Oxford Biochemistry

The image depicts in a flow-style chart format how the metabolic pathways of PG and glycerol are used as excipients in syrups and DEG/EG, including the use of glycolate oxidase for the detection of glycolic acid. To simplify this pathway, steps with NAD+ and NADH have been omitted.

Simple, rapid and inexpensive tests can detect deadly contaminants in medicinal syrups – contaminants that have tragically led to the deaths of hundreds of children worldwide. This important discovery is thanks to the work of researchers here @ox.ac.uk and collaborators. ➡️ bit.ly/202512_gangadharan

Dmitry Ghilarov selected for this year’s EMBO Young Investigator Programme Places on this prestigious 4-year programme recognise outstanding achievements in the life sciences

🙌Congratulations🙌 to group leader and Associate Professor Dmitry Ghilarov @ox.ac.uk who has been selected for the prestigious four-year EMBO Young Investigator Programme in recognition of outstanding achievements in the life sciences. Read more⬇️

Great seminar in @oxfordbiochemistry.bsky.social today from Laura Landweber on the awesome world of ciliate DNA elimination- so many different gene regulation/repair pathways come together to achieve this remarkable feat

YouTube video by Science Of The Times Podcast Science Of The Times Ep 31 Cracking The Code of Chronic Pain

New podcast episode just dropped! @timcoulson.bsky.social I are joined by Simon Newstead and David Bennett who have identified a new genetic link to chronic pain - solved the structure of the protein that the gene encodes and linked its function to pain.

youtu.be/ETGzmy_BfCg

We are back, soon!
The secrets of bacterial cell envelopes' our free online seminar series is due to resume in January 2026 after a long break.
Hosted by Georgina Benn and Syma Khalid- supported by the Microbiology Society. More details soon.
@microbiologysociety.org
Please spread the word

Great talk by @philbiggin.bsky.social on proton coupling in membrane proteins - at the @biophysicalsoc.bsky.social thematic meeting in Thessaloniki.

Alex Cook awarded Wellcome Career Development Award Dr Alex Cook has been awarded a Career Development Award to start his own laboratory at the University of York

Alex Cook @alexandercook.bsky.social in the Matt Higgins @parasitematt.bsky.social lab here @ox.ac.uk has been awarded a Wellcome Career Development Award to start his own laboratory @york.ac.uk . Congratulations Alex! We are delighted for your success but will be sad to see you go. 🏆🎉👏👏👏

Fabulous talk by Haruhiko Koseki today @oxfordbiochemistry.bsky.social followed by a fun dinner with Neil Brockdorff and @aleksszczurek.bsky.social ! Thanks for visiting Haruhiko!

@ox.ac.uk @parasitematt.bsky.social @wellcometrust.bsky.social

Wellcome Discovery Award secured for ground-breaking malaria research The Wellcome Trust gives Discovery Award to Professor Matt Higgins to support his "Molecular mechanisms of erythrocyte invasion in malaria" research

The Wellcome Trust has awarded a prestigious Discovery Award to Professor Matt Higgins to support his research on “Molecular mechanisms of erythrocyte invasion in malaria”. 👏👏👏 Read the full story: ⬇️

Become my colleague @oxfordbiochemistry.bsky.social !
2 Associate Professorships in the areas of
- prokaryotic/eukaryotic microbiology
- metabolism

my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru...

We're hiring (again)!

We are looking for an associate professor in cell and molecular biology, with a particular focus on immunology (defined broadly)

If you have a great record and exciting plans, consider joining our thriving and welcoming department

www.path.ox.ac.uk/vacancy/asso...

m6A and the NEXT complex direct Xist RNA turnover and X-inactivation dynamics - Nature Structural & Molecular Biology Wei et al. show that the primary function of m6A on the nuclear long noncoding RNA Xist, a master regulator of X inactivation, is to promote RNA degradation. Xist turnover is mediated by the nuclear e...

Double celebration on our floor @oxfordbiochemistry.bsky.social with @guifengwei.bsky.social from the Brockdorff lab and Dounia and Sherry from Fisher lab having their papers published today! And I hear there is more to come...

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Supervisors and Projects

Please re-post: If you know (or are!) somebody who might fancy doing a PhD (Oct 2026 start) in my group @oxfordbiochemistry.bsky.social, working on chromatin evolution in prokaryotes (or other things we're interested in), please have a look at www.bioch.ox.ac.uk/supervisors-...

