12th-13th January 2023 Grace presented her DPhil work at the 3rd PSL Chemical Biology Symposium in Paris, her poster summarised key results from her DPhil on the development of macrocyclic peptides as multifunctional probes. Thanks to Oxford Chemistry Department for providing funding.
Our group member Klemensas Simelis based at Oxford University handed in his thesis this week. Klem’s research looked at the “Development of Chemical Tools for Ten-Eleven Translocation Enzymes”. A summary of his project follows: Methylation of DNA (5-methylcytosine) is an epigenetic mark that typically silences gene expression. Ten-Eleven Translocation enzymes (TETs) oxidise the methyl groups of 5-methylcytosine, forming epigenetic DNA marks with distinct functions and facilitating DNA demethylation by other cellular mechanisms, which restores gene expression. The work discussed in the thesis is focused on: i) broadening the understanding of how these enzymes work using biochemical assays to detect catalytic activity, and ii) developing small molecule and cyclic peptide TET inhibitors… Read More »Thesis hand in day for Klem!
Many congratulations to Dr Benoit Darlot on successfully defending his DPhil thesis on Design of modulatory peptides against chemokines. Benoit was an EPSRC Synthesis for Biology and Medicine CDT student, Oxford and was co-supervised by co-supervised by Prof Shoumo Bhattacharya (Radcliffe Department of Medicine, Oxford). He was awarded an EPSRC Doctoral Prize and continued as a postdoc in the lab for six months. As well as his sterling work on tick protein derived anti-inflammatory peptides, Benoit was an active member of the research community. He was a member of the NU Rainbow Network steering committee and the committee for the NuTEC RSC local section where he endeavoured to support his… Read More »Congratulations Benoit!
A double congratulations is owed to our own Dr Joanna Bonnici, who successfully navigated the perils of a pandemic-Zoom viva to defend her DPhil thesis in December. With hardly a breath to spare she started a family with her husband Tom, as baby Elsie arrived in late January this year. Joanna has been an asset to the lab throughout her DPhil and is almost certainly, definitely, looking forward to more happy years of research to come… Many congratulations to them all and we look forward to using both events as an excuse to over-celebrate later this year once we are all vaccinated!
Benoit Darlot is now an active member of the NU Rainbow Network steering committee. He is investing his time and efforts to defend LGBTQ+ rights on the campus and to foster institutional change within the university to tackle EDI issues. (Blog by B.D.)
Paper in JBC – Engineered anti-inflammatory peptides inspired by mapping an evasin-chemokine interaction. Our latest paper on the development of anti-inflammatory peptides inspired by tick evasins is out now in Journal of Biological Chemistry. Multi-disciplinary collaborative work with Prof. Shoumo Bhattacharya & Prof. Carol Robinson Groups, with Benoit Darlot & James Eaton from the group leading the study. This work was funded by the BHF, Oxford BHF Centre for Research Excellence and SBM.
Congratulations to Benoit Darlot who has been awarded an EPSRC Doctoral Prize to continue his work on tick protein derived anti-inflammatory peptides beyond his DPhil for a period of 6 months.
Attendance at the Gordon Research Conference on Chemistry and Biology of Peptides 2020 in Ventura, CA, USA. (9-14/02/2020) Benoit Darlot presented his work on tick saliva protein inspired anti-inflammatory peptides to the peptide community in Ventura. Great opportunity to share the lab’s work and get inspiration from the growing peptide community. (Blog by B.D.)
Many Congratulations to Roman Belle for successfully defending his DPhil thesis titled “Histone Lysine and DNA Methylation: Dynamic Marks in the Chromatin”! Thanks to Dr Paola Arimondo from Institute Pasteur and James McCullagh for being his examiners.
Kawamura Group DPhil students presented their work at the RSC Chemical Biology and Bio–organic Group Postgraduate Symposium in Southampton. Great job Loane Serano, Klem Simelis, Grace Roper & Raphael Reinbold for presenting their posters, and Benoit Darlot for the oral presentation on his exciting work on anti-inflammatory peptides derived from tick saliva proteins – our collaborative work with Prof. Shoumo Bhattacharya.