Structuring the Future - Underpinning world-leading science in EaStCHEM through cutting edge characterisation
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Edinburgh
Department Name: Sch of Chemistry
Abstract
Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.
Publications
Kew W
(2017)
Chemical Diversity and Complexity of Scotch Whisky as Revealed by High-Resolution Mass Spectrometry.
in Journal of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry
Kew W
(2017)
Interactive van Krevelen diagrams - Advanced visualisation of mass spectrometry data of complex mixtures.
in Rapid communications in mass spectrometry : RCM
Kew W
(2017)
Advanced solvent signal suppression for the acquisition of 1D and 2D NMR spectra of Scotch Whisky.
in Magnetic resonance in chemistry : MRC
Kilgour DPA
(2017)
Autopiquer - a Robust and Reliable Peak Detection Algorithm for Mass Spectrometry.
in Journal of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry
Kärkönen A
(2017)
Metabolites of 2,3-diketogulonate delay peroxidase action and induce non-enzymic H2O2 generation: Potential roles in the plant cell wall.
in Archives of biochemistry and biophysics
Marchetti PM
(2018)
The carbon chain-selective adenylation enzyme TamA: the missing link between fatty acid and pyrrole natural product biosynthesis.
in Organic & biomolecular chemistry
Marchetti PM
(2019)
Synthesis of N-acyl amide natural products using a versatile adenylating biocatalyst.
in MedChemComm
Monkkonen L
(2016)
Screen-printed digital microfluidics combined with surface acoustic wave nebulization for hydrogen-deuterium exchange measurements.
in Journal of chromatography. A
Muhamad A
(2015)
Hepatitis B virus peptide inhibitors: solution structures and interactions with the viral capsid.
in Organic & biomolecular chemistry
Panagos CG
(2014)
Characterisation of hyaluronic acid and chondroitin/dermatan sulfate from the lumpsucker fish, C. lumpus.
in Carbohydrate polymers
Panagos CG
(2014)
Fucosylated chondroitin sulfates from the body wall of the sea cucumber Holothuria forskali: conformation, selectin binding, and biological activity.
in The Journal of biological chemistry
Panagos CG
(2016)
Photochemical depolymerisation of dermatan sulfate and analysis of the generated oligosaccharides.
in Carbohydrate polymers
Richardson SM
(2022)
Coupled Natural Fusion Enzymes in a Novel Biocatalytic Cascade Convert Fatty Acids to Amines.
in ACS catalysis
Thomson D
(2016)
Structural characterization and anti-inflammatory activity of two novel polysaccharides from the sea squirt, Ascidiella aspersa.
in Pulmonary pharmacology & therapeutics
Thurlow SE
(2016)
Determination of Protein Thiol Reduction Potential by Isotope Labeling and Intact Mass Measurement.
in Analytical chemistry
Timári I
(2016)
Real-time broadband proton-homodecoupled CLIP/CLAP-HSQC for automated measurement of heteronuclear one-bond coupling constants
in RSC Advances
Wang M
(2017)
Using the pimeloyl-CoA synthetase adenylation fold to synthesize fatty acid thioesters.
in Nature chemical biology
| Description | The funding was used to upgrade the NMR and MS facilities of the School of Chemistry. In detail, the funds were used to purchase (i) a 500 MHz two channel NMR spectrometer comprising an Ascend™ 11.7 Tesla shielded cryomagnet, a BBO CryoProbe Prodigy™ for observation of nuclei in the frequency range 15N to 31P with superior sensitivity for 1H (tuneable to 19F) and a sample changer; (ii) high performance digital AVANCE III HDX 600 NMR spectrometer console. In addition, and above the level of funding committed by the School of Chemistry within the framework of this grant, funds were made available by the School to purchase a 500 MHz and 600 MHz refurbished shielded magnets together with the lab refurbishment funds. This has allowed us to consolidate our NMR facility to become one of the most advanced in the UK. On the MS side, the funds were used to purchase a Waters Synapt G2, Bruker Micro-TOF LC-MS and Bruker UltralfeXtreme MALDI ToF-ToF mass spectrometers. Purchase of these instruments was essential for advancing our capabilities in characterising the structures of small and large molecules, underpinning a large proportion of research carried out in the School of Chemistry. |
| Exploitation Route | The service and collaborations provided by NMR and MS facilities are essential to research of a number of PIs in the School of Chemistry. Since the award of this grant at least £ 20 mil in research income has been brought in by the Chemistry PIs to fund research that relies on the use NMR and MS facilities. In total, more than 200 papers during a two-year period (2014-2015) used NMR or MS data provided by our facilities. This includes papers of our collaborators, in particular from the School of Biological Sciences. Both NMR and MS facilities are used by approximately 40 groups and each facility has ~200 regular users, mostly amongst PhD students and PDRAs of the School of Chemistry. The much improved level of instrumentation has significantly enhanced our research and service capability. E.g., while in the 2012/13 we have measured 30,126 NMR samples, this number has increased steadily to 46, 446 in 2013/14 (the installation of new instruments was completed in January 2014) and to 49, 080 in 2014/15. During the first 6 month of the 2015/16 financial year we have already measured 29,593 samples in NMR facility. Approximately 6000 