Michael Booth

Dr Paola Pinilla and Dr Michael Booth

Congratulations to Dr Paola Pinilla @uclmaps.bsky.social and @drmikebooth.bsky.social @uclchemistry.bsky.social on being named finalists in the Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists in the UK for their work on planet-forming discs and on new ways to use DNA in medicine www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2026/fe...

Thanks so much @drzoewaller.bsky.social !

Thanks so much @yiliangding.bsky.social!

@uclchemistry.bsky.social @uclmaps.bsky.social @ucl.ac.uk ❤️

Image of all the finalists for the Blavatnik Awards in the UK, which includes my face!!!

Exciting news: I've been selected as a Finalist for the Blavatnik Awards in the UK 🧬 🥳

This is an incredible honour and I'm thankful to all my past and present group members, whom I have had the privilege to work with, and my collaborators and mentors
www.eurekalert.org/news-release...

a man is holding a green sword in a forest while another man watches . ALT: a man is holding a green sword in a forest while another man watches .

What if we replaced Organic Chemistry Named Reactions with mythical weapons

“To convert A to B we first ran a DoomSlayer followed by Anglachel Rearrangement.

“The resulting olefin was cleaved with Excalibur revealing the desired target
#ChemChat

We need to be shouting about the effects of this on junior researchers from the roofs, writing to our MPs. We are risking a "missing generation" of researchers.

UCL spinout EpilepsyGTx raises $33 million for new epilepsy treatments The UCLB pharmaceutical spinout, EpilepsyGTx which is developing new treatments for refractory epilepsy, has raised $33 million USD (£24.78 million) in Series A funding to bring its gene therapy to cl...

UCL gene therapy #spinout EpilepsyGTx raises $33 million www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2025/de...

Pic of group at bowling

Pic of group at lunch

Had a fantastic group winter day with lunch and bowling! I'm so lucky to have such a lovely bunch of people to get to spend time with 🤗

Organelles do NOT have a single uniform pH.
And if you think they must, because “protons diffuse fast,” this paper is for you.
A thread on why that assumption is wrong; and what we found instead. 🧵 1/n

#RSCPoster is happening again on March 3rd and 4th, 2026, here on LinkedIn. I am happy to be involved as subject chair for #RSCChemBio.

If you want to share some exciting research in #Chemistry and especially #ChemBio consider registering for the event:

www.rsc.org/our-events/a...
#ChemSky

Jon hall giving his talk

It was exciting to have Prof Jonathan Hall from ETH Zürich visit @uclchemistry.bsky.social today to give a fantastic talk on RNA structure!

Such incredibly detailed mechanistic work explained in such a simple manner 🧬❤️

👀

Prof Alice Davidson introducing upnat symposium

Excited to be at the UK Platform for Nucleic Acid Therapies (UPNAT) symposium today at UCL!

AMAZING! I'm stealing this for my chembio lectures 😅

Really impressive talk on artificial cells and all the behaviours that can be built up inside them using DNA by @waltherlab.bsky.social #sbuk2025 #sbuk

Woops #SBUK25 😅😖

Always great to be at the annual @biochemsoc.bsky.social Synthetic Biology UK conference - today's one is extra special as it's in London and I'm on the organising committee 🫡🫣 #SBUK26 #SBUK2026

Thanks, very kind of you to say!

Pic of my group across the Thames

We had a fantastic group day today - discussing new research ideas and a stimulating trip to the Tate Modern ❤️🧪🧬

It's always so wonderful to spend time with these amazing people
#chemsky

Affinity-selected peptide ligands specifically bind i-motif DNA and modulate c-Myc gene expression Abstract. c-Myc is an oncogene that is dysregulated in ∼70% of cancers. Its multifaceted function complicates effective drug targeting of the protein. i-Mo

Dr Chris Morris and I have a new paper in Nucleic Acids Research.

This paper has been a long time in the making & was affected by COVID so we are proud to have it published!

@shozebhaider.bsky.social
@effrosynialexandr.bsky.social
@chriswaudby.bsky.social

academic.oup.com/nar/article/...

lol

Special thanks to @dr-mip.bsky.social 🫡

Three pumpkins, carved with different levels of ability...

BBSRC, EPSRC, MRC
🧪

Differential stability and dynamics of DNA-based and RNA-based coacervates affect non-enzymatic RNA chemistry - Nature Communications Mixtures of peptides and nucleic acids tend to demix and form coacervate droplets. Here, the authors show that even short peptides and oligonucleotides form droplets. DNA and RNA impart different prop...

Happy to share our newest publication! 🤩
We found that DNA and RNA behave differently in primitive coacervates: RNA makes them more stable, DNA more fluid. Both properties are key for non-enzymatic DNA replication!
An incredible teamwork across continents! 😊
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Hijacking a bacterial ABC transporter for genetic code expansion - Nature Bacterial ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters can be utilized and engineered to transport non-canonical amino acids into Escherichia coli for highly efficient synthesis of proteins with novel func...

🚨Our paper is out! 🥳
Hijacking a bacterial ABC transporter for efficient genetic code expansion.
Many congrats to everyone involved - a multi-year effort led by @taruniype.bsky.social @maxfottner.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

it all started years ago with a failed experiment
🧵👇 1/9

Screenshot that reads: The award "underlies the importance in investing in science for innovation and long-term economic growth", says economist Diane Coyle of the University of Cambridge. "It's great to see the Nobel prize recognize the importance of this topic," adds innovation policy researcher Richard Jones of the University of Manchester, UK. "It's important that economists understand the conditions that lead to technological progress," he adds. The winners, says Coyle, "have long been on people's list of potential candidates".

‘Economics Nobel prize won by researchers who showed how science boosts growth’ by @philipcball.bsky.social in @nature.com www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Wow, that's so frustrating it's still up!

I didn't have to look, Google Scholar suggested I add it to my profile!

✨️ Silver lining ✨️