Sugar specificity – a new twist

The latest paper from the Liverpool-Ronzoni collaboration illustrates that the notion of specificity in protein-heparin/heparan sulfate interactions is far more complex than 1 protein:1 sugar sequence. This opens up some real opportunities for the screening of novel compounds that will alter growth factor/cytokine/chemokine activity in disease!
Rudd, T.R., et al. (2010). Comparable stabilisation, structural changes and activities can be induced in FGF by a variety of HS and non-GAG analogues: Implications for sequence-activity relationships. Org. Biomol. Chem., DOI 10.1039/C0OB00246A.

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Bionano 15 Nov

There will be a Bionano meeting on 15 November, 4 pm. Details soon.

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Lab meeting

Great lab meeting from Quentin today. We all learned a lot about the pancreas and what happens to it when it is inflamed or neoplastic. Most impressively, he is making great progress in building his tools to analyse tissue and cell function. I’m looking forward to the next instalment.

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Back to Blighty

After a final push at IMRE, Jon’s grants are looking good the local politics messy and so there was just one lat thing to do – g down for a bite to eat and a beer in Pasir Panjang village with Paul, David and Jon. Beer is good before a flight – not too much, but enough to send you to sleep for 8 h. We sort out a few final details, including the future PhD student programme and then I go off to the street to grab a cab.
On the plane, lucky again – an empty seat next to me. Makes all the difference, though not as nice as having all three seats to oneself…
In Munich half the plane got off and was replaced by early morning travellers to Manchester – though I still kept my empty seat. Thank you SIA!
Here the sky is grey, just like in Singapore, but the wind is howling and it is just a few degrees colder. A day to adapt I think.

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The tropics

My fourth day in Singapore. Pleasantly hot, though after the rain yesterday afternoon I actually felt cold until I had walked to 10 minutes. Funny how one acclimatises so quickly.
I’ve had some very stimulating discussions with the team here as we gear up for building IMRE’s microscope. Most importantly, Jon Hobley successfully negotiated his 45th yesterday – fantastic BBQ and an eclectic mix of people from all walks of life!

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