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Research

Biological systems - including the simplest cells - exhibit a broad range of functions to thrive in their environment. Research in the Imperial College Centre for Synthetic Biology is focused on the possibility of engineering the underlying biochemical processes to solve many of the challenges facing society, from healthcare to sustainable energy. In particular, we model, analyse, design and build biological and biochemical systems in living cells and/or in cell extracts, both exploring and enhancing the engineering potential of biology.

As part of our research we develop novel methods to accelerate the celebrated Design-Build-Test-Learn synthetic biology cycle. As such research in the Centre for Synthetic Biology highly multi- and interdisciplinary covering computational modelling and machine learning approaches; automated platform development and genetic circuit engineering ; multi-cellular and multi-organismal interactions, including gene drive and genome engineering; metabolic engineering; in vitro/cell-free synthetic biology; engineered phages and directed evolution; and biomimetics, biomaterials and biological engineering.

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{McFarlane:2020:10.21769/bioprotoc.3599,
author = {McFarlane, C and Murray, J},
doi = {10.21769/bioprotoc.3599},
journal = {Bio-protocol},
pages = {1--10},
title = {A sensitive coupled enzyme assay for measuring kinase and ATPase kinetics using ADP-specific hexokinase},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.21769/bioprotoc.3599},
volume = {10},
year = {2020}
}

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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Kinases and ATPases perform essential biological functions in metabolism and regulation.Activity of these enzymes is commonly measured by coupling ATP consumption to the synthesis of adetectable product. For most assay systems the ATP concentration during the reaction is unknown,compromising the precision of the assay. Using the ADP-specific hexokinase (ADP-HK) from the thermophilic archaeon Thermococcus litoralisthe protocol outlined here allows real time coupling of ATP consumption to downstream signal changeenabling accurate kinetic measurements. ADP-HK phosphorylates glucose that is then used by glucose6-phosphate dehydrogenase to reduce NAD+ to NADH which can be measured at 340 nm. We haveshown this assay to be sensitive to the detection of micromole quantities of ADP with no detectablebackground from ATP.
AU  - McFarlane,C
AU  - Murray,J
DO  - 10.21769/bioprotoc.3599
EP  - 10
PY  - 2020///
SN  - 2331-8325
SP  - 1
TI  - A sensitive coupled enzyme assay for measuring kinase and ATPase kinetics using ADP-specific hexokinase
T2  - Bio-protocol
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.21769/bioprotoc.3599
UR  - https://bio-protocol.org/e3599
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/79219
VL  - 10
ER  -