New publication

Congratulations to Conor, whose paper “Phosphorescent oxygen-sensing and singlet oxygen production by a biosynthetic silk” was published in RSC Advances. This work shows that porphyrin-based macrocycles can be incorporated into honeybee silk proteins. These functionalised silk films combine the useful properties of the macrocycles, such as their ability to produce antimicrobial singlet oxygen when exposedContinue reading “New publication”

New publication

Congratulations to Nick, Peter, and Galen, whose paper “Evolution of protein quaternary structure in response to selective pressure for increased thermostability” has been published in JMB. This paper shows that when directed evolution was used to impose selective pressure for increased thermostability in an insect carboxylesterase, stabilization was achieved by enrichment of more stable oligomericContinue reading “New publication”

New publication

Congratulations to Peter, Galen and Nick, whose paper “Conformational disorganization within the active site of a recently evolved organophosphate hydrolase limits its catalytic efficiency” was published in Biochemistry. In this paper, we characterised a gain-of-function substitution in an enzyme, which provides resistance to organophosphate pesticides in the Australian sheep blowfly. The full catalytic potential ofContinue reading “New publication”

New publication

Congratulations to Hafna and Elaaf, whose paper “Protonation state of F420H2 in the prodrug-activating deazaflavin dependent nitroreductase (Ddn) from Mycobacterium tuberculosis” was published in Molecular BioSystems. We identified the protonation state of the cofactor of Ddn, which is important for understanding the mechanism by which this enzyme activates anti-mycobacterial prodrugs.

New publication

Congratulations to Ben, whose paper “Ancestral protein reconstruction yields insights into adaptive evolution of binding specificity in solute-binding proteins” has been published in Cell Chemical Biology. This paper gives a new structural and thermodynamic perspective on the evolution of binding specificity and shows the role of conformational plasticity and enthalpic interactions for promiscuous binding inContinue reading “New publication”

New publication

Congratulations to Hafna and the rest of the FDOR team, whose paper “Sequence-structure-function classification of a catalytically diverse oxidoreductase superfamily in mycobacteria” has been published in JMB. This reclassification, functional annotation and structural analysis of flavin/deazaflavin oxidoreductases (FDORs) shows the varied functions of FDORs in mycobacteria and provides a framework to understand their role inContinue reading “New publication”

New publication

Congratulations to Eleanor, who published a paper entitled “Reverse evolution leads to genotypic incompatibility despite functional and active site convergence” in eLife, together with our incredible collaborator Nobuhiko Tokuriki at the University of British Columbia. This paper shows that the evolution of a enzyme in vitro can be reversed by reversing the selection pressure, butContinue reading “New publication”