jacksonlab

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Asymmetric Ene-Reduction by F420 -Dependent Oxidoreductases B (FDOR-B) from Mycobacterium smegmatis - New Paper

Industrial biocatalysts, especially for the production of pharmaceuticals and other fine chemicals, are in growing demand due to their high specificity, and lower environmental cost resulting from their inherent renewability and comparatively mild reaction conditions when compared to classical catalysts.  The study investigated the activity of eight enzymes from a subclass of Flavin/deazaflavin…

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Complex Inhibitory Mechanism of Glycomimetics with Heparanase - New Paper

Heparanase(HPSE) is the only mammalian endo-β-glucuronidase known to catalyze the degradation of heparan sulfate. Dysfunction of HPSE activity has been linked to several disease states, resulting in HPSE becoming the target of numerous therapeutic programs,yet no drug has passed clinical trials to date. Through studying HPSE inhibition by Pentosan polysulfate sodium (PPS), this study aims to…

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Welcome to new summer ASC student

Warm welcome to Marina Rahman who will be joining the Jackson Lab this summer as an ASC student.

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New Nature Comms Paper

New Nature Comms Paper

The deazaflavin cofactor F420 is involved in a range of important redox reactions in bacteria and archaea. However, there are aspects of the F420 biosynthetic pathway that remain unclear. This work presents a revised biosynthetic pathway for F420, showing that phosphoenolpyruvate, rather than 2-phospho-L-lactate, is the key intermediate during the biosynthesis of F420. A range of techniques,…

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New review article – the potential of remote mutations in protein engineering Rational protein engineering efforts normally focus on altering parts of proteins that are directly involved in function - e.g.

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Drosophila melanogaster nonribosomal peptide synthetase Ebony encodes an atypical condensation domain - new paper

Drosophila melanogaster nonribosomal peptide synthetase Ebony encodes an atypical condensation domain – new paper

We recently collaborated on this piece of work from members of Max Cryle’s group (Monash/EMBL Australia). Using a range of techniques including protein X-ray crystallography, isothermal titration calorimetry and activity assays, this work characterises the structure and function of the C-terminal domain of the nonribosomal peptide synthetase Ebony. Results show that this C-terminal region…

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"Cryptic genetic variation shapes the adaptive evolutionary potential of enzymes" - new paper

“Cryptic genetic variation shapes the adaptive evolutionary potential of enzymes” – new paper

New eLIFE paper available online now! https://elifesciences.org/articles/40789

In this work, a collaboration with members of the Tokuriki (UBC) and Kamerlin (Upsalla University) groups, we performed directed evolution of four orthogous metallo-beta-lactamases towards a new function and found that different starting genotypes led to distinct evolutionary outcomes. We used a range of techniques,…

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"Structural and evolutionary approaches to the design and optimization of fluorescence-based small molecule biosensors" - new review paper

“Structural and evolutionary approaches to the design and optimization of fluorescence-based small molecule biosensors” – new review paper

Our latest Current Opinion in Structural Biology review on the structural and evolutionary approaches to the design of fluorescence-based small-molecule biosensors is available online now (https://authors.elsevier.com/c/1YeAO_,2BdUwRJk).

In this paper, we outline current and emerging approaches for designing and optimizing genetically encoded small-molecule biosensors: using naturally-occurring…

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Cassidy throws mortarboard in the air... you'll never believe what happened next!

Cassidy throws mortarboard in the air… you’ll never believe what happened next!

A massive well done to Cassidy, who graduated last year with First Class Honours. We also found out that she can add “good at throwing mortarboards” to her long list of skills.

Well done Cassidy!

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Jackson Group PhD Graduations

Jackson Group PhD Graduations

A massive congratulations to Dr Brendon Lee and Dr Eleanor Campbell, who celebrated their graduations at the end of 2018. They looked very nice and happy in their floppy hats. Smiles all around!

Brendon has taken up a post-doctoral position in the Jackson group and Eleanor has been working as a post-doc in the Hollfelder group at the University of Cambridge.

You can find some of Brendon’s work…

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FAD sequestering proteins protect mycobacteria - new paper!

