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Biophysical Sciences Institute
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Chemical Biology

Our community of researchers working at the chemistry/biology interface develop new chemical and biological techniques and tools to probe fundamental biological systems.

We are committed fostering our interdisciplinary community whose skills are drawn from diverse areas of expertise including synthetic chemistry, biochemistry, biophysics, protein-protein interactions and analytical chemistry. By working collaboratively, our researchers develop and apply innovative techniques, analytical tools, and carefully designed molecular probes, to the study and manipulation of biological systems.
Chemical Biology Academics
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Research Highlights

  • A team lead by Dr Clare Mahon (Durham Chemistry) are developing new molecular probes to diagnose changes to the bacterial genome during infection. These changes can result in antibiotic resistant bacterial infections developing, an especial risk in immunocompromised patients. The new probes have potential applications as a new fast, point-of-care tool to tackle antimicrobial resistance.

  • A multidisciplinary team led by Professor Martin Cann (Durham Biosciences) have identified the protein allophycocyanin A as a target for CO2 binding during photosynthesis in cyanobacteria. This is revealing how CO2 regulates electronic energy transfer during the light harvesting phase of photosynthesis, reducing harm to the photosynthetic apparatus.

  • Target sites for the inhibitor tanespimycin of Leishmania mexicana, have been validated by a team of academics from the Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases led by Professor Paul Denny (Durham Biosciences). Using a combination of live parasite photoaffinity labelling using novel probes and quantitative proteomics mass spectrometry, the inhibition of L. mexicana was found to slow multiple mechanisms of protein production when bound to heat shock protein 90 providing further insights for the development of these anti-leishmanial agents.

  • Plant Growth Regulation by a Novel, Synthetic Small Molecule

    An analogue of calmodulin growth inhibitors, the specially designed molecule was found to instead promote plant growth. A collaboration between Professors Knight and Steel have shown this unexpected activity to be owing to the degradation of an important group of growth regulators, DELLA proteins.
    DELLA Test 1

  • New Insights into how Carbon Dioxide Binding Prevents Damage During Photosynthesis

    An interdisciplinary team led by Professor Martin Cann (Durham Biosciences) has identified the protein allophycocyanin A as a target for carbon dioxide binding in cyanobacteria. This modification regulates electronic energy transfer and reduces harm to the bacteria's photosynthetic apparatus.
    Allophcocyanin Test 1

Plant Growth Regulation by a Novel, Synthetic Small Molecule

An analogue of calmodulin growth inhibitors, the specially designed molecule was found to instead promote plant growth. A collaboration between Professors Knight and Steel have shown this unexpected activity to be owing to the degradation of an important group of growth regulators, DELLA proteins.
DELLA Test 1

New Insights into how Carbon Dioxide Binding Prevents Damage During Photosynthesis

An interdisciplinary team led by Professor Martin Cann (Durham Biosciences) has identified the protein allophycocyanin A as a target for carbon dioxide binding in cyanobacteria. This modification regulates electronic energy transfer and reduces harm to the bacteria's photosynthetic apparatus.
Allophcocyanin Test 1
Highlight Publications

Activities

Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases

The “Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases” (NTD Network) was founded in 2018 and funded through the Global Challenges Research Fund. It is led by Professor Paul Denny (Durham Biosciences) and an executive team from 12 institutions from 6 countries across South America, Asia and the UK.

The aim of the network is to identify new drug targets for leishmaniasis and Chagas disease, and uses a multidisciplinary, collaborative approach to identifying in-parasite biomolecules as potential targets and screening these targets against chemical libraries. Leishmaniasis and Chagas disease are two of the WHO’s top 20 neglected tropical diseases. They are spread by biting insects and are recognised to be amongst the most severely neglected diseases in the world, affecting the “poorest of the poor”.

 

Molecular Sciences for Medicine (MoSMed) CDT

The MoSMed EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training is an interdisciplinary CDT held jointly between Newcastle and Durham Universities. Co-awardees from Durham include Professors Steven Cobb (BSI Director) and Ehmke Pohl (BSI Co-Director), and current MoSMed CDT students are a valued part of our community.

The CDT provides high quality training for future researcher leaders at the chemistry and medicine interface. Its research themes include Biology of Disease, Molecule & Assay Design and Structural Biology & Computation.

  • Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases

    The NTD GCRF led by Professor Paul Denny (Durham Biosciences), includes collaborators from across South America, Asia and the UK. It aims to identify leishmaniasis and Chagas disease therapeutic targets through a multidisciplinary, collaborative approach.
    Cutaneous leishmaniasis introduction on YouTube!

  • Virus-X Consortium

    Virus-X was a scientific expedition to explore the uncharted territory of genetic diversity in extreme natural environments e.g. geothermal hot springs and deep-sea ocean ecosystems. Professor Ehmke Pohl (Durham Bioscience) was Co-I on the consortium award which spanned eight European countries.
    Virus X Consortium talk COVID

Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases

The NTD GCRF led by Professor Paul Denny (Durham Biosciences), includes collaborators from across South America, Asia and the UK. It aims to identify leishmaniasis and Chagas disease therapeutic targets through a multidisciplinary, collaborative approach.
Cutaneous leishmaniasis introduction on YouTube!

