Alewo Idoko-Akoh speaking at a BrisEngBio training event (photo: Charlie Proctor)
The Bristol BioDesign Institute is offering an Innovation Training Programme to early career researchers looking to develop an entrepreneurial mindset and deepen their understanding of translational opportunities and innovation.
Building on the success of the BrisEngBio Innovation Programme, participants will be provided with innovation training, mentoring and networking opportunities, and support to drive the translation of their research.
The programme is primarily aimed at postdoctoral researchers, but others with a strong interest in innovation are also welcome to apply.
Monthly training sessions, running over a six-month period, will cover topics such as:
Introduction to Research Translation.
What is Intellectual Property and how can I protect it?
Developing impact from your research.
Presenting my research to a non-expert audience.
What is a start-up and how do start-up incubators work?
In addition, participants will be matched with an industry-based mentor, to gain exposure to industry and to access the broader community and ecosystem.
Participants are expected to attend all of the training days, as there will be an emphasis on cohort building and peer-to-peer learning.
At the end of the programme, participants will have:
learned new skills and knowledge, and developed an entrepreneurial mindset.
an understanding of different ways to get involved in innovation and enterprise activity (also known as knowledge exchange).
the ability to identify translational opportunities within their research.
Congratulations to Veronica Greco, Dora Buzas and Jazz Ghataora for successfully completing their PhD vivas.
Jazz Ghataora’s PhD research focused on the development of bacterial biosensors for the purpose of monitoring environmental heavy metal pollution, using the host Bacillus subtilis as a chassis. This project required the design of synthetic gene circuits, novel engineered chimeric proteins and structure guided mutagenesis. His supervisors were Prof. Susanne Gebhard and Dr. Bianca Reeksting. Jazz, a Research Associate in the BioCompute Lab at University of Bristol, is currently researching next generation reporter tags for yeast platform strain development as part of the BrisEngBio project ‘Nanopore-based physiological monitoring of yeast for bioprocess optimisation’, led by BBI Co-Director Thomas Gorochowski, and University of Washington’s Jeff Nivala.
Veronica Greco‘s PhD thesis title was: ‘Recombinase-based cellular memory: Methods for reading and reliable writing as steps towards real-world applications.’ She was supervised by Dr. Thomas Gorochowski and Professor Claire Grierson. Veronica is the Technology and Innovation Manager at CDotBio.
There will be much more to come throughout 2023, and we are looking forward to beginning the year with the BrisEngBio Annual meeting, and BrisEngBio Connect Partnership and Networking Event.
A study led by the labs of Prof Steve Mann (Chemistry) and Prof Paul Martin (Biochemistry) at the University of Bristol has demonstrated a new potential anti-cancer therapy that boosts the body’s inflammatory response using miniature artificial particles called protocells. This discovery is documented in an article published in Advanced Science, which specialises in interdisciplinary studies.
Our inflammatory cells, macrophages and neutrophils in particular, have remarkable cancer surveillance capacities, and therefore they act as “vigilants” to detect any cancer cell arising in the body. However, when these immune cells encounter the malignant cells, rather than killing them, they generally feed them with nutrients, which favours cancer growth. In this study, we developed a novel therapeutic system to reprogram immune cells away from cancer nurturing and towards cancer killing.
To achieve this, we injected miniature artificial protocells into the bloodstream of zebrafish, which are translucent and thus allow us to live image protocell dynamics and cell-cell interactions in real time. We observed that protocells were selectively taken up by inflammatory cells which were then reprogrammed, by specific cargoes loaded in the protocells, to make them more effective at killing cancer. The “reprogramming” cargo packaged in protocells was a miR223 inhibitor, anti-miR223, which maintains a pro-inflammatory/anti-cancer state in inflammatory cells, otherwise repressed by the presence of endogenous miR223. We showed that protocell-mediated reprogramming of the immune response led to reduced cancer cell proliferation and melanoma shrinkage in zebrafish.
