Sugars & proteins: towards a synthetic biology Benjamin Davis University of Oxford, UK
Our work studies the interplay of biomolecules – proteins, sugars and their modifications. Synthetic Biology’s development at the start of this century may be compared with Synthetic Organic Chemistry’s expansion at the start of the last; after decades of isolation, identification, analysis and functional confirmation the future logical and free-ranging redesign of biomacromolecules offers tantalizing opportunities. This lecture will cover emerging areas in our group in chemical manipulation of biomolecules with an emphasis on new bond- forming and bond-breaking processes compatible with biology: (i) New methods: Despite 90-years-worth of largely non-specific, chemical modification of proteins, precise ‘scarless’ or ‘traceless’ methods in protein chemistry remain rare. The development of efficient, complete, chemo- and regio-selective methods, applied in benign aqueous systems to redesign and reprogramme the structure and function of biomolecule both in vitro and in vivo will be presented. (ii) ‘Synthetic Biologics’ and their applications: biomimicry; functional recapitulation; effector [drug/agrochemical/ gene/radio-dose] delivery; selective protein degradation; inhibitors of pathogen interactions; non-invasive presymptopmatic disease diagnosis; probes and modulators of in vivo function.
I03
© The Author(s), 2023
Made with FlippingBook Learn more on our blog