Chemical biology symposium

Dr Clore's research focuses on the development and application of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) to study the structure and dynamics of biological macromolecules and their complexes in solution. He is particularly interested in exploring fundamental questions associated with protein dynamics and macromolecular interactions.

His research group is using NMR to detect and characterise short-lived, sparsely-populated states of macromolecules. Many important biological processes proceed through transient intermediate states that comprise only a fraction of the overall population of a molecular system. As a result, they are invisible (i.e. 'dark') to conventional biophysical techniques (including crystallography, cryo-electron microscopy and single molecule spectroscopies). The group's research provides new insights into macromolecular recognition and assembly, and the effect of the invisible 'dark' state on some NMR observables so that its footprint is readily observed in measurements on the NMR visible species.

His work on amyloid-β, huntingtin and Hsp40 has implications for the treatment of a range of neurodegenerative diseases associated with protein aggregation and amyloid formation.

Marius Clore is a NIH Distinguished Investigator, a Member of the US National Academy of Sciences and a Fellow of the Royal Society. He has won numerous awards including the RSC Centenary and Khorana Prizes, and the Biochemical Society Centenary Award.

Professor Eyers’ team use analytical chemistry strategies, specifically based around a technique called mass spectrometry, to explore the protein components of cells and tissues.

Mass spectrometry is a sophisticated strategy for determining mass, which the team use to work out the amount and sequence of proteins from biological, environmental or clinical samples. They develop different ways of using this technique to understand how biological systems respond to their environment or change as a result of disease. By defining changes in cellular protein profile under different conditions, the team can devise strategies to exploit these for therapeutic intervention, to develop hypotheses to understand biological drivers, or to use as markers of disease.

Professor Flashman’s team look at the role of enzymes in plant and humans in response to reduced oxygen availability. The team explores how the structure and mechanism of these enzymes helps them control their rate of reaction with oxygen and therefore their ability to act as good oxygen sensors. In both humans and plants, these oxygen-sensing enzymes take oxygen from the atmosphere and transfer the oxygen atoms onto specific target proteins. This acts as a signal for the target proteins to be degraded by the cell. If oxygen levels reduce, the rate of enzyme activity decreases and the target proteins are stabilised.

 

The consequence of this stabilisation is that cells adapt to the reduced oxygen availability, for example by switching to anaerobic metabolism. This system has been known for some time in humans, and inhibitors of the oxygen-sensing enzymes has led to treatments for anaemia. Excitingly, finding inhibitors for plant oxygen-sensing enzymes or engineering changes to their structure and mechanism could slow their activity and help plants survive flooded (low oxygen) conditions for longer. This will be important in generating crops that are more tolerant of stresses associated with climate change.

Kai Johnsson is Director of the Department of Chemical Biology at the Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Medical Research, and Professor at the Institute of Chemical Sciences and Engineering of the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). His current research interests focus on the development of chemical approaches to visualize and manipulate biochemical activities in living cells. In the past he has introduced a number of widely used research tools and used these tools to make biological discoveries. He introduced methods to specifically label proteins in living cells (i.e. SNAP-tag and CLIP-tag), developed new fluorescent probes and sensors, and conducted studies on the mechanism of action of drugs and drug candidates.
Kai Johnsson obtained his Diploma and PhD from the ETH Zürich in Switzerland. He joined the faculty of EPFL in 1999 and in 2017 became Director at the MPI for Medical Research. Kai Johnsson was Associate Editor of ACS Chemical Biology from 2005 to 2010 and since 2021 Executive Editor of the Journal of the American Chemical Society. He is member of the Editorial Advisory Board of Science and was member of the Research Council of the Swiss National Science Foundation from 2011-17. He received the Prix APLE for the invention of the year 2003 of EPFL, the Novartis Lectureship Award 2012/13, the Karl-Heinz Beckurts Prize 2016 and is elected member of EMBO.

Dr. Enzymology and Bio-Organic Chemistry, is Professor and Chair of Biochemistry at the Department of Biotechnological and Applied Clinical Sciences, University of L’Aquila (Italy). He is also Head of the Lipid Neurochemistry Unit at the European Center for Brain Research – IRCCS Santa Lucia Foundation, Rome. 

Published numerous highly cited full papers (citations = 22442, h-index = 79 according to Scopus). Invited speaker at more than 110 international congresses, Guest Editor of 16 theme-issues of scientific journals (including Drug Discovery Vol. 76 (2021) by RSC), holder of 9 granted patents. 

President of the International Cannabinoid Research Society (ICRS) in 2010-2011. Chair of the 2015 Gordon Research Conference on “Cannabinoid Function in the CNS”. Visiting Professor at University of Cambridge in 2017.

Received various international awards, including the “2016 Mechoulam Award” for cannabinoid research and the “2020 Tu Youyou Award” for medicinal chemistry.

Included by Stanford University in the “2022 World Top 2% Scientists’ List”, and listed among the “Top Italian Scientists”.

Lydia Meyer-Turkson is the Global Early Innovation Partnering Leader for Oncology working out of the Boston Innovation Center.
In her role, Lydia serves as the key point of contact for the oncology therapeutic area for interactions with the Janssen R&D (JRD) leadership to ensure external innovation opportunities are centrally coordinated and strategically aligned with business priorities. Lydia joined Johnson & Johnson Innovation in January 2022 from Inari Agriculture Inc, a Flagship Ventures company. In her prior role as Vice President of Business Development at Inari, she developed, led and executed the company’s partnering strategy for its gene editing and deep learning technologies in human therapeutics. She worked closely with the Leadership Team, External Innovation, Legal and Patent colleagues to define opportunities aligned to strategic goals and build the business case for partnering. Lydia brings 20 years of broad ranging business development experience working with R & D teams commercializing platform technologies across a range of in and outlicensing transactions, M&A and research collaborations in oncology and rare disease drug discovery, biomarkers and diagnostics. She has worked in the UK, Europe and US with CEO and Executive teams in roles at Horizon Discovery plc (aquired by Perkin Elmer), Evotec GmbH and Epistem plc helping lead business growth. Lydia earned her M.Phil (Masters) in Chemistry at Cardiff University and MBA at Manchester Business School, UK and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and member of the Integrated Chemistry- Biology Research Committee there. Lydia is passionate about socioeconomic diversity and inclusion and has undertaken volunteer roles as reviewer for the L’Oréal Women in Science Awards Committee for Sub-Saharan Africa and the Women in Cancer Research AACR Scholarship Awards Committee.