In collaboration with Prof Ash Toye’s lab (Biochemistry), we established an in vitro assay with human macrophages supplemented with protocells. Our results showed that the protocells were able to promote anti-cancer reprogramming in human macrophages, too, which suggests that this novel protocell system may be a promising cancer immunotherapy strategy against human melanomas, and possibly also for other cancers with a pro-inflammatory vulnerability.
The research is explained in this scribble video:
Having demonstrated the ability of protocells to deliver cargoes to tumour-associated leukocytes and enhance their anti-cancer capacities, the Mann and Martin groups now plan to expand the therapeutic application of the protocell system beyond cancer and test the feasibility of using protocells to modulate the inflammatory response to unresolved/chronic wounds in order to improve wound healing in these clinically relevant inflammatory conditions. This research is currently ongoing and is supported by funding from BrisEngBio.
Macrophage Reprogramming with Anti-miR223-Loaded Artificial Protocells Enhances In Vivo Cancer Therapeutic Potential
Paco López-Cuevas, Can Xu, Charlotte E. Severn, Tiah C. L. Oates, Stephen J. Cross, Ashley M. Toye, Stephen Mann, Paul Martin Adv. Sci. 2022, 2202717, https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.202202717
Anike Te, Chief Strategy Officer for international materials company Lucideon, has joined the Bristol BioDesign Institute as an Aegis Professor in Engineering Biology. This prestigious appointment strongly aligns with our vision to be leading innovators in biomolecular and biosystems design and their translation, and for Bristol to be an internationally recognised centre in engineering biology.
Anike has experience in identification and adoption of new technologies into industry in healthcare, energy, construction, aerospace and ceramics in an international context. She has recently focused on the potential of synthetic biology to unlock sustainable, next generation materials.
Anike has also accepted a position on the Scientific Advisory Board for our UKRI-funded Bristol Centre for Engineering Biology, BrisEngBio, which was established to accelerate the translation of discovery synthetic biology research to address global challenges and boost the UK’s bioeconomy.
Anike will work across our portfolio of synthetic and engineering biology projects, surfacing and supporting the translation of novel therapeutics, diagnostics and materials. She will advise on the growth of our industrial networks to include new industries and new geographical regions, and mentor our new entrepreneurs.
The Aegis Professorship scheme was set up by the Science Partnership Office at the University of Bristol. In the scheme, visiting professors, who are leaders in their professional field, bring their up-to-date experience of work into academia. Through guidance and mentorship they facilitate joint working between researchers and external organisations such as industry and government.
Carmen Galan, Professor of Organic and Biological Chemistry and BrisEngBio Co-Lead for Innovation and Partnerships, said: “Working with Anike is a clear statement of our intention to work with industry to accelerate the translation of discovery synthetic biology research for real world benefit. The networks and expertise that Lucideon unlock for us aligns closely with our newest Bristol BioDesign Insititute research theme in Engineering Living and Sustainable Composite Interfaces.”
Imre Berger, Professor of Biochemistry and BrisEngBio Co-Lead for Innovation and Partnerships added: “Anike’s extensive expertise in establishing and leading international industrial networks will be a vital asset to accelerate new and potentially highly valuable projects that could evolve into transformative spin-outs and impacts. Having an external senior industrialist dedicate time to translation of research technologies is extremely valuable and Anike will be a perfect fit for this.”
Commenting on her appointment, Anike said: “It is a great honour to join the University of Bristol as an Aegis Professor in Engineering Biology. It’s a great opportunity to bring together academia and industry in an innovative, collaborative approach.”
“Lucideon is becoming increasingly involved in synthetic and engineering biology. It’s a very exciting area of science, which touches on many industries and technologies, and creates solutions to real-world issues, both in the UK and internationally.”
Simeon Castle, SynBio CDT PhD Student. Photo by Felix Russel-Saw
A new centre for engineering biology will build on Bristol’s success in synthetic biology and accelerate translation of its pioneering research to address global challenges and boost the UK’s bioeconomy.
By applying engineering principles to living systems, engineering biology aims to solve some of the world’s most pressing challenges in health, food security, and the environment.
