Category: Bristol BioDesign News

Bristol BioDesign News

UKRI highlights BBI work on COVID-19 in article on structural biology research

Posted on by wayne.powell

The UKRI has published an article celebrating the history of BBSRC-supported impact in structural biology, which mentions the research on the SARS-CoV-2 virus by BBI researchers Profs Christiane Berger-Schaffitzel and Imre Berger.

The article (Advances in structural biology research) says:

Professors Christiane Berger-Schaffitzel and Imre Berger at the University of Bristol were pooling their teams’ expertise to study how membrane proteins fold.

Their work was supported by BBSRC responsive mode and ALERT research equipment funding, the Wellcome Trust, and BrisSynBio, one of six synthetic biology centres in the UK. BrisSynBio was funded by BBSRC and EPSRC, and Professor Imre Berger is the director of the centre.

When the pandemic started, they pivoted to COVID-19 as part of University of Bristol’s UNCOVER, a COVID-19 emergency research group led by Professor Adam Finn from Bristol Medical School (PHS).

Using cryogenic electron microscopy, where researchers freeze samples and fire electrons to image proteins, they determined the 3D structure of SARS-CoV-2’s spike protein. They discovered a pocket in the spike protein that they showed contained linoleic acid, an essential fatty acid with key roles in regulating the immune response.

Collaborating with virologist Professor Andrew Davidson and his team, they found that binding linoleic acid to the spike blocked the virus from infecting and replicating, acting as an antiviral. Two medical doctors in the US began using linoleic acid as an emergency COVID-19 treatment. Work is ongoing to develop this technology and establish full regulatory approval for this therapy in the UK.

To achieve approval and bring the drug to patients, University of Bristol spin-out Halo Therapeutics Ltd was founded by Dr Daniel Fitzgerald (CEO), Professor Christiane Berger-Schaffitzel (Chief Technology Officer) and Professor Imre Berger (Chief Strategy Officer).

Halo is developing structure-based drugs to target unmet needs around disease treatment. The spin-out is leading the application for clinical trials for the fatty acid antiviral drug on patients.

If successful, the drug could be used to treat early infections or for those who have been in contact with an infected individual to prevent infection and transmission.

Halo is also not stopping at COVID-19, turning its attention to other respiratory infections and potential obesity treatments based on fatty acid metabolism, too.

Vaccine Hub team hold annual meeting

Posted on by wayne.powell

The Future Vaccines Manufacturing Research Hub has held its Annual Meeting at Imperial College London, with BBI Co-Director Prof Imre Berger leading the team from University of Bristol. This was a follow up to the launch event in Bristol in November 2023.

Imre says: “These were fantastic days of great science, inspiring talks, and dynamic discussions. Exciting new ideas and projects are emerging from our partnerships with colleagues in the UK and Vietnam, especially with our long-standing collaborators from Vabiotech in Hanoi. Great science, great partnerships – looking forward to working together to bring the best vaccines and production tools to Vietnam!”

Further info about this partnership is available here.

Dr Kathleen Sedgley: engineering biology and the importance of Scientific Managers

Posted on by wayne.powell

Dr Kathleen SedgleyDr Kathleen Sedgley, the BBI’s Scientific Manager, has recorded a short video talking about her career for the UKRI’s Engineering Biology showcase. The showcase highlights some of the outcomes of the UKRI’s £800m of investment in this field since 2007.

You can read more about Kathleen and watch the video here.

PhD Studentships available with SWBio DTP

Posted on by wayne.powell

*Applications are now closed*

The South West Biosciences Doctoral Training Partnership (SWBio DTP) has launched its latest round of PhD projects, which will begin in September 2025.

The closing date for applications is Wednesday 11 December 2024, and you can apply here.

The following fully-funded, four-year PhD studentships are available with BBI researchers at University of Bristol.

Other projects can be found here.

Synthetic and Engineering Biology: A joint opportunity for the UK and Switzerland

Posted on by wayne.powell

Informed by roundtable discussions held at the Synthetic & Engineering Biology British-Swiss Summit, the Synthetic & Engineering Biology: A joint opportunity for the UK and Switzerland report, published in September 2024, delves into the most pressing challenges for advancing synthetic and engineering biology technologies addressing climate and environmental issues, and poses specific recommendations to governments, industry and the entire innovation ecosystem to act upon.

This webinar, which took place on 22 October 2024, saw Kerstin Kinkelin (Bristol BioDesign Institute), Maddie Cass (BIA), and Anike Te (Lucideon) discuss the report and its recommendations.

These findings are intended for a variety of stakeholders with the aim of moving forward joint Swiss and UK challenges in the field of synthetic and engineering biology, and – in light of the climate crisis – emphasising the urgent need to accelerate the commercialisation of these technologies.

The Summit was organised by the Bristol BioDesign Institute (University of Bristol), the Swiss Business Hub UK & Ireland, the BIA, and Lucideon.

