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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{Campeotto:2014:10.1074/jbc.M114.590570,
author = {Campeotto, I and Percy, MG and MacDonald, JT and Foerster, A and Freemont, PS and Gruendling, A},
doi = {10.1074/jbc.M114.590570},
journal = {Journal of Biological Chemistry},
pages = {28054--28069},
title = {Structural and Mechanistic Insight into the Listeria monocytogenes Two-enzyme Lipoteichoic Acid Synthesis System},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1074/jbc.M114.590570},
volume = {289},
year = {2014}
}

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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Lipoteichoic acid (LTA) is an important cell wall componentrequired for proper cell growth in many Gram-positive bacteria.In Listeria monocytogenes, two enzymes are required for the synthesisof this polyglycerolphosphate polymer. The LTA primaseLtaPLm initiates LTA synthesis by transferring the first glycerolphosphate(GroP) subunit onto the glycolipid anchor and theLTA synthase LtaSLm extends the polymer by the repeated additionof GroP subunits to the tip of the growing chain. Here, wepresent the crystal structures of the enzymatic domains ofLtaPLm and LtaSLm. Although the enzymes share the same fold,substantial differences in the cavity of the catalytic site andsurface charge distribution contribute to enzyme specialization.The eLtaSLm structure was also determined in complexwith GroP revealing a second GroP binding site. Mutationalanalysis confirmed an essential function for this binding siteand allowed us to propose a model for the binding of thegrowing chain.
AU  - Campeotto,I
AU  - Percy,MG
AU  - MacDonald,JT
AU  - Foerster,A
AU  - Freemont,PS
AU  - Gruendling,A
DO  - 10.1074/jbc.M114.590570
EP  - 28069
PY  - 2014///
SN  - 0021-9258
SP  - 28054
TI  - Structural and Mechanistic Insight into the Listeria monocytogenes Two-enzyme Lipoteichoic Acid Synthesis System
T2  - Journal of Biological Chemistry
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1074/jbc.M114.590570
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/55958
VL  - 289
ER  -