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Exchanges with ClickGene Alumni for the final event

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On September 25, the NATURE-ETN ESRs got together for the final project event.

During this online session, the NATURE-ETN ESRs had the chance to hear from alumni of the ClickGene project, a European Training Network in click chemistry and gene therapy, coordinated by Prof. Kellett (DCU) in collaboration with other NATURE-ETN PIs, including Prof. Brown (UOXF), Prof. Carell (LMU), Prof. Hocek (IOCB), and the companies baseclick and ATDBio.

The four ClickGene alumni shared diverse career paths spanning academia, start-ups, and major pharmaceutical companies. Dr. Bastien Viverge (Senior Manager, Regulatory CMC – Clinical Lead, Biogen, CH), Dr. Sarah Walsh (Applied Platform Workflows Manager, Oxford Nanopore Technologies, UK), Dr. Nicolò Zuin Fantoni (Senior Scientist – Oligonucleotides, Roche, CH), and Dr. Georgia Menounou (Postdoctoral Researcher, DCU, IE) each discussed their post-PhD journeys.

We thank the ClickGene alumni for their time and valuable advice to our ESRs.

Dr. Marco Cavallaro (accelCH) also introduced the ESRs to EU funding opportunities for postdocs, industry-academia collaborations, and start-ups/SMEs, highlighting resources that could be useful after obtaining their PhD, whether they pursue careers in academia or industry.

NATURE-ETN counts two new Doctors

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We are delighted to announce that our ESRs Eva Sophie Schönegger (baseclick/LMU) and Ahmad Abdullrahman (University of Reading) recently passed their viva. Eva spent her NATURE-ETN journey at the company baseclick and the Carell group at LMU Munich, while Ahmad completed his PhD at the University of Reading under the co-supervision of Dr. James Hall and Prof. Christine Cardin.

We congratulate Dr. Schönegger and Dr. Abdullrahman on this key milestone in their career!

New Publication in Chemical Science

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Our former ESR, now postdoc at the University of Reading, Tayler D. Prieto published a new paper in Chemical Science, titled “Re-pairing DNA: binding of a ruthenium phi complex to a double mismatch”, in collaboration with Diamond Light Source Ltd. and the Kellett group at the Dublin City University.

The paper is available Open Access on the publisher’s website.

New publication on Angew. Chem from Reading-Dublin collaboration

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Tayler David Prieto (ESR2, University of Reading) published, together with colleagues from the Cardin group in Reading and the Kellett group at DCU, a paper on Angewandte Chemie (International Edition) titled “Probing a major DNA weakness: resolving the groove and sequence selectivity of the diimine complex [Λ-Ru(phen)2phi]2+”. This work notably benefitted from the use of the infrastructure at Diamond Light Source Ltd.

The paper demonstrates, for the first time, a crystal structure showing groove selectivity by an intercalating ruthenium complex.

It is available in Open Access on the publisher’s website.

New publication on super cytotoxic Re(I) complexes

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Collaborative work between researchers from the University of the Free World in South Africa and the Gasser group at PSL University has just been published in Inorganic Chemistry. This work notably includes a contribution from our ESR Maria Dalla Pozza.

This paper presents Re(I) carbonyl complexes with exceptionally low nanomolar cytotoxic activity toward prostate cancer cells, demonstrating further the future viability of utilising rhenium in the fight against cancer.

It is available Open Access here.

Tayler presents his work around the world

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Our ESR Tayler David Prieto from the University of Reading presented his work on synthetic and structural studies of ruthenium complexes as DNA major groove binders at different conferences.

He first presented a poster at the 16th  International Symposia of Applied Bioinorganic Chemistry (ISABC), which took place in Ioannina, Greece from the 11th to the 14th of June 2023. On the 7th of July, he did an oral presentation about it at the 19th Royal Society of Chemistry’s Nucleic Acid Forum in London, UK. His journey continued in Adelaide, Australia, for the 20th International Conference on Biological Inorganic Chemistry (ICBIC20), where he gave another oral presentation.

The poster can be found here.

The aim of his project, in collaboration with Diamond Light Source and the Kellett group at Dublin City University, is to provide the first crystallographic evidence of a ruthenium polypyridyl complex binding from the DNA major groove; potentially, as one component of a DNA-binding triplex-forming oligonucleotide (TFO) assembly.

Maria’s secondment experience in Oxford, UK

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After the great experience I had during my first secondment at the University of Reading, I had the chance to spend one month at the University of Oxford, in the UK, supervised by Prof. Tom Brown and Prof. Afaf El-Sagheer.

This time I was not alone, but Tania (ESR9) and Malou (ESR5) came for their secondment in the same period. The first day I went to the lab I was very excited about the new experience in such an important group and university. The group gave me a warm welcome when I arrived, and I felt happy and thrilled to be there.

During this secondment, I learnt many new techniques and developed new skills, supervised by very professional and passionate scientists, always keen to teach me.

During my stay, I used click chemistry reactions to link the Ruthenium compounds I synthesised at Chimie ParisTech – PSL to some triplex-forming oligonucleotides. I learnt how the oligonucleotides are synthesised, thanks to Prof. Afaf El-Sagheer who was always keen to teach me, and I performed the reactions helped by Diallo (ESR 6), who kindly and patiently taught and illustrated the techniques.

During this experience, I had the opportunity to learn, develop my scientific skills, and know a different scientific environment.

But it was not just science! I had great experiences like visiting the beautiful Oxford, and getting into some of the Colleges – thanks to the “local”, Sebastian (ESR1). The cherry on top was the fairy tale experience of having a formal dinner in a College!

Overall, this experience was magic! From the scientific and personal point of view. I am very happy and grateful I had the chance to live all these great adventures thanks to the NATURE-ETN project!

By Maria Dalla Pozza (ESR3)