Virus-X Consortium

Virus-X was a scientific expedition to explore the uncharted territory of genetic diversity in extreme natural environments e.g. geothermal hot springs and deep-sea ocean ecosystems. Professor Ehmke Pohl (Durham Bioscience) was Co-I on the consortium award which spanned eight European countries.
Virus X Consortium talk COVID
Institute News

Highlight Publications

Bhagat P.K., Roy D., Sadanandom A., 2023. Expression, Purification, and Enzymatic Analysis of Plant SUMO Proteases. Methods in Molecular Biology, 2581.

Brittain, W.D.G. & Coxon, C.R., 2022. Perfluoroaryl and Perfluoroheteroaryl Reagents as Emerging New Tools for Peptide Synthesis, Modification and Bioconjugation. Chemistry - A European Journal, 28(7).

Foster, A.W., Clough, S.E., Aki, Z., Young, T.R., Clarke, A.R., & Robinson, N.J., 2022. Metalation calculators for E. coli strain JM109 (DE3): aerobic, anaerobic, and hydrogen peroxide exposed cells cultured in LB media. Metallomics : integrated biometal science, 14, 9.

Gannon H.G., Riaz-Bradley A., Cann M.J., 2024. A Non-Functional Carbon Dioxide-Mediated Post-Translational Modification on Nucleoside Diphosphate Kinase of Arabidopsis thaliana. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 25(2), 2. 

Guillén-García, A., Gibson, S.E.R., Jordan, C.J.C., Ramaswamy, V.K., Linthwaite, V.L., Bromley, E.H.C., Brown, A.P., Hodgson, D.R.W., Blower, T.R., Verlet, J.R.R., Degiacomi, M.T., Pålsson, L.-. & Cann, M.J., 2022. Allophycocyanin A is a carbon dioxide receptor in the cyanobacterial phycobilisome. Nature Communications, 13(1).

Jasilionis A., Plotka M., Wang L., Dorawa S., Lange J., Watzlawick H., van den Bergh T., Vroling B., Altenbuchner J., Kaczorowska A.-K., Pohl E., Kaczorowski T., Nordberg Karlsson E., Freitag-Pohl S., 2023. AmiP from hyperthermophilic Thermus parvatiensis prophage is a thermoactive and ultrathermostable peptidoglycan lytic amidase. Protein Science, 32(3), 3.

Mishra A., Djoko K.Y., Lee Y.-H., Lord R.M., Kaul G., Akhir A., Saxena D., Chopra S., Walton J.W., 2023. Water-soluble copper pyrithione complexes with cytotoxic and antibacterial activity. Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry, 21(12).

Osman D., Robinson N.J., 2023. Protein metalation in a nutshell. FEBS Letters, 597.

Stewart L.J., Hong Y., Holmes I.R., Firth S.J., Ahmed Y., Quinn J., Santos Y., Cobb S.L., Jakubovics N.S., Djoko K.Y., 2023. Salivary Antimicrobial Peptide Histatin-5 Does Not Display Zn(II)-Dependent or -Independent Activity against Streptococci. ACS Infectious Diseases, 9(3), 3.

Young T.R., Deery E., Foster A.W., Martini M.A., Osman D., Warren M.J., Robinson N.J., 2023. Two Distinct Thermodynamic Gradients for Cellular Metalation of Vitamin B12. JACS Au, 3.  

A purple dividing line

Chemical Biology Academics

Dr Aakash Basu, Department of Biosciences       

Areas of Expertise: Biomolecular Interactions, Genomics, Single-molecule Biophysics 

Research Interests

  • Deciphering the mechanical code of the genome and epigenome
  • Understanding how sequence-encoded mechanical properties of DNA encode regulatory information

 

Professor Adam Benham, Department of Biosciences    

Areas of Expertise: Cell Biology, Biochemistry, Immunology         

Research Interests

  • Oxidative folding of secretory proteins in the Endoplasmic Reticulum 
  • Protein chaperone function
  • Antigen processing and presentation by the immune system

 

Professor Tim Blower, Department of Biosciences           

Areas of Expertise: Microbiology, Genomics, Biochemistry, X-ray Crystallography 

Research Interests

  • Toxin-antitoxin systems
  • Bacteriophage-resistance
  • Antimicrobial Resistance
  • Bacteriophage biology
  • Phage defence 

 

Professor Martin Cann, Department of Biosciences                       

Areas of Expertise: Biochemistry

Research Interests

  • Carbon dioxide sensing 
  • Bacterial death 

 

Dr Peter Chivers, Department of Biosciences      

Areas of Expertise: Bioinorganic Chemistry 

Research Interests: Molecular determinants of microbial metal homeostasis.  