Dek Woolfson to receive Vincent du Vigneaud Award

Posted on by wayne.powell

Prof Dek Woolfson, Director of the Bristol BioDesign Institute, has been named as one of the two recipients of the 2025 Vincent du Vigneaud Award. These prestigious awards, given by the American Peptide Society (and sponsored by Bachem), recognize outstanding achievements in peptide research at mid-career.

Dek has been honoured alongside Prof Ashraf Brik (Technion-Israel Institute of Technology). The awards will be presented at the 29th American Peptide Symposium and 15th International Peptide Symposium in California (15-19 June 2025).

Vincent du Vigneaud was an American biochemist known for his work with sulfur compounds and peptides. He won the 1955 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on the cyclic peptide, oxytocin.

BBI attends UKRI Engineering Biology Programme Convening Event

Posted on by wayne.powell

Engineering Biology Mission Award Holders Professors Thomas Gorochowski and Christiane Berger-Schaffitzel, Aegis Professor of Engineering Biology Anike Te, and BBI Scientific Manager Kathleen Sedgley were attended the UKRI Technology Missions Fund (TMF) Engineering Biology Programme Convening Event in Cardiff on Thursday 3 October.

The two Mission Awards were both highlighted amongst the UKRI portfolio:

  • Haemotoxic and cytotoxic snake venom metalloproteinases – production, enzymatic specificity, snakebite treatment, and biomedical use (PI: Christiane Berger-Schaffitzel)
    The team will establish robust production of snake venom metalloproteinase (SVMPs) toxins ready for use to develop next generation toxin-specific therapies for tackling snakebite envenoming.
  • CYBER – Cyanobacteria Engineering for Restoring Environments (PI: Thomas Gorochowski)
    CYBER aims to develop the foundational multidisciplinary tools needed to de-risk environmentally focused engineering biology and ultimately support its future deployment into real-world ecosystems.

Anike Te (Chief Strategy Officer, Lucideon) joined a panel of experts discussing pathways to commercialisation.

During the meeting, UKRI announced the publication of the Synthetic Biology for Growth evaluation report, which features many of the impacts from BrisSynBio and the broader Bristol synthetic and engineering biology community and partnerships.

University  of Bristol named AI University of the Year

Posted on by wayne.powell

The University of Bristol picked up two prizes at the inaugural National AI Awards, including AI University of the Year, and the AI Award for High Tech & Telecom for the REASON Open Networks Project Initiative.

The BBI and the Engineering Biology Centre for Doctoral Training both featured in Bristol’s ‘AI University of the Year’ submission, which highlighted our research “using surrogate machine learning models to approximate the behaviour of complex mechanistic models to describe complex, interconnected, biological processes; creating new protein structures with higher success rates than have previously been achievable to date; and improving the quality and reusability of open source tools that can apply advanced statistical techniques when processing experimental data.”

Professor Annela Seddon (Associate Pro Vice-Chancellor of Research & Innovation for the Faculty of Science and Engineering) said: “We have a long history of AI research, innovation and education at the University of Bristol and we have always believed in the transformative power of AI to improve lives.”

Jess Cross awarded ‘best communication’ prize for conference presentation

Posted on by wayne.powell

Dr Jess Cross, who works as an EPSRC Fellow across Biochemistry and Chemistry in collaboration with the Mark Dodding and Dek Woolfson labs, was awarded the best selected oral presentation at the 37th European Peptide Symposium in Florence last week. This is one of the major meetings on peptide science.

Jess presented work from the Woolfson and Dodding labs using de novo protein design to allosterically regulate kinesin-1 motors in cells. This work has recently been published in Nature Chemical Biology.

Congratulations, Jess!

Dodding & Woolfson labs awarded BBSRC grant for kinesin-1 research

Posted on by wayne.powell

The Dodding and Woolfson labs (Schools of Biochemistry and Chemistry, University of Bristol) have been awarded a grant by the BBSRC to understand how the kinesin-1 microtubule motor is activated, and to design new peptide-based-reagents to enable control of its activity.

Kinesin-1 motors play critical roles in intracellular transport of vesicles, organelles, protein complexes and mRNAs. They are particularly important for transport within the neuronal axons, and are dysregulated in many neurodegenerative diseases.

This four-year award, commencing in 2025, builds on their existing collaboration and will support two postdoctoral scientists working between the two labs.

For this project (Mechanism and design of allostery in the kinesin-1 complex), the team will aim to obtain a deep mechanistic understanding of the kinesin-1 autoinhibitory mechanism; insight into how cargo engagement induces conformational changes in the complex; and a clear understanding of the nature of active motor-cargo complexes. They will apply the latest protein/peptide design approaches to identify strategies and targets for manipulating kinesin activity, setting the stage for future work to apply these technologies to finely control kinesin-mediated transport in disease states.