Human health, agriculture and the environment to benefit from bioengineering project at the University of Kent

Human health, agriculture and the environment to benefit from bioengineering project at the University of Kent

 

Martin Warren, Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Kent’s Department of Biosciences, has been awarded over £750,000 from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council for a study into biochemical pathways that could ultimately lead to improved health benefits for humans, as well as the development of important new technologies and products for agriculture and bioremediation (the use of plants or microorganisms to clean up pollution or contaminated material).

 

Elderly people, those with a vitamin B12 deficiency – a state that is associated with neurological disorders, megablastic anaemia and developmental problems in unborn babies – or anyone on a strictly vegetarian diet may benefit substantially.

 

This study will investigate biochemical pathways, how they are controlled and how they can be engineered to enhance the metabolic ability of the host cell. It will explore the limitations and consequences of engineering complex metabolic pathways (the chemical reactions carried out by a cell) into different organisms, such as taking the genetic software that allows bacteria to make vitamin B12 and transferring it into bacteria that are unable to make B12.

 

Professor Warren said: ‘Vitamin B12 is unique among the vitamins in that it is the only one whose synthesis is restricted solely to bacteria. We plan to take the genetic software that allows bacteria to make vitamin B12 and transfer it into bacteria that are unable to make B12, as well as into yeast and a higher plant, thereby conferring upon these organisms the ability to make this essential nutrient.’

 

For this project Professor Warren and his team will take advantage of the latest developments and technologies in metabolic engineering.

 

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Professor Martin Warren went to Southampton University where he read Biochemistry as an undergraduate. He stayed on in the Biochemistry Department to do a PhD, which initiated his interest in the genetics and biochemistry of tetrapyrrole biosynthesis. After completing his PhD studies, he moved to Texas A & M University, where he worked as a research associate on vitamin B12 biosynthesis.

In 1991 he took up a lecturing position in the School of Biological Sciences at Queen Mary, University of London, where he stayed until 1995 when he moved to a Senior Lecturer position at the Institute of Ophthalmology, University College London. He was promoted to Reader of Biochemistry in 1998 but then moved back to the School of Biological Sciences at Queen Mary in 1999 to take up a Personal Chair. In 2005 he moved to the University of Kent, where he is Professor of Biochemistry.

He has published numerous articles on tetrapyrrole biosynthesis and the biochemistry underlying inherited retinopathies, as well as co-authoring a popular book on the link between tetrapyrrole biosynthesis and the madness of George III.

Professor Warren is a member of Kent’s Protein Science Group. The Group consists of several research teams who share a common interest in proteins: their structures and functions; their synthesis, folding and modification in the eukaryotic cell; their interactions with cells and tissues; and their production and biomedical applications. The Group exploits a wide range of methods (biophysical, chemical, molecular biological and genetic) and utilises advanced proteomic, mass spectrometric and NMR techniques to study a wide range of proteins; for example, fungal prion proteins, motor proteins such as myosin and molecular chaperones and protein folding catalysts.

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The University of Kent is one of the UK’s most dynamic universities. The first institution within the county to be granted a university charter, it now has over 16,000 students studying at Canterbury, Medway and Tonbridge and is a major educational, economic and cultural force throughout Kent.

 

In the 2007 National Student Survey, the University was ranked not just top in the region for course satisfaction, it was among the top ten nationwide. It also has a strong international presence and, according to the 2007 Sunday Times University Guide, it ‘can claim to be Britain’s only international university’ as a result of recent developments including the University’s expanding Brussels campus and its ‘involvement as one of five partners (and the only non-French one) in the bilingual University of the Transmanche’. The Guide ranked Kent 42 out of 123 participating higher education institutions in the UK, an increase of four places from the 2006 printed edition.

 

More than 80% of research staff work in departments which contain research of national or international levels of excellence and the University’s commitment to its research activities was recognised by the shortlisting of one of its academics for Young Researcher of the Year in the 2007 Times Higher Education Supplement (THES) Awards.

 

The University’s Law Clinic was also shortlisted in the Outstanding Contribution to the Local Community category. Last year, Kent was one of only five UK universities shortlisted for the THES Institution of the Year award.