FAD sequestering proteins protect mycobacteria – new paper!

In this work, recently published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, we use a number of biochemical and structural analyses to show that a previously uncharacterised protein from Mycobacterium smegmatis acts as a flavin-sequestering protein that is required for survival during hypoxia. We show that this protein is a member of the flavin- and deazaflavin-dependent oxidoreductases (FDORs) and…

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Understanding how proteins gain new functions following gene duplication (i.e. neofunctionalisation) via structural changes is a key research theme in the Jackson group. In this paper, published recently in Insect Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, we use phylogenetic analysis, biochemical comparisons, and structural analysis to explore the evolutionary trajectories that link two Drosophilaeste…

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Structure and stability of gammaS-Crystallin sheds light on cataract formation - New paper in JMB!

Structure and stability of gammaS-Crystallin sheds light on cataract formation – New paper in JMB!

Read the paper here! 

Cataracts, the clouding of the eye lens, is a leading cause of blindness and visual impairments worldwide. Cataracts form when oxidative stress in the lens causes lens proteins, such as crystallin, to destabilise and aggregate. The molecular basis for the oxidation-induced aggregation of these proteins, however, has remained elusive. In this paper, recently published in the 

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The evolution of multiple active site configurations in a designed enzyme - New Nature Communications Paper!

The evolution of multiple active site configurations in a designed enzyme – New Nature Communications Paper!

  Congratulations to Nansook and everyone involved in this project! This has been a great collaboration with Lynn Kamerlin (Uppsala University), Chris Easton (ANU) and Michelle Coote’s (ANU) groups.

In this work, we follow changes in conformational sampling, electrostatic preorganization, and quantum tunneling along the evolutionary trajectory of a designed Kemp eliminase. We observe that in the…

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Come and work with us on an exciting, collaborative project at the Australian National University!

The ANU Grand Challenge Research Program on Novel Miniaturized Medical Sensor Technology is now advertising Postdoctoral Fellow / Research Fellow positions located each in the Research Schools of Chemistry, Engineering, and Physics to work on the development of novel miniaturized biomedical sensors that can be integrated into wearable and point-of-care devices. These positions will work synergistically with the ANU Grand Challenge team benefitting from the breadth of the research programs and expertise. This project aims to revolutionise personalised medicine by providing new means for non-invasive collection and analysis of health data including the development of miniaturized sensors for detection of biomarkers in multiple sclerosis and diabetes.

The Research School of Chemistry Research Fellow will work in Associate Professor Colin Jackson’s group, and be responsible for design, engineering, and production of proteins as a key component of these biosensors. This could include engineering binding selectivity, optimizing ligand affinity, and chemical modification of the protein to function as part of a complex matrix, such as protein hydrogels.

For more details on how to apply, please follow this link: http://jobs.anu.edu.au/cw/en/job/526630/postdoctoral-fellow

    Postdoctoral Fellow Position in the Jackson Lab – Apply Now! Come and work with us on an exciting, collaborative project at the Australian National University! The ANU Grand Challenge Research Program on 

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Galen hits 'Submit' on his PhD Thesis!

Galen hits ‘Submit’ on his PhD Thesis!

Congratulations to Galen Correy who submitted his PhD thesis last week! Here he is clicking on the ‘submit’ button. Well done Galen!

  Check out a few of Galen’s papers:

Correy, G., Zaidman, D., Carvalho, S., Mabbitt, P. D., James, P. J., Kotze, A. C., … Jackson, C. J. (2017). Overcoming insecticide resistance through computational inhibitor design. bioRxiv (Pre-print).

  Correy, G.J.,Carr,…

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Ben Clifton awarded 'Best Thesis'

Ben Clifton awarded ‘Best Thesis’

Ex-Jackson group member Dr. Ben Clifton has been awarded the ‘ANU Research School of Chemistry Director’s award for the Best Thesis 2017’. Ben’s PhD thesis ‘Functional evolution of solute-binding proteins’ describes the use of ancestral protein reconstruction to explore the molecular evolution of binding specificity and catalysis in amino-acid binding proteins.

You can find some of Ben’s…