Chemical Biology Cardiff University

Overview

We answer fundamental biology questions and develop technologies that are useful for practical applications.  Cardiff University 's Chemical Biology work covers a wide range of topics including; natural product biosynthesis, mechanistic investigation of therapeutic candidates, investigations of disease targets, labelling of biomolecules for product design and creating new-to-nature biomolecules. By integrating expertise across various disciplines, we strive to advance the frontiers of scientific knowledge and innovation.

Research

Protein science underpins every facet of our daily lives. Investigations of proteins have provided answers to important biological phenomena, such as the study of antibacterial peptides and cancer markers. The application of these findings results in the creation of chemical biological tools that facilitate new insights, like peptide ligases, as well as biotherapeutics with direct benefits to the general public, such as semaglutide, Trastuzumab emtansine and insulin detemir.

The research in this area strives to master the chemistry underlying protein applications.  Students will gain hands-on experience in protein preparation and modification, enzyme design, high-throughput screening, protein crystallography, mass spectrometry, kinetic analysis and high-throughput techniques. Using chemical protein synthesis, we reveal atomistic insights into how naturally found bacteriocins confer broad-spectrum nanogram activity against bacterial pathogens, paving the way to target the rise of microbial resistance encountered in hospitals. Meanwhile, we adapt genetic code expansion and other biocatalysts such as peptide ligases to create unique proteins with novel bioactivity.

Signalling via small lipophilic molecules is involved at all levels of external communication between organisms from all of the living kingdoms. Well-known are the pheromones which communicate between members of the same species with a wide diversity of semiochemicals communicating between species. In animals, such as insects, pheromones and other semiochemicals produced largely by biotechnological means provide sustainable means of managing pests of agriculture and vectors of pathogens of human and farm animals, as well as in managing beneficial organisms.

We use sophisticated approaches in capturing the semiochemicals which are often unstable chemically and present at extremely low concentrations, and make tentative structural assignments by mass spectrometry coupled chromatography involving state of the art technology. Confirmation of structure is by comparison with NMR authenticated samples from other sources including organic synthesis. Formulation is developed particularly for highly sensitive compounds and collaboration with Industry for practical development. Crucial to this work is collaboration, with the School of Biosciences, for directly coupled chromatographic separation with electrophysiological recordings from olfactory organs including single olfactory neurons.