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(MIB) April 2019 Newsletter Recent Grant Success

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(MIB) April 2019 Newsletter Recent Grant Success Manchester Institute of Biotechnology (MIB) April 2019 Newsletter Recent Grant Success The University has been awarded £10million to launch a UK-wide biomanufacturing research hub that could pave the way for easier and quicker ways to make new medicines and sustainable energy solutions. The Future Biomaunfacturiung Research Hub (Future BRH), which starts on 1 April, will be based at the MIB with “spokes” at Imperial College London, the University of Nottingham, University College London, the UK Catalysis Hub, the Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre (IBioIC), and the Centre for Process Integration (CPI). Together, they will work with industrial partners on co-created research programmes to drive the wider adoption of sustainable biomanufacturing. The Hub will develop new biotechnologies that will speed up bio-based manufacturing in three key sectors – pharmaceuticals, chemicals and engineering materials. Accelerating the delivery of such technologies, by making the manufacturing processes more commercially viable, means industry partners will be able to meet the societal needs of ‘clean growth’ more efficiently and on more a scalable, global level. The Hub will be led by Nigel Scrutton with involvement from eight UoM co-investigators: Perdita Barran, Anthony Green, Eriko Takano, Nick Turner (Chemistry), Kostas Theodoropoulos (CEAS), Phil Shapira (Business School), Ros Le Feuvre (Director of Operations) and Kirk Malone (Director of Commercialisation). Louise Woods will be the Project Manager for the Future BRH and Lisa Beattie will be the Senior Project Administrator. The £10M funding comes from EPSRC and BBSRC and will be complimented by around £5M of industry funding. You can read more about the Hub at: UoM Press Release & EPSRC Press Release. The University of Manchester is one of the partners of a new EU grant consortium, Shikifactory100, which started in January 2019. The project involves a total of 11 academic and industry partners from 8 different European countries. The University of Manchester contribution, which will receive €1.0m, will be coordinated by Rainer Breitling and Pablo Carbonell, both based at MIB and will involve the Manchester Synthetic Biology Centre for fine and Speciality Chemicals SYNBIOCHEM. The aim of the SHIKIFACTORY100 project is the production of a universe of more than 100 high-added value compounds from the shikimate pathway, a hub in cell metabolism. Sophia Ananiadou secured funding of £560K from Pacific Life for Text Mining for Health Risk Assessment (start date 1st March 2019 for 24 months) Congratulations to William Birmingham (Turner-Flitsch group), who has been awarded a BBSRC Discovery Fellowship for 3 years starting in June. The project will focus on the development of unique biocatalysts for novel methods of carbon-carbon bond formation. News An opinion piece by MIB Director of Commercialisation, Kirk Malone, has been published in the latest edition of the University of Manchester Magazine. The piece is entitled ‘Biomaterials: the future for plastics?’, and can be read here: (tinyurl.com/yysxywro). Publications Nick Turner has had a number of recent high profile publications: o ‘Chemo-Enzymatic Synthesis of Pyrazines and Pyrroles’ Angew. Chem. Int. Ed (Very Important Paper) (tinyurl.com/y6edlklz). o ‘An engineered Alcohol Oxidase for the Oxidation of Primary Alcohols’ ChemBioChem (Very Important Paper) (tinyurl.com/y58r62je) o ‘Extending the application of biocatalysis to meet the challenges of drug development’ Nature Reviews Chemistry (tinyurl.com/ybejpjmd) o ‘Biocatalytic N-Alkylation of Amines using either Primary Alcohols or Carboxylic Acids via Reductive Aminase Cascades’ JACS (tinyurl.com/y4q683jf). A recent publication by Sophia Ananiadou entitled ‘Quantifying Risk Factors in Medical Reports with a Context-Aware Linear Model was published in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association (/tinyurl.com/y3ytv5yb). Social Responsibility MIB researchers, headed by Nick Weise, have been involved in multiple events over the last few months: o STEM Spelling Bee 2019: Two MIB researchers, Nick Weise and Olivia Holmes, were judges at a STEM Spelling Competition for schools in the region. Funded by the Royal Society of Chemistry, it aims to raising the profile of literacy in science with competitive spelling. o Gateways Widening Participation Event: MIB researcher Olivia Holmes, WP Fellow for the School of Chemistry delivered a workshop to students from two schools incorporating experiments and activities from the MIB’s Programme of Public Engagement with Research and Researchers. o Multilingual Community Visit (Polish School, Chorlton): As part of a Diversity in Science Grant awarded from the Biochemical Society, a visit to a local community-run Polish language school was arranged featuring bilingual researchers from the MIB. Sylwia Czarnota, Kamila Schmidt and Emilia Wojcik ran two sessions with groups of children who attend the school on Saturdays, talking to them about being a scientist and showcasing the industrial biotechnology research at the institute. o British Science Week Schools’ Fair 2019: This year the event attracted around 900 primary and secondary school pupils from areas across Manchester. MIB was represented by a team of 9 researchers from the School of Chemistry, the School of Chemical Engineering and Analytical Science and SYNBIOCHEM. Activities included a workshop on the Chemistry of Blood and an interactive stand on the use of genetic manipulations to make useful enzymes. Both activities were inspired by and showcased the research themes of the institute to the audience of 10-14 year old schoolchildren. o ScienceX 2019 (Trafford Centre): This annual event at the Trafford Centre brings together scientists, engineers and outreach volunteers. MIB was represented at this event by Nick Weise, who volunteered as part of the School of Chemistry’s interactive stand contribution. As part of the British Science Week, Fabio Parmeggiani (Turner- Flitsch group) and Emily Kempa (Barran group) delivered two “Solids, Liquids and Gases” shows at primary schools around Crewe (Willaston Primary Academy and Vine Tree Primary School), to an audience of approximately 300 (Yr 3-6). This year's Pint of Science festival is on May 20th-22nd in venues around the city! Sian Thistlethwaite, Emilie Gerard and Aoife Taylor from the MIB are organising the creative reactions themed nights which will be hosted at Chorlton Irish Club. We've got lots of interesting talks, activities and art exhibitions lined up. It will be a fun event for people from all backgrounds so spread the word! Tickets go on sale on the 8th of April for only £4. For more information check out the pint of science website or contact us via email. .
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