 

Professor Steven Cobb, Department of Chemistry            

Areas of Expertise: Synthetic Chemistry, Peptoid and Peptide Chemistry

Research Interests

  • Peptide and peptoid chemistry
  • Antimicrobials
  • Anticancer
  • Bio-organic fluorine chemistry

 

Professor Paul Denny, Department of Biosciences           

Areas of Expertise: Cell Biology, Parasitology, Lipid Biochemistry               

Research Interests

  • Protozoan sphingolipid biosynthesis
  • Antileishmanial therapeutic discovery
  • Antileishmanial mode of action deconvolution
  • Molecular diagnostics for protozoan infections 

 

Dr Karrera Djoko, Department of Biosciences 

Areas of Expertise: Metals in Biology 

Research Interests

  • The impact of metal availability on microbial physiology
  • How microbes respond to changing metal availability
  • How host organisms influence metal availability to host-associated microbes

 

Dr Matthew Kitching, Department of Chemistry 

Areas of Expertise: Synthetic Chemistry, Supramolecular Chemistry & Functional Molecules 

Research Interests

  • Enantioselective Synthesis of Chiral Ammonium Centres
  • Smart droplets

 

Dr Clare Mahon, Department of Chemistry         

Areas of Expertise: Polymer Chemistry, Molecular Recognition, Biological Chemistry 

Research Interests

  • Development of sensors and diagnostics for bacterial disease 
  • Design of polymeric materials for use in biomedicine 
  • Improving understanding of biodegradation 

 

Dr Liz Morris, Department of Biosciences             

Areas of Expertise: Structural biology, Biophysics, Biochemistry, Virology 

Research Interests

  • Enzyme mechanisms
  • Protein-protein and protein-nucleotide interactions involved in virus replication 

 

Professor AnnMarie O'Donoghue, Department of Chemistry 

Areas of Expertise: Physical Organic Chemistry, Catalysis, Synthesis, Kinetics and mechanism, Kinetic acidity and pKa determination 

Research Interests

  • Synthetic organocatalysis and biocatalysis 
  • Mechanistic studies of organocatalysis and biocatalysis 
  • Enzyme mechanisms 
  • Synthesis and applications of stable organic radicals 

 

Dr Lars-Olof Pålsson, Department of Chemistry 

Areas of Expertise: Chemical physics, Biophysics 

Research Interests

  • Sensing surfaces based on fluorescent Langmuir-Blodgett films 
  • Electronic energy transfer in photosynthetic systems 

 

Professor Ehmke Pohl, Departments of Biosciences and Chemistry & Nevrargenics

Areas of Expertise: Structural Biology 

Research Interests

  • Structure-based drug design focusing in infectious diseases
  • High-throughput screening for drug discovery

 

Professor Stefan Przyborski, Department of Biosciences & Reprocell

Areas of Expertise: Bioengineering Human Tissues, Development and Translation of Advanced Cell Technologies, Cell and Tissue Differentiation in Health and Disease, 3Rs – Developing Alternatives for Animals in Research 

Research Interests

  • Human cell culture and building tissue equivalents 
  • Design and application of cell culture plasticware 
  • Bioreactor development and construction 
  • Device design and prototyping 
  • Cell and tissue differentiation methods 
  • Cell / tissue imaging and molecular analysis 
  • Commercialisation of technology and company development/operation 
  • Working at the industrial interface 

 

Professor Nigel Robinson, Department of Biosciences    

Areas of Expertise: Cell Biology of Metals 

Research Interests

  • Protein metalation 
  • Metal homeostasis 
  • Industrial biotechnology 

 

Dr Gary Sharples, Department of Biosciences     

Areas of Expertise: Microbiology, Biochemistry, Molecular Biology

Research Interests

  • Antibacterial mechanism of action of chelating agents, clay minerals, antibacterial surfaces and other novel antibacterial compounds.
  • Bacteriophage recombinases

 

Professor Patrick Steel, Department of Chemistry

Areas of Expertise: Synthetic Chemistry, Chemical Biology 

Research Interests

  • Synthesis and Application of Boronic Acids 
  • Fragment based Drug Discovery 
  • Chemical Probes 
  • plant chemical biology - plant hormonal signalling pathways and crop protection agents 
  • Parasite chemical biology: leishmaniasis and T. cruzi

 

Professor Andy Whiting, Department of Chemistry & Nevrargenics, LightOX

Areas of Expertise: Chemical Biology, Medicinal Chemistry, Drug Design & Development, Synthetic Chemistry, Catalysis  

Research Interests

  • Neurodegenerative drug design & synthesis
  • Retinoic acid receptor modulation
  • Retinoid drug mechanism studies

 

Professor J.A. Gareth Williams, Department of Chemistry            

Areas of Expertise: Synthetic Chemistry, Metal Complexes, Luminescence and Bio-imaging 

Research Interests

  • Luminescent sensors for bioactive ions and molecules in solution 
  • New sensors for magnesium ions with improved selectivity over calcium 
  • Development of new chelating agents based on naturally occurring siderophores 
  • Phosphorescent molecules for visible and NIR-light-emitting devices