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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{Moya-Ramirez:2020:nar/gkaa955,
author = {Moya-Ramirez, I and Bouton, C and Kontoravdi, C and Polizzi, K},
doi = {nar/gkaa955},
journal = {Nucleic Acids Research},
pages = {1--11},
title = {High resolution biosensor to test the capping level and integrity of mRNAs},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkaa955},
volume = {48},
year = {2020}
}

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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY - JOUR
AB - 5 Cap structures are ubiquitous on eukaryotic mRNAs, essential for post-transcriptional processing,translation initiation and stability. Here we describea biosensor designed to detect the presence of capstructures on mRNAs that is also sensitive to mRNAdegradation, so uncapped or degraded mRNAs canbe detected in a single step. The biosensor is basedon a chimeric protein that combines the recognitionand transduction roles in a single molecule. The mainfeature of this sensor is its simplicity, enabling semiquantitative analyses of capping levels with minimalinstrumentation. The biosensor was demonstratedto detect the capping level on several in vitro transcribed mRNAs. Its sensitivity and dynamic rangeremained constant with RNAs ranging in size from250 nt to approximately 2700 nt and the biosensorwas able to detect variations in the capping level inincrements of at least 20%, with a limit of detection of2.4 pmol. Remarkably, it also can be applied to morecomplex analytes, such mRNA vaccines and mRNAstranscribed in vivo. This biosensor is an innovativeexample of a technology able to detect analyticallychallenging structures such as mRNA caps. It couldfind application in a variety of scenarios, from qualityanalysis of mRNA-based products such as vaccinesto optimization of in vitro capping reactions.
AU - Moya-Ramirez,I
AU - Bouton,C
AU - Kontoravdi,C
AU - Polizzi,K
DO - nar/gkaa955
EP - 11
PY - 2020///
SN - 0305-1048
SP - 1
TI - High resolution biosensor to test the capping level and integrity of mRNAs
T2 - Nucleic Acids Research
UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkaa955
UR - https://academic.oup.com/nar/advance-article/doi/10.1093/nar/gkaa955/5957167
UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/84675
VL - 48
ER -