Our community of researchers employ interdisciplinary approaches and innovative tools to probe fundamental biological systems. These systems span scales, from intracellular organisation and signalling through to the structure and behaviour of tissues.
A newly discovered protease enzyme from a little-known category of bacteria called Candidate Phyla Radiation has been found to have remarkable similarity to a human protease. A team led by Professor Ehmke Pohl (Durham Biosciences) have used metagenomics to investigate the thermostable protease, which given its structure and thermal behaviour, has interesting potential for use in biotechnology. Find out more here.
Dr Karrera Djoko (Durham Biosciences) and a team of multidisciplinary colleagues have gained new insight to the mode of action of the antimicrobial peptide Histadin-5. The zinc-binding Hst5, part of the histadine-rich family of peptides found in human saliva has been shown not to out-compete a model Streptococcus for Zn(II) as expected, but to have antimicrobial properties through a different mechanism. Find out more here.
Magnitude Biosciences is a Durham University spin-out company founded in 2018 by an interdisciplinary team with world leading expertise in C.elegans and automated imaging. Dr David Weinkove (Durham Biosciences, Chief Scientific Officer Magnitude Biosciences) and Dr Chris Saunter (Chief Technical Officer Magnitude Biosciences) developed their unique technology, the Healthspan Machine, into a commercial platform which now benefits academic and industrial laboratories around the world. We supported the collaboration in its very early stages in 2014 through a small BSI Seedcorn funding award, and also in 2017 through our support of a focussed research workshop.
Buffry, A.D., Kittelmann, S., & McGregor, A.P., 2023. Characterisation of the role and regulation of Ultrabithorax in sculpting fine-scale leg morphology. Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology, 11.
Costello L., Goncalves K., De Los Santos Gomez P., Simpson A., Maltman V., Ritchie P., Tasseff R., Isfort R., Dicolandrea T., Wei X., Määttä A., Karakesisoglou I., Markiewicz E., Bascom C.C., & Przyborski S., 2023. Quantitative morphometric analysis of intrinsic and extrinsic skin ageing in individuals with Fitzpatrick skin types II–III. Experimental Dermatology.
Hughes, J.G., Chisholm, D.R., Whiting, A., Girkin, J.M., & Ambler, Carrie, A., 2023. Bullseye Analysis: A Fluorescence Microscopy Technique to Detect Local Changes in Intracellular Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) Production. Microscopy and Microanalysis, 29, 2.
Jarrin, M., Kalligeraki, A.A., Uwineza, A., Cawood, C.S., Brown, A.P., Ward, E.N., Le K., Freitag-Pohl, S., Pohl, E., Kiss, B., Tapodi, A., & Quinlan, R.A., 2023. Independent Membrane Binding Properties of the Caspase Generated Fragments of the Beaded Filament Structural Protein 1 (BFSP1) Involves an Amphipathic Helix. Cells, 12, 12.
Law, J.O., Jones, C.M., Stevenson, T., Williamson, T.A., Turner, M.S., Kusumaatmaja, H., & Grellscheid, S.N., 2023. A bending rigidity parameter for stress granule condensates. Science Advances, 9, 20.
Määttä, A., Nixon, R., Robinson, N., Ambler, C.A., Goncalves, K., Maltman, V., & Przyborski, S., 2023. Regulation of epidermal proliferation and hair follicle cycling by synthetic photostable retinoid EC23. Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology, 22, 5.
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.
Uwineza A., Cummins I., Jarrin M., Kalligeraki A.A., Barnard S., Mol M., Degani G., Altomare A.A., Aldini G., Schreurs A., Balschun D., Ainsbury E.A., Dias I.H., Quinlan R.A., 2023. Identification and quantification of ionising radiation-induced oxysterol formation in membranes of lens fibre cells. Advances in Redox Research, 7.
Waite R., Adams C.T., Chisholm D.R., Sims C.H.C., Hughes J.G., Dias E., White E.A., Welsby K., Botchway S.W., Whiting A., Sharples G.J., Ambler C.A., 2023. The antibacterial activity of a photoactivatable diarylacetylene against Gram-positive bacteria, Frontiers in Microbiology, 14.
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, 5.
Zavagno G., Raimundo A., Kirby A., Saunter C., Weinkove D., 2024. Rapid measurement of ageing by automated monitoring of movement of C. elegans populations. GeroScience, 46(2), 2.
Areas of Expertise: Animal Cells and Systems
Research Interests: Collaborative, multi-disciplinary approaches to tackling wound repair, cancer and antimicrobial resistance.
Areas of Expertise: Neurobiology, Structure and Function of Sensory Receptors in Muscle
Research Interests
Areas of Expertise: Biomolecular Interactions, Genomics, Single-molecule Biophysics
Areas of Expertise: Cell Biology, Biochemistry, Immunology
Areas of Expertise: Microbiology, Genomics, Biochemistry, X-ray Crystallography
Areas of Expertise: Biochemistry
Areas of Expertise: Neuroscience, Chronic Pain, Pharmacology
Research Interests: Identifying and validating novel drug targets and prodromal bio- and behavioural-markers for a range of common chronic neurological and metabolic pathologies.
Areas of Expertise: Bioinorganic Chemistry
Research Interests: Molecular determinants of microbial metal homeostasis.
Areas of Expertise: Neurobiology, (Single-cell) Transcriptomics, Behaviour
Research Interests: Effects of nutritional state and drugs of abuse on neuronal physiology, gene expression and behaviour.
Areas of Expertise: Cell Division
Areas of Expertise: Cell Biology, Parasitology, Lipid Biochemistry
Areas of Expertise: Metals in Biology
Areas of Expertise: Stem Cells, Developmental Biology, Genetics, Drosophila melanogaster
Areas of Expertise: Molecular Cell Biology
Areas of Expertise: Animal Cell Biology, Disease
Areas of Expertise: Molecular Plant Cell Biology
Areas of Expertise: Plant Molecular Cell Biology, Plant Signalling
Research Interests: How stress information is encoded in calcium responses and how this is decoded by plants to produce the appropriate survival response.
Research Interests: Identification of plant intracellular signalling molecules - roots and development
Areas of Expertise: Systems biology
Research Interests: Hormone and Calcium Signalling in Plants.
Areas of Expertise: Evolutionary Developmental Biology, Animal Cells and Systems
Areas of Expertise: Structural biology, Biophysics, Biochemistry, Virology
Areas of Expertise: Biochemistry, Metalloproteins, p53, Cancer, Cell Engulfment
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
Areas of Expertise: Signalling and Animal Cell Systems
Areas of Expertise: Cell Biology of Metals
Areas of Expertise: Molecular Plant Sciences
Research Interests: Polypeptide tags: Protein Modification systems such as Small Ubiquitin-like MOdifiers (SUMO) and their roles in plants' resilience under a changing climate.
Areas of Expertise: Microbiology, Biochemistry, Molecular Biology
Areas of Expertise: Animal Cells and Systems, Ageing, Microbiome, Automated Analysis of Ageing
Research Interests: Study of the nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans to gain insights into basic biological processes such as ageing and host:microbe interactions.
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