The Bristol Centre for Engineering Biology, BrisEngBio, brings together scientists from a wide range of disciplines – from biology and chemistry to data science and systems engineering. Partnering with deep tech incubator, Science Creates and Oracle for Research, the aim is to develop fundamental research discoveries into commercially viable applications that benefit people and the planet.
BrisEngBio is the evolution of the UKRI-funded Synthetic Biology Research Centre, BrisSynBio, which published more than 325 research papers, enabled the spin-out of eight biotech companies, and leveraged additional research funding of over £90M.
“BrisEngBio embodies the same spirit of discovery and entrepreneurship that made BrisSynBio one of the country’s most academically and commercially successful centres for synthetic biology. Through this, we have already demonstrated that our fundamental research discoveries can be made commercially relevant. Now, through BrisEngBio, we are putting the ecosystem in place to really accelerate both discovery science and its translation.
“BrisEngBio’s early-career researchers will be honorary members of Science Creates, and through this they will benefit from a bespoke training and mentoring programme in innovation and commercialisation,” said Professor Dek Woolfson, Principal Investigator and Director of BrisEngBio.
“It’s been fantastic to work with many of the spin-out companies that came from BrisSynBio through Science Creates, with Science Creates Ventures having led investment rounds totalling £7.5 million and directly invested in two of those companies Imophoron and Cytoseek. We look forward to building on those successes, continuing our partnership with the University, and enabling more of these important discoveries to be translated for global good,” said Dr Harry Destecroix from Science Creates.
BrisEngBio investigators Dr Thomas Gorochowski, Dr Lucia Marucci and Professor Dek Woolfson at the BrisEngBio launch event. Photo by Beeston Media
“Synthetic and engineering biology has enormous potential to address some of the major global challenges that we face today. For example, in healthcare, energy and food security. But this requires input from all areas of science. BrisEngBio is a truly multidisciplinary venture, involving 55 University of Bristol academics from 11 Schools across four Faculties, and three Research Institutes,” said Professor Woolfson.
Initial UKRI funding of £1.5M will support 12 research projects and early career researchers over two years. BrisEngBio will cross disciplines to develop truly novel research such as hijacking bacterial transport as an antimicrobial strategy; identifying novel natural products for drug discovery; and using machine learning to predict self-healing properties of biohybrid materials.
Aligned with the UK Government’s National Engineering Biology Programme (NEBP), the centre promises to strengthen the UK’s position as an international leader in biotechnology.
Co-Investigator Dr Thomas Gorochowski said: “BrisSynBio had unprecedented success in funding and nurturing the fundamental science behind synthetic biology. It is critical that centres like ours set the research agenda and help maintain the UK’s position at the forefront of synthetic biology. BrisEngBio will provide the ecosystem to drive translation of new discoveries into commercially viable and truly world-leading engineering biology.”
Collaborating with Oracle for Research, BrisEngBio will utilise advanced cloud computing to realise data-driven design that combines academic and industry expertise in data science, machine learning, and multi-scale modelling.
Alison Derbenwick Miller, Vice President, Oracle for Research, said: “We are delighted that Oracle Cloud technology can support next-generation discovery and innovation at the new Bristol Centre for Engineering Biology (BrisEngBio). Through our collaboration, Oracle for Research will continue to support University of Bristol projects that drive real change through discovery and accelerate important research.”
Co-Investigator Dr Lucia Marucci said: “This is such an exciting time to be working at the interface of the natural sciences and engineering. We have seen through the pandemic what impact synthetic biology can have on our ability to develop vaccines and treatments. At BrisEngBio, we will nurture early career researchers and help them transition their research from scientific discovery to solutions that are both commercially viable and have the potential to address some of our most pressing global challenges.”
Professor Wolfson said: “I am delighted and excited by the continued support from UKRI and Government for the important area of synthetic biology. The new centre will allow us to translate our discoveries in fundamental synthetic biology into cutting edge technologies with significant impact locally, nationally and internationally, and across healthcare, the bioeconomy and environment.”
