Green Research Group

News

Mar 24 - Anyone interested in some really efficient incorporation of non-canonical amino acids? We’ve got you covered. “An Efficient Pyrrolysyl-tRNA Synthetase for Economical Production of MeHis-containing Enzymes” is out today in Faraday Discussions.

Mar 24 - “A non-canonical nucleophile unlocks a new mechanistic pathway in a designed enzyme” (Hutton et. al) is online at Nature Communications. This great piece of work describes the development of an efficient enzyme for the Morita-Baylis-Hillman reaction using a catalytic N-methyl-L-hisitidine nucleophile and a catalytic glutamate, and demonstrates how subtle perturbations to key catalytic elements of designed enzymes can lead to vastly different evolutionary outcomes! Congratulations Amy on a great paper. Get stuck in here.

Feb 24 - Anthony is in London this week to collect the Blavatnik Award for Young Scientists. Anthony is one of two University of Manchester Laureates this year!

Jan 24 - Group members past and present have published a Chem Soc Rev article titled “Strategies for designing biocatalysts with new functions”. Enjoy here!

Dec 23 - An important review from the group on engineering enzymes for environmental sustainability is available on Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. here.

Oct 23 - Congratulations to Dr Hutton née Crossley on your marriage. Best wishes to Amy and Adam.

Sep 23 - Congratulations to Jingming, Ying and the team, who have published this study on a protective mechanism in LPMOs in JACS - read it here.

Sep 23 - Review alert! Florence and Euan have reviewed enzyme design in a perspective for ACS Catalysis, Building Enzymes Through Design and Evolution.

Jul 23 - Four Green group members (past and present) had their PhD graduation ceremonies today, Amy, Florence, Caitlin and Oli. Congrats all!

And congratulations to Emilie who graduated on Monday!

Jun 23 - Exciting publication alert! Well done to Mary and Jingming, who have just published an excellent piece of work in JACS in collaboration with David Baker’s lab at the University of Washington “Design of Heme Enzymes with a Tunable Substrate Binding Pocket Adjacent to an Open Metal Coordination Site” read the article here.

Sep 22 - Welcome to the group, Anna! Great to have you back for a PhD after your MChem with us last year

Sep 22 - The group are thrilled to share their latest work, out today as an Accelerated Article Preview in Nature. A Designed Photoenzyme for Enantioselective [2+2]-Cycloadditions. Read here. Congratulations to the joint first authors, Jonathan and Rebecca!

Aug 22 - Paper alert! Izzy and the team’s “Directed evolution of an efficient and thermostable PET depolymerase” is online now at Nature Catalysis, enjoy here. Izzy has written an accompanying “Behind the Scenes” blog post you can read here.

May 22 - We are super excited to share this piece of work withyou all from the group, just released on the ChemRxiv this morning. A Designed Photoenzyme Promotes Enantioselective [2+2]-Cycloadditions via Triplet Energy Transfer. Well done Jonathan and Rebecca for such an exciting study! Read the preprint here.

May 22 - Ashleigh won a poster prize at the ECI conference… and had to do a last minute presentation! Ashleigh presented her work on an Engineered Cytidine Deaminase for Biocatalytic Production of a Key Intermediate of the Covid-19 Antiviral Molnupiravir

Jan 22 - WELL DONE IZZY for defending your thesis and passing your PhD viva. ‘‘Actually, it’s Dr…’’ Read the preprint of the main body of Izzy’s work here, where the group reports the evolution of a plastic degrading enzyme!

Jan 22 - Congratulations to Ashleigh and Ric on your marriage!
Dec 21 - Rebecca’s brilliant paper is out today. Read here how the group took a primitive design for a Morita-Bayliss-Hillman-ase and used directed evolution to make a brand new enzyme! Congratulations to Rebecca ‘Rebeaker’ Crawshaw and the team for this exciting work.

Nov 21 - Read here about how The Gates Foundation is providing funding for University of Manchester to develop a low cost manufacturing route to the promising COVID-19 therapy Molnupiravir. And check out the brilliant work done by the Green Group’s own Ashleigh, available open access here.

Sep 2021 - Welcome to the group Emily, we’re happy to have you joining the team!

27 Aug 2021 - CONGRATULATIONS ASHLEIGH for passing your viva! Well done for a brilliant body of work, can’t WAIT to see where your future takes you!

19 Aug 2021 - CONGRATULATIONS REBECCA for passing your viva - you’ve worked so hard over the last 4 years and should be incredibly proud of your brilliant thesis! Watch this space for publications…

14 May 2021 - The Green Group has a paper out in JACS Au! Mary and Flo’s work uses genetic code expansion to probe the mechanism of heme peroxidases. Enjoy here.

15 Feb 2021 - Good Luck Rebecca on starting her placement at GSK in Stevenage - all the best!

1 Nov 2020 - Florence and Mary’s book chapter titled ‘Recent Advances in Understanding, Enhancing and Creating Heme Peroxidases’ is online and available to read here.

13 July 2020 - After some time away, the lab is now up to 50% occupancy with new, Covid19-safe working practices!

5 June 2020 - We are happy to announce Anthony has been awarded the position of Reader in Organic and Biological Chemistry at the University of Manchester.

4 June 2020 - The launch of the new Green Group website!

1 June 2020 - Virtual Biocatalysis and Protein Engineering Meet-Up. Next meets are 11 am EST (4pm BST) 1 July 2020 and 6 August 2020 - check our twitter for info.

29 May 2020 - The biggest applause to Ashleigh who has handed in her PhD thesis!

7 May 2020 - Well done to Olga and Maia who handed in their final year MChem projects after working in the Green Group as undergraduates.

6 May 2020 - Congratulations to Ashleigh on her recent presentation ‘Design and Evolution of an Enzyme with a Non-Canonical Organocatalytic Mechanism’ at the online ‘Virtual Biocatalysis Meet Up’. Attendees included the Arnold Lab from Cal Tech, the Narayan Lab from Michigan, the Merck Biocatalysis group from New Jersey and the Turner-Flitsch Group from Manchester.

1 May 2020 - Green Group member (Innovation Fellow 2017-20) Sarah Lovelock has started her own independent group in the MIB! We’re looking forward to collaborating with the new Lovelock group.

29 April 2020 - Congratulations to Rebecca on her recent presentation ‘An Efficient and Enantioselective de novo Enzyme for the Morita-Baylis-Hillman Reaction’ at the inaugural ‘Virtual Biocatalysis Meet Up’. Attendees included the Narayan Lab from Michigan and the Merck Biocatalysis group from New Jersey.

9 March 2020 - Jingming and Ashleigh’s review on “Enzymes with noncanonical amino acids” has been published in Current Opinions in Chemical Biology. Read here.

29 January 2020 - Mary’s paper “Rewiring the “Push-Pull” Catalytic Machinery of a Heme Enzyme Using an Expanded Genetic Code” was published in ACS Catalysis today. Read here.