Always fun to catch up with Lukas Stelzl. Lukas is a group leader at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz and an alumnus of @oxfordbiochemistry.bsky.social. Delighted to hear of all his success.

Cryo-Em structure of the SLC45A4 polyamine transporter depicted by a substantial yellow and green area, a purple mid-section, punctuated with turquoise and with the top third of the whole surrounded by a transparent 'membrane'-like structure

Read the full story here: 📣Breakthrough discovery reveals new gene linked to chronic pain ➡️ bit.ly/202508_newst...

Great to be able to share the news about the potential of this new research to positively impact the lives of people living with chronic pain. Fantastic work from Simon Newstead, David Bennett and colleagues. 👏 👏 👏

Great work! 🙌

A wonderful project that opens up scientific discovery to children in a fun and innovate way! 👏👏👏

Ben Berks awarded ERC Advanced Grant Professor Ben Berks is awarded prestigious funding for cutting-edge research in bacterial cell biology

Ben Berks has been awarded the prestigious ERC Advanced Grant to fund cutting edge research in bacterial cell biology @ox.ac.uk . Congratulations Ben! 🙌 bit.ly/202507-berks...

Biochemical Society Prize 2025 Ayaka Hogg is awarded this year's Biochemical Society Undergraduate Recognition Award

Special congratulations and celebrations for Ayaka Hogg who is recognised with the Biochemical Society Undergraduate Recognition Award 2025! 🎉🎉🎉
bit.ly/202507-BSPhogg

Department of Biochemistry celebrates student excellence The department congratulates the outstanding progress of students across all cohorts of the Undergraduate Biochemistry degree

Well done to all our undergraduate students and special congratulations for all our outstanding prize-winners for 2025. We salute you!
bit.ly/202507-awards

Delighted to share this work. Well done to the teams involved and a particular shout out to our own Simon Newstead ⬇️

Royal Society of Biology prize 2025 The award recognises the outstanding achievement of Linzy (Ye) Zhao

Congratulations to Linzy (Ye) Zhao on her superb achievement of attaining the highest percentage of her cohort in her Biochemistry degree @ox.ac.uk ! As a result, Linzy has been awarded the Royal Society of Biology Top Student Award. 👏 👏 👏 Well done, Linzy! Read more ⬇️ bit.ly/202507-RBS

Thio-NHS esters are non-innocent protein acylating reagents - Nature Communications N-Hydroxysuccinimide (NHS)-ester derivatives are one of the most widely used acylating agents. In this work, the authors report that ring-opening reaction of the succinimide to afford N-succinamide de...

We (with @bendavisgroup.bsky.social) were using NHS chemistry for some protein conjugation when we noticed some odd prominent side products. It turns out thio-nhs reagents (a major class of reagents) has some notable side reactions that happen all the time.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

£840,000 award from the Wolfson Foundation to enhance Oxford’s proteomics research State-of-the-art mass spectrometer to be installed at the University’s Advanced Proteomics Facility (APF)

Great news for the Advanced Proteomics Facility based here in Biochemistry @ox.ac.uk ! The Wolfson Foundation is supporting the acquisition of a state-of-the-art mass spectrometer – the first of its kind in the UK – opening up possibilities for breakthroughs in human health ⬇️ bit.ly/202507-apf

#Malaria #Immunology #NKCells #HigginsLab #HostPathogenInteraction #KavliOxford
@oxfordbiochemistry.bsky.social
@medsci.ox.ac.uk
@parasitematt.bsky.social

Super-resolution microscopes showcase the inner lives of cells Advanced light microscopy techniques have come into their own — and are giving scientists a new understanding of human biology and what goes wrong in disease

“A genuine tool for biological discovery.” Professor @lschermelleh.bsky.social from @ox.ac.uk talks super-resolution microscopy and shares some beautiful imagery.

Happy almost-anniversary with us, @rberrens.bsky.social and co 🙌🎉

A pivot-tether model for nucleosome recognition by the chromosomal passenger complex | EMBO reports imageimageAurora B is targeted to chromatin subdomains by the chromosome passenger complex, formed by survivin, borealin and INCENP. Spatial restriction of Aurora B adjacent to kinetochores is importa...

Work from the Barr lab @oxfordbiochemistry.bsky.social keeps on coming. Fantastic mechanistic work!