News

We are excited to host Asal Khoshravan Azar from The University of Edinburgh for a week. Asal is a PhD student in Matteo Degiacomi’s lab and is examining the molecular dynamics of the nitrite reductase AniA and metallochaperone AccA from pathogenic Neisseria. She is in Durham to learn how key experiments that help with the modelling work are carried out.

Very pleased to see our contributions on characterising Cu-binding host defense peptides from ants published online! We are grateful to the project leads, Alfredo Angeles-Boza and Jonathan Klassen, both from the University of Connecticut, USA, for the opportunity to join their adventures in insect biology.

Ant abaecin-2 is a context-dependent copper-binding effector that can be either inhibitory or protective.

We are saying goodbye (for now) to Freddie Willoughby, a 6-week undergraduate summer intern in our lab. Freddie will return in October as a Level 3 Research Project student to continue working on TonB-dependent receptors in oral Neisseria.

Congratulations to recent Level 3 Research Project students Maya Basran and Jonas Flohr for earning the top overall marks in the BSc Biochemistry and BSc Biology graduating cohorts, respectively!

Maya is off to an MPhil in Cambridge University while Jonas is off to a round-the-world bicycle adventure! We wish them all the very best in their next steps. 

Lizzi (MRes student) and Thomas (MSc student) have both reached the end of their projects. Both of them are moving on to PhD studentships – Lizzi at Oxford University & UKHSA, while Thomas at University of Strathclyde. We are sorry to see them go but wish them both all the very best in their next steps!

Karrera gave a talk and chaired a session at the recent Royal Society interdisciplinary discussion meeting in Metals and Oxygen for Planetary and Human Health. A highly engaging meeting that challenged many of her world views!

We welcome Dayanara Leyva, Emilia Greetham, and Abdulrahman Alosaimi, as Master’s of Data Science research project students in the lab until August. They will use machine learning to examine the relationship between Cu-dependent nitrite reductases and their metallochaperones.

Congratulations to Will (2nd year PhD student) for winning the Best Poster Prize at the EPSRC CDT MosMed Conference! Will is going to use his prize to carry out XL-MS experiments.

Congratulations, Safa (3rd year PhD student), for winning the Molecules and Health Best Talk Prize for her oral presentation at Research Away Day! Safa won some funding to support attendance at a conference of her choice next year.

Safa, Archie, and Will presented their work in the department’s Research Away Day. Well done, all!