Mini-conference on chemical biology forged deeper relationships between Leicester and Lund!
Participants at the Chemical Biology mini-conference pictured outside the ESS, ahead of the tour of the spallation source.
LINXS catched up with scientist Zoë Fisher from ESS to speak to her about the recent mini-conference on chemical biology, taking place at LINXS in September.
Zoë Fisher is excited about forging new collaborations between Lund and Leicester.
She is a member of Working Group Two, Modulating the Function and Activity of both Macro-Molecules and Small Molecules of Life Using Chemical Biology, within the Chemistry of Life theme, which organised the event.
The researchers within the group are interested in the design and application of chemical probes to study the structure and function of biomolecules. This includes the design and use of small molecules for sample design and preparation for X-ray and neutron scattering experiments.
The event aimed to build collaborations between Leicester and Lund through sharing ongoing science. Specifically, the working group aims to progress and establish collaborations focusing on mass spectrometry analysis of cancer-related proteins.
It was the second event organised by the working group since the theme was formed.
What did you discuss during the day?
Our programme highlighted talks from researchers visiting from the University of Leicester to open up discussion on shared research interests. It is important for us to involve early careers scientists, so the programme also included a PhD presentation: Fredrik Sjövall from the Department of Chemistry at Lund University gave a talk on Structure-based design and synthesis of macrocyclic ligands as novel galectin-3 inhibitors.
The site visit and study tour of the ESS was also very appreciated.
As the main aim for our event was to forge collaborations and highlight potential opportunities, we made sure to plan ample time for discussion and informal chit chat on both days!
What was most exciting with the event?
Catching and up and socialising with the visitors from Leicester was really fun! But of course, it was also great to hear about all the interesting projects and research areas they are engaging in – leading on to ideas of how we can work together more closely!
What do you plan next?
In the coming weeks/months we will discuss how and when to have a follow-up meeting and plan for events in 2025. Within the working group, we are also exploring the possibility to have a visiting fellow from the theme visit Lund for two to four months. There was also interest in preparing and submitting a joint Marie Curie grant for PhD studentships between Lund University, the Technical University of Denmark, and the University of Leicester.
What excites you the most currently in connection to your working group?
From ESS perspective, I think there is scope for neutrons and deuteration to play a role in some of the research in focus for Leicester. Exploring this to find common ground is very exciting. One idea for a project/collaboration is to look at HDAC inhibitors and investigate if any of them bind off-target to carbonic anhydrases.
Another idea is to look at key proteins in apoptosis and see if there is possibility to use X-ray and neutron scattering to better understand the structure/function of these proteins.