Spicer Lab

Today & tomorrow I will be at #chemuk to connect with companies and researchers interested in user-friendly deuteration platform we developed at @spicerlab.bsky.social If you're attending and curious about the potential for collaboration - I’d love to meet!

Effect of Pyridinecarboxaldehyde Functionalization on Reactivity and N-Terminal Protein Modification The site-selective modification of protein N-termini represents a powerful strategy for producing homogeneous bioconjugates. 2-Pyridinecarboxaldehydes have emerged as a leading reagent class in this area. However, these conjugations suffer from relatively slow rates and a degree of reversibility. In this work, we therefore studied the effects of pyridinecarboxaldehyde functionalization on N-terminal modification. This allowed us to provide insight into the factors governing relative contributions from competing reaction pathways and design criteria for second generation reagents for protein labeling. Importantly, 3-methoxy-2-pyridinecarboxaldehydes were identified as providing both accelerated and more stable protein labeling, enabling further applications of this powerful technology.

Our latest paper from Lydia and @kstankevich.bsky.social
is out in JACS Au! We wanted better reagents for selectively labelling protein N-termini, so looked at how functionalisation affected each step of the complex equilibrium, leading to faster and more stable probes.
pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

I’ll write more about this pre-print in the next few days, but please do take a look at this piece of work by Clément Dégut. It’s a 3D-printed open-source microscope that can image microtitre plates. Ideal for anyone looking for a new #DIY #science project

#OpenSource #3Dprinting #microscope

Final call for abstracts for our CBBG Forum meeting in Bristol on Feb 18th, deadline tomorrow! It looks set to be a great meeting, we can't wait to welcome people from the UK and European chemical biology communities
www.rsc.org/events/detai...

Great to be joining the #chembio community here, and a lovely thing to have as our first post - congratulations to Lydia who became the 3rd Dr from the group last week, successfully defending her amazing thesis! Thanks to Chris Coxon (Edinburgh) and Alison Parkin (York) for doing the honours

#Chembio crowd! Come and join #ESBOC25, the oldest Chemical Biology Symposium in Europe, in its 58th (!) instalment, on 28th-30th May 2025 - in beautiful and scenic Gregynog/Wales! Chaired by none other than Olalla Vazquez and with a rockstar lineup: www.esboc.org.uk