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Manchester Institute of Biotechnology (MIB) July 2017

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Manchester Institute of Biotechnology (MIB) July 2017 Manchester Institute of Biotechnology (MIB) July 2017 Newsletter Publications Congratulations to Nick Turner on his recent Nature Chemistry paper entitled ‘A reductive aminase from Aspergillus oryzae', (tinyurl.com/ya3lvjkn). Read more about the significance of this discovery at: (tinyurl.com/yc4g3vk9). Lu Shin Wong and Sam De Visser were co-authors on a recent PNAS publication entitled ‘Recombinant silicateins as model biocatalysts in organosiloxane chemistry’ (tinyurl.com/y8m2roft). Alan Dickson and members of his lab, Izzy Evie and Mark Elvin, contributed to a recent book on ‘Cell Viability Assays’. Their chapter was entitled ‘Metabolite Profiling of Mammalian Cell Culture Processes to Evaluate Cellular Viability’ (tinyurl.com/y87obrhy). Recent Grants Success Alan Dickson has had a number of recent grant successes: o Innovate UK grant with Arecor (£915K) o BBSRC LINK grant with University of Kent (£800K) o AZ PDRA Fellowship (£190K) o MRC Confidence in Concept award with Simon Clark in FBMH (£59K) o GSK fully funded PhD studentships News Daniela Delneri's group (working in collaboration with the National Collection of Yeast Cultures) have discovered a new member of the Saccharomyces family that could help brewers create better lager. This new yeast was found at altitude and therefore has the ability to tolerate colder conditions than most other known strains of Saccharomyces yeasts (tinyurl.com/ycjhph6v). Alan Dickson recently hosted a series of visitors from Latin and South American, as part of a network building initiative. Visitors from the Centre of Molecular Immunology in Cuba, the Pasteur Institute in Uruguay, and Ponteficia Universidad in Chile met with several UoM academics to discuss potential collaborative projects. Alan Dickson has been elected to the Executive Committee of European Society of Animal Cell Technology and is an invited member of Strategic Advisory Board for National Institute for Bioprocessing Research and Training. Sandra Taylor (from SYNBIOCHEM) is a registrant champion for the Science Council and has recently written a blog post on professional registration and how she used her CDP to maintain her registration (tinyurl.com/ycogrbfm). Events Nigel Scrutton was the plenary speaker at the ‘Quantum Atomic and Molecular Tunneling in Solids and other Condensed Phases’ conference in Madison, USA, in May. Alan Dickson gave a presentation at the IBC 13th Annual Cell Line Development and Engineering in San Diego in June 2017. The Centre of Excellence in Biopharmaceuticals (COEBP) hosted a ‘Future Formulation meeting in MIB in July in collaboration with KTN. Prizes and Awards Congratulations to Nick Turner who has been awarded the 2017 Royal Society of Chemistry Organic Stereochemistry Award (tinyurl.com/yan76c32). Nick Weise (MIB Public Engagement Programme Manager) has recently been awarded a Senior Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy. Nick’s award is in recognition of his on campus and distance learning course design and support of researchers and those new to teaching within both FSE and FBMH. Nick has also received an award from the Inclusion and Diversity Fund of the Royal Society of Chemistry to support his community engagement project in collaboration with Multilingual Manchester. Social Responsibility As part of the University’s First Community Festival, MIB researchers showcased the ‘synthetic biology of flavours and fragrances’ stand to gauge public opinion of biotechnology methods of production (tinyurl.com/y8c3arbo). MIB researchers have contributed two interactive stands to the Faculty’s #ScienceX event, which aims to engage non-traditional audiences with research and the University (tinyurl.com/y8opwmtj). These were a stand on ocean acidification at the SEALIFE Centre and another by the Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) team (part of SYNBIOCHEM) on biotechnological production of menthol in the Trafford Centre. The SYNBIOCHEM RRI group have recently completed a phase of work in their "synthetic biology menthol" case study. The group are conducting a hybrid research- engagement project, involving public stalls, home tours, interviews and focus groups to explore how people use menthol products in their everyday lives and what this means to them. Seb Cosgrove, a new EPSRC Doctoral Prize Fellow at the MIB (in Nick Turner’s lab), has led two outreach events in conjunction with the School of Chemistry. The first was a contribution to the Museum of Science and Industry’s contemporary science programme: Platform for Investigation. The second was a biopolymer day for year 9 students visiting the university from Oulder Hill Community School, Rochdale Fabio Parmeggiani (from Sabine Flitsch’s lab) and James Galman (from Nick Turner’s lab) presented a talk, 'Biocatalysis: The Future of Pharmaceuticals', at the SciBar, Park Tavern, Macclesfield (tinyurl.com/y9m3qmdx). Fabio also delivered an outreach event with Teresa Marrafa (from Nigel Scrutton’s lab) entitled “Solids, Liquids and Gases Show” which was attended by over 500 school children at Oldham Sixth Form College. MIB outreach activities were featured in an article on the Royal Society of Chemistry website. The article focused on how our “researchers have engaged 80 youngsters with some multilingual science outreach sessions at schools in the Manchester area”. (tinyurl.com/y8s32lje). .
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