samples per year (Aug 2014-15) were processed by MS facility ranging from individual accurate mass measurements to multi day tissue imaging experiments. We have sufficient capacity to provide service to external user, particularly local companies, and the income of NMR facility from industrial contracts has risen between 2012 and 2015 from £2,317 to £9,002 per annum. The external Income for period the 2013 Aug-date of the MS facility was £230,000. The base of our external user includes large Pharma companies such as Astra Zeneca and Bioven, bus also SMEs (Almac, Calachem, Aquapharm, Ingenza, Sanofi Aventis, DestiNA Genomics Ltd, Glycomar, Fuji Film, INEOS, MacFarlan Smith, Solid Form Solutions) We have celebrated the opening of our renewed facilities on a mini symposium held on May 1, 2014 with a keynote lecture by Prof. Marcel Jaspars, FRSE from University of Aberdeen. http://www.epmmagazine.com/technology/uni-of-edinburgh-invests-%C2%A31.2mn-in-nmr-and-mass-spec/) http://www.scottish-enterprise.com/knowledge%20hub/articles/insight/collaborative%20science?anchor=q=NMR In the period of 2015-2020 these facilities continue to perform very efficiently and we were able to obtain two significant funding to continue to be a lead NMR /MS facilities. 2018-2021 Uhrín et al, A National Network for Applications of High-Field NMR in the Life and Physical Sciences, EPSRC, £ 1,368,029 And 2018-2021 Campopiano, Clarke, Barlow, Andrew, Uhrín, Underpinning UK Biomolecular Research with Next-Generation High-Resolution Mass Spectrometry at the University of Edinburgh, BBSRC £ 750,000 During this period our income from contract and service work grew substantially: NMR spectroscopy: 2015-2016 £22,996; 2016-2017 £40,590; 2017-2018 £54,729; 2018-2019 £62,784; Mass spectrometry: 2015: £62,713; 2016: £187,896; 2017: £210,995; 2018 £260,149 |
| Sectors | Agriculture, Food and Drink,Chemicals,Energy,Environment,Healthcare,Manufacturing, including Industrial Biotechology,Pharmaceuticals and Medical Biotechnology |
| Description | Scottish Instrumentation and Resource Centre for Advanced Mass Spectrometry (SIRCAMS) is a corner stone of a Mass Spectrometry Imaging consortium that we have developed since the award of this grant and includes Astra Zeneca (Richard Goodwin), NPL (Josephine Bunch), Birmingham (Helen Cooper), Maastricht (Ron Heeren) and Uppsala (Per Andren). SIRCAMS is the central analytical laboratory for Bioven Europe, a pharmaceutical start-up company pursuing the licencing of a novel cancer immunotherapy originally developed in Cuba for the treatment of inoperable late-stage non-small cell lung cancer. Analysis performed at SIRCAMS in part led to the granting of phase III clinical trials on 6 continents, and 71 centres, including the UK, Germany, Spain, Poland, Czech Republic, Malaysia and the Philippines. NMR facility of the School of Chemistry is providing support to local SMEs such as INEOS, Ingenza, Solid Form Solutions, but also national and international companies such as GlycoMar and ALMAC group (Ireland) worth tens of thousand pounds. This could be in the form of service contracts or consultancies. Research by Barlow and group using NMR facility has provided understanding of the function, interactions, and production of complement control protein Factor H (FH) that has opened up the possibility of developing therapies that use FH to restore and control immune response. This work has been taken forward to tackle two areas of major health need, underpinned formation of two new companies, employing 28 staff, and raised raising GBP 34,000,000 of investment. A funding and launch of Gemini Therapeutics in October 2017, based in in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA thanks to successful outcome of initial trials, in this along with further research and expert advice from the Barlow group, resulted in substantial Series A funding of GBP 33,000,000. Invizius spun out from the University of Edinburgh in April 2018 with an exclusive, worldwide license to commercialise a breakthrough biocompatibility technology of medical device coating. Dr Herbert and Prof Barlow had discovered that pathogenic bacteria are able to make use of a small bacterial protein to recruit and enhance the body's own immune regulators, factor H, preventing activation of the immune system response that would otherwise lead to their destruction. The resulting patent showed how this protein-protein interaction could be applied to protect medical devices from the immune system attack which leads to a variety of serious complications in patients. The approach is unique in preventing, at source, the blood's foreign body reactions, rather than treating the consequences. The potential of the Invizius approach has driven over £1m of investment in the company - GBP610,000 (2015) from Scottish Enterprise's High-Growth Spinout Programme for commercial and technology development, and GBP500,000 (2018) equity investment from Mercia Technologies for the first phase of company activity. Three full time members of staff are employed, and a substantial part of activity (and to date 40% of development spend) is outsourced to CROs/CMOs, supporting this valuable sector of the economy. Several PhD studentship grants have been awarded to the academic staff directly associated with the facilities: MS facilities: (i) D. Clarke Advanced imaging techniques for measuring tissue redox environments. EPSRC Industrial CASE Award. 