New BBI Innovation Training Programme

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Alewo Idoko-Akoh speaking at a BBI Innovation Training event.
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. 

The sessions will be co-delivered with the DREI Research Commercialisation Team, Science Creates, Spin Up Science, and SetSquared.  

For further information, please contact Kerstin Kinkelin.  

The BBI Innovation Programme is funded through a Harmonised EPSRC-ESRC Impact Acceleration Account Strategic Impact Award. 

JOB VACANCY: Research Associate in de novo enzyme design

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** Applications are now closed **

A post-doctoral position is available to develop completely new protein scaffolds and elaborate these into de novo enzymes. This BBSRC-funded post is available for three years. It is in the protein design laboratory of Prof Dek Woolfson (Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Bristol), and in collaboration with Prof Anthony Green’s protein engineering and biocatalysis group (MIB, University of Manchester). The appointed post-doc would design de novo enzymes based on new alpha-helical barrel proteins using a combination of computational design, protein biochemistry, and directed evolution.

Specifically, the work will develop de novo alpha-helical barrel proteins recently designed by the Woolfson group based on its foregoing peptide assemblies (Science 346, 485-8 (2014)). Unlike most natural peptide assemblies and proteins, these alpha-helical barrel peptides and proteins have solvent-accessible channels running completely through them. These lumens have dimensions accessible to small molecules, and the Woolfson group has shown that they can be modified through rational or computational design to incorporate new functions. Specifically, catalytic activity can be installed into the alpha-helical barrel peptides (Nature Chemistry 8, 837-44 (2016)). The new single-chain alpha-helical barrel proteins open possibilities to extend this work considerably towards the construction of de novo enzymes. The aim of the new project is to design alpha-helical barrel proteins that bind small-molecule substrates and perform catalytic transformations. To realise this potential, this project will be in collaboration with the Green lab (Nature 606, 49-58 (2022)) to bring expertise in biocatalysis, and particularly directed evolution and genetic-code expansion to the project.

Further details and how to apply
Research Associate

Closing date 
15 September 2023

For informal enquiries
Please contact: Dek Woolfson

Spinouts celebrate new investment

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Five University of Bristol spinout companies with links to the Bristol BioDesign Institute and BrisSynBio have announced over £4m in new investment and awards.

Halo Therapeutics secured a £1.5 million investment, led by the Development Bank of Wales alongside Science Angel Syndicate (SAS) members and the KBA Group, to begin clinical trials of an easy-to-use, cost-effective, home therapeutic treatment for SARS-CoV-2 (coronaviruses). Halo was founded by CEO Dr Daniel Fitzgerald, Prof Christiane Berger-Schaffitzel, and Prof Imre Berger following research conducted as part of BrisSynBio. Imre, a Co-Director of the BBI, said the antiviral spray: “stops the virus from entering and multiplying in the nasal epithelial cells, where it can then spread to the throat and then into the lungs. It is a potential game-changer in the treatment and prevention of coronaviruses, particularly with the emergence of new viruses.”

Scarlet Therapeutics, which is working on a new technology to develop red blood cells that carry additional proteins within them to provide therapeutic benefit which can reach all parts of the body, has received funding to progress the innovation. Founded by Prof Ash Toye and Prof Jan Frayne, Scarlet Therapeutics has raised seed funding from Science Creates Ventures and Meltwind to build a pipeline of novel therapies to treat patients with a wide range of diseases, particularly metabolic disorders.

Rosa Biotech has secured £415,000 in Seed+ investment to accelerate development of its pioneering bio-sensing technology, designed to enable cost effective screening of a range of life-threatening diseases with high accuracy at an early stage. Rosa is initially targeting “the early identification of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) which, if left untreated can develop into steatohepatitis (NASH) leading to liver failure. The Western world has experienced a 100% increase in NASH cases during the last 30 years and this trend is expected to accelerate in the coming decades.”

Imophoron has announced a £2.4m extension to its seed funding round, following significant investment from Meiji Yasuda Future Innovation Fund L.P., managed by Global Brain. They join existing investors Octopus Ventures and Science Creates Ventures in the extension. Imophoron is developing novel, thermostable nanoparticle vaccines using its ADDomer™ platform.

CDotBio, which is cultivating novel carbon nanodot biotechnology for a new generation of efficient, productive, climate resilient crops, has been awarded £50,000 from the Blavatnik Prize for Innovation. The Prize “provides opportunities for start-ups, pre-registration teams, or individuals to launch a bespoke project that would support the commercialisation of their technologies or products”.

