Staff
Biocatalysis and Biochemistry
Prof. Jennifer Littlechild
The Exeter Biocatalysis Centre has a long standing interest in a large selection of enzymes that have use as biocatalysts in the pharmaceutical industries. The group have a special interest in enzymes from thermophilic sources.
We will continue to look at a selection of existing and new biocatalysts, purify the enzymes and carry out structural studies. This will enable a greater understanding of their mechanism and identify rational targets for mutagenesis studies to optimise their use in biotransformation reactions. Enzymes currently being studied are C-C bond forming enzymes, vanadium haloperoxidases, Baeyer-Villiger monooxygenases, aminoacylases, esterases, lactamases, dehydrogenases, dehalogenases and nitrilases.
Dr. Clive Butler
I am a biochemist with research interests is in the area of microbial metalloprotein biochemistry. The main focus of my research is the investigation of the structure and function of key bacterial enzyme complexes that participate in the reduction of nitrogen and selenium oxyanions.
Dr. Nic Harmer
My research is focused on understanding the structure and function of proteins associated with the mechanisms of disease. The principal methods that I specialise in are X-ray crystallography, biophysics, and enzyme mechanisms. My current main focus of research is the biosynthesis of coating polysaccharides, especially in Burkholderia pseudomallei, a pathogen that infects many people in south-east Asia and northern Australia. In the process of understanding how these pathogens generate their peculiar saccharides, I hope to find new enzymatic activities that could be turned for use in biocatalysis.
Important Plant and Fungal Enzymes
Several projects regarding the Structural Characterisation of Plant and Fungal Enzymes are underway in collaboration with other members of the new School of Biosciences.
Prof. Nick Talbot
Sub-cloning, over-expression, purification and crystallisation of enzymes involved in trehalose metabolism in Magnaporthe grisea.
Dr. Nick Smirnoff
Vitamin C biosynthesis pathway.
Biosensors
Prof. Peter Winlove, School of Physics
The Biophysics group comprises seven academic staff with research fellows and students from diverse backgrounds engaged in a broad programme of interdisciplinary research concerned with the physical properties of cells and tissues and with the development of novel physical methods for biological investigation.
Prof. Winlove is involved in the development of optical and electrochemical sensors for molecules of physiological or clinical interest. One current interest, in collaboration with Prof. Littlechild, is primarily in the application of the enzyme systems of thermophilic bacteria, which promise to be more resistant to denaturation that is a major problem in the construction of enzyme-based biosensors. They are also pursuing the possibility of engineering enzymes and support systems to obtain an optimum configuration in which the redox site is coupled to the electrode whilst the binding site remains accessible to the substrate.
Research into developing fluorescence-lifetime and Raman techniques suitable for applications such as high throughput drug screening is also ongoing.
Peninsula Medical School
Collaborations also exist with the Peninsula Medical School. These include those with Prof. Andrew Hattersley and glucokinase mutations associated with type II diabetes and Prof. Paul Winyard on enzymes involved with oxidative stress with specific interest in the human peroxiredoxin system.
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