2015-2019. £69K Project Partner: AstraZeneca. NMR facilities: (i) D. Uhrín, and G. Lloyd-Jones New NMR Tools for Interrogation of Chemical Reactions and Processes, 2015-2018 Bruker/SoC PhD studentships, £ 136, 316; (ii) (ii) D, Uhrín and C. Bavington. Automated Structure Characterisation of Oligosaccharide Mixtures by NMR (ASCOM-NMR), 2016-2019 IBioIC/GlycoMAR/SoC PhD studentships, £110,509. Studentships utilizing both facilities in equal measure: (i) D. Uhrín and I. Goodall, Protecting Scotch Whisky against Real and Perceived Food Safety Risks and Challenges to Flavour Sustainability using Advanced Spectroscopic Techniques, 2014-2018 BBSRC Case studentship, £ 139,626; (ii) D, Uhrín, A.Semiao, and M.Graham, Molecular level characterisation of dissolved organic matter for improved water treatment Scottish Water/SoC 2016-2019 PhD studentships, £70,000. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2016 |
| Sector | Agriculture, Food and Drink,Chemicals,Energy,Environment,Healthcare,Manufacturing, including Industrial Biotechology,Pharmaceuticals and Medical Biotechnology |
| Impact Types | Societal,Economic |
| Description | A National Network for Applications of High-Field NMR in the Life and Physical Sciences |
| Amount | £1,368,030 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | EP/R030065/1 |
| Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 04/2018 |
| End | 04/2021 |
| Description | Automated structure characterisation of oligosaccharide mixtures by NMR |
| Amount | £43,559 (GBP) |
| Organisation | IBioIC |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 09/2016 |
| End | 08/2020 |
| Description | Joint India-UK Projects on Water Quality Research |
| Amount | £562,050 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Natural Environment Research Council |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2018 |
| End | 01/2021 |
| Description | Molecular level characterisation of dissolved organic matter for improved water treatment |
| Amount | £23,333 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Scottish Water |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 09/2016 |
| End | 02/2020 |
| Description | New NMR tools for interrogation of chemical reactions and processes |
| Amount | £32,900 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Bruker Corporation |
| Department | Bruker BioSpin |
| Sector | Private |
| Country | Germany |
| Start | 09/2015 |
| End | 02/2019 |
| Description | SHARPER NMR: fast and accurate analysis of molecules, reactions and processes |
| Amount | £364,795 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | EP/S016139/1 |
| Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 12/2018 |
| End | 11/2021 |
| Description | Underpinning UK Biomolecular Research with Next-Generation High Resolution Mass Spectrometry at the University of Edinburgh |
| Amount | £722,150 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | BB/R013993/1 |
| Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 05/2018 |
| End | 04/2019 |
| Description | Development of scalable purification of functional oligosaccharides |
| Organisation | GlycoMar |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | Provided NMR time on instruments secured by this grant to elucidate structure of oligosaccharides. Designed NMR methods for oligosaccharide elucidation. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Provided samples, made modifications to them and performed partial separation. |
| Impact | Designed protocols for oligosaccharide separation and characterisation. Publications in preparation. |
| Start Year | 2015 |
| Description | IBioIC Glycomar PhD studentship |
| Organisation | GlycoMar |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | We provide spectrometer time for structure elucidation of Glycomar products. We are developing software for carbohydrate sepctra analysis. |
| Collaborator Contribution | This is a IBioIC studentship towards which Glycomar Ltd is contributing in cash and in kind. |
| Impact | Structure determination of several polysaccharides (unpublished). Poster presentations on conferences. |
| Start Year | 2016 |
| Description | Protecting Scotch whisky against real and perceived food safety risks and challenges to flavour sustainability using advanced spectroscopic techniques |
| Organisation | Scotch Whisky Research Institute |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | Analysis of Scotch Whisky by NMR and MS supported by the equipment obtained in this grant. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Supply of samples, in house analysis, management of the project. |
| Impact | Five publications so far, several conference presentations best poster and best talk prizes. |
| Start Year | 2014 |
| Description | Scottish Water EPSRC Case conversion studentship |
| Organisation | Scottish Water |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | This is a Scottish Water/ EPSRC Case conversion studentship : "Molecular level characterisation of dissolved organic matter (DOM) for improved water treatment." |
| Collaborator Contribution | Finantial support, provide samples and their partial characterisation |
| Impact | Sampling and analysing water at different stages of the works treatment, reported to SW. Publication in preparation. Poster presentations at conferences. |
| Start Year | 2016 |