Celebrating PhD viva successes

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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.

Dora Buzas‘ PhD focused on the ADDomer vaccine development platform and the engineering of high-affinity binders. The project involved the structural analysis of the Adenovirus Penton base protein-derived ADDobody and also other scaffold proteins from chimeric origins. Dora, a member of the ADDovenom research team and the Max Planck Bristol Centre for Minimal Biology, was supervised by Prof Imre Berger and Prof Christiane Berger-Schaffitzel.

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.

Synthetic Biology UK 2023

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The Biochemical Society and the Bristol BioDesign Institute are working together to organise this year’s Synthetic Biology UK meeting, which will take place in Bristol on 6-7 November.

Registration is now open. The deadline for submitting abstracts (and for early registration) is Wednesday 6 September 2023. 

Synthetic biology is a maturing field at the confluence of the biosciences, physical sciences, information technology, and engineering and is rapidly beginning to demonstrate valuable solutions to some of our most pressing global challenges in healthcare, agriculture, sustainability and the environment.

SBUK 2023 will bring the synthetic and engineering biology communities together in Bristol, a city with a rich and long-standing history in engineering and a vibrant research community in synthetic biology, to share recent scientific advancements across the field. Conference themes will include biomolecular design and engineering; cell and system-level design; synthetic and minimal cells; data-centric bioengineering, and applications across industry.

The diverse and inclusive programme will include opportunities for networking, and an emphasis will be placed on ensuring the event offers early career researchers with the vital opportunities needed to build their wider research networks with leading experts in the field, as well as gain insights into careers in industry, SMEs, policy, academia and innovation delivery.

Confirmed speakers include: Prof Patrick Cai, Prof Tanja Kortemme, Dr Gitta Neufang, Prof Andreas Plückthun, Dr David Riglar, Prof Susan Rosser, Prof Petra Schwille, Prof Seraphine Wegner, Prof Julius Lucks, and Dr Nicole Wheeler.

Banner contains details of the date, venue and website of the SBUK conference.

Bristol West MP visits School of Biochemistry

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In a University of Bristol lab, Jessica Cross holds her L’Oreal-UNESCO For Women in Science Rising Talent Program certificate, with Thangam Debbonaire stood to her left.
Thangam (right) with Jessica

The School of Biochemistry was delighted to host Thangam Debbonaire, Labour MP for Bristol West and Shadow Leader of the House of Commons, on 9 June 2023.

Thangam’s visit was a follow up from Jessica Cross (EPSRC Doctoral Prize Fellow) visiting the House of Commons when she was shortlisted for the L’Oreal-UNESCO For Women in Science Rising Talent Program.

Thangam toured the labs of Mark Dodding and BBI Director Dek Woolfson, where group members demonstrated their experiments to visualise motor protein activity in vitro and inside cells.

Jessica and Thangam were joined by VC Evelyn Welch and researchers Laura O’Regan, Kate Kurgan, Bernadette Carroll, Rachel Curnock, Kirsty McMillan and Emma Jones for lunch. It was a welcome opportunity to celebrate the contributions of women in science and to address barriers for women following careers in STEM.

Jessica Cross shortlisted for ‘Women in Science Rising Talent’ award

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Shortlisted candidates, holding bunches of flowers, stand in a semi-circle with other guests.Congratulations to Dr Jessica Cross, an ESPRC Doctoral Prize Fellow working in the Dodding/Woolfson labs, for making the shortlist of the L’Oreal-UNESCO For Women in Science Rising Talent Program, and being one of two highly commended applicants in the Physical Sciences category. Jessica visited 10 Downing Street, where she met George Freeman MP (Minister of State for Science, Research & Innovation), and has attended a training day for shortlisted candidates at the Royal Society, and a reception at the House of Commons.

Jess Cross stands next to pull up banner which carries her photo and a short biography.

Among the 170 attendees at the reception were MPs, academics and representatives from L’Oréal and UNESCO. These events have given Jessica and the others the chance to showcase their research, raise awareness of the important contribution of women in science, and discuss barriers for women in STEM and the need for policy change. 

Jessica said: “I am pleased and honoured to be recognised as a highly commended candidate by the L’Oreal UNESCO For Women in Science Program. It has been a fantastic opportunity to share our research and to network with inspiring women in science. This program is a good example of showcasing female talent in science and offering role models to the next generation of science leaders.”

