Proud to share our preprint of Henry’s CRISPR-based Oligo Recombineering platform for the prioritization of covalent drug targets - check it out here, and really excited to have that work highlighted by Twist Bioscience here - go Henry!
Wincott et al
Excited to announce a second preprint, and the third lab research output for the year… Ceire’s first data manuscript is now up on bioRxiv - not bad going for less than a year on the job!
We’ve come up with a simple and remarkably robust way to insert molecular barcodes into the genome of Toxoplasma tachyzoites using a CRISPR-based approach for a targeted double strand break combined with super-short single strand barcode oligo homology repair templates.
Thanks to a wonderful collaboration with Sarah Ewald’s lab @ the University of Virginia, and Eva Frickel’s group @ the University of Birmingham, we’ve undertaken the first within-host population dynamic study with this eukaryotic pathogen. For the first time we’ve been able to ask questions about the selection bottleneck experienced by the parasite population as it colonizes the host brain and establishes the chronic persister cell niche.
Mini spoiler - it’s not what you might expect! Check Ceire’s paper for the full story.
Congratulations to group members Daniel Anderson & Henry Benns on their co-first authorship publication in Molecular Systems Biology.
The work reports the development of a new bioinformatics tool for protein-centric design of CRISPR guide RNAs (gRNAs).
CRISPR/Cas is a genome engineering technology that relies on the targeting of an RNA-guided endonuclease to introduce double-stranded breaks at specific genomic loci. One key application of CRISPR/Cas is site-directed mutagenesis, in which specific amino acids within protein-coding genes are modified through the integration of foreign DNA templates. To increase the efficiency of editing, gRNAs must target Cas9 in close proximity to the site of template integration. Despite this, search algorithms for the design of gRNAs have remained gene-centric, generating extensive lists of gRNAs that require time-consuming manual curation to identify those targeting specific protein regions of interest.
To address this, the team developed CRISPR-TAPE, a protein-centric gRNA design tool that allows users to identify guides that target specific residues or amino acid types within proteins. In CRISPR-TAPE, gRNA outputs are positionally filtered around an amino acid(s) of interest, enabling quick/automated identification of guides for downstream mutagenesis strategies. It is anticipated that the tool will make CRISPR-based protein engineering more accessible to the chemical biology community, empowering researchers seeking to modify specific amino acid chemistries.
The website pages have (finally) been updated with the new lab team. A fresh wave of Master’s and undergraduate students, and a new PhD candidate. Immediate impressions: gender balance, not bad - 55% male, 45% female. Species balance, disappointing - 91% human, 9% canine.
A new drug discovery platform supported by the NC3Rs
We’re excited to announce a fully funded 3-year PhD studentship opportunity within the lab. If you’re motivated, love science, microbiology, and want to help revolutionize drug discovery, then get in contact! Check out the lab website for further details.
Eduardo, too excited by Toxoplasma tachyzoites to pull his eyes away from the microscope.
Somehow it’s almost the end of 2018 and we have some nice announcements to finish off the year... Our newest lab member, Eduardo Alves, has joined the lab as a post-doc. Welcome Eduardo!
We're excited to announce the immediate availability of a new post-doc position within the lab:
http://www.imperial.ac.uk/jobs/description/NAT00184/research-associate
Come join us! And feel free to contact the lab informally to discuss the position and your research interests.
Congrats Megan and the Bogyo Bros! The first senior author manuscripts from #laboratorychild - looking forward to many more over the coming years (we hope!).
Rejoice! Following successful completion of her MRes, Gaya Sritharan has joined the Child Lab as a Research Technician. And then there were 5!
Awarded collaboration kick-starter funding for a new project with the Armstrong Lab in the Department of Chemistry!
Dr Matthew Child BSc PhD MRSB MRSC.
Matthew has just been elected as a member of both the Royal Society of Biology, and the Royal Society of Chemistry!
#toomanyletters
A late pressie for the lab from Santa! Tissue culture finally fully functional, ready to crush pathogen biology in 2017!
Dr Who?
Applications now open for a fully-funded PhD supervised by Dr Matthew Child (Department of Life Sciences) and Professor Ed Tate (Department of Chemistry). Specific project details can be found here under Project 5.
Informal approaches by outstanding candidates also welcomed for this and other future funding opportunities.
The post-doc position has been filled, and we're excited to be welcoming Gisela Henriques to the lab in 2017.
Also - we will soon be advertizing a PhD postion co-supervised by Prof. Ed Tate in Imperial's chemistry department... Stay tuned for more details!
Come join the lab -
http://www.nature.com/naturejobs/science/jobs/591805-research-associate
Teamwork makes the dream work
The grant funds are flowing and the Child Lab becomes more than a virtual presence! Watch out for job opportunities in the not-too-distant future...
Finally, the Child Lab is here with the launch of the physical lab in the Department of Life Sciences at Imperial College London, along with the website and associated social media feeds.
See the social media links at the bottom of the page, or follow us on Twitter and Instagram @laboratorychild