janos T. Kodra, Akane Kawamura and Martin Münzel The work was supported by a NovoNordisk STAR postdoc fellowship and the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme. Read… Read More »Collaboration with NovoNordisk
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
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
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
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!
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
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