JOB VACANCY: Research Associate, ADDovenom

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** Applications are now closed **

A post-doctoral position in Synthetic Biology and Protein Engineering is available in the Berger and Schaffitzel labs at the University of Bristol’s School of Biochemistry, the Max Planck Bristol Centre for Minimal Biology and the Bristol BioDesign Institute.

As part of the ADDovenom team, the post-holder will utilize state-of-the-art selection/evolution technology (Ribosome Display) to generate high-affinity binders (nanobodies and new scaffold proteins) that neutralise snake venom toxins. This project to develop new, safe and efficient antivenom to treat snakebites is an international collaboration with Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, University of Liege, University of Aix-Marseille, and iBET.

Experience with protein expression and purification is essential. Experience with biochemical and biophysical analysis of proteins and RNA isolation and preparation, and/or current molecular biology methods is a plus.

Further details and how to apply
Research Associate

Closing date for both posts
28 February 2023

For informal enquiries
Please contact: Christiane Berger Schaffitzel

JOB VACANCY: Research Fellow and Laboratory Manager with the Woolfson Group

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** Applications are now closed **

A permanent Research Fellow position is available to support Professor Dek Woolfson’s group in the School of Chemistry at the University of Bristol. The Woolfson group works on de novo peptide and protein design and the application of these in chemical and synthetic biology. The group bridges Chemistry, Biochemistry and the University’s synthetic/engineering biology centre, the Bristol BioDesign Institute (Prof Woolfson is Director of the BBI).

Research activity in the Woolfson group spans rational and computational peptide and protein design; the production of peptides and proteins using both synthetic and recombinant approaches; the biophysical and structural characterization of these molecules; and the applications of the resulting de novo peptide/protein modules to address problems and challenges in cell biology and biotechnology.

The postholder is expected to become actively engaged in these research activities, and would be encouraged to lead one of the group’s research programmes.

The primary responsibilities of this post are to ensure the smooth running of experimental aspects of the Woolfson research lab; to take responsibility for the day-to-day running of research in the Woolfson lab; and to help oversee the training of undergraduate and new post-graduate students, which number up to 10 each year. There will be considerable opportunity for the postholder to develop new research projects in peptide/protein design and synthetic biology with Professor Woolfson, including co-writing grant proposals and co-supervising research grants in the lab. This could extend to helping forge new collaborative research links and endeavours both across the University and with international collaborators.

Further, together with Professor Woolfson, the post-holder would be expected to contribute to undergraduate teaching in the School of Chemistry, predominantly on its first-year and Life Chemistry modules, and there will be some associated administrative duties.

Further details and how to apply
Research Fellow and Laboratory Manager

Closing date for both posts
22 February 2023

For informal enquiries
Please contact: Dek Woolfson

Review of 2022

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It has been another very busy year for the Bristol BioDesign Institute. It began with the launch of the Bristol Centre for Engineering Biology (BrisEngBio), which is funding eight proof of concept, and four discovery projects. A cohort of 12 PDRAs will be working on these projects, and will be offered a programme of training to develop their innovation skills. We have also welcomed Kerstin Kinkelin (Innovation Manager) and Wayne Powell (Administrator) to the core BBI team, to work closely with Kathleen Sedgley (Scientific Manager).

We have organised seven BBI seminars, the inaugural CuPiD network meeting in Alpbach, the annual meeting of the EU ADDovenom Consortium for the development of novel antivenoms, and have co-organised, attended and presented at many other conferences and workshops. BBI researchers have also published in the Nature journals, Science, JACS and more this year. Members of the BBI also contributed to the University of Bristol’s School of Chemistry being ranked 1st, Engineering 6th, and Biochemistry and Biological Sciences 8th in the UK in the 2021 REF Assessment.

For the BBI Management team, Dek Woolfson has been awarded a BBSRC sLoLa Grant with other synthetic biologists at the Universities of Edinburgh and Manchester, Imre Berger was elected as a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, and helped Halo Therapeutics win an OBN Award, Lucia Marucci received a BBSRC Breakthrough Award, and Tom Gorochowski co-established a Turing Interest Group in ‘Data-centric biological design and engineering,’ which holds its first event in March 2023.

There’s been exciting new research around transfusions of lab grown red blood cells, a potential anti-cancer therapy using artificial protocells, a blood test to detect brain tumours, a DNA repair-kit, and the use of bacteria to mimic the complex structure and function of living cells, as well as developments in the understanding, and potential treatment, of SARS-CoV-2.

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.