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The Bernardes Group

Professor Gonçalo Bernardes

Professor of Chemical Biology

Gonçalo Bernardes is a Professor of Chemical Biology & a Fellow of Trinity Hall College, Cambridge.

What we do

Nature has its own machinery for modifying the structure of proteins. In our research, we’re attempting to mimic this machinery to gain significant therapeutic benefits. We’re engineering chemical reactions that enable us to modify proteins while allowing to choose the precise location in the protein’s structure where we want to install these modifications.

This work has a whole range of applications. For example, we’re currently developing ways of selectively labelling proteins in living cells: this can help us monitor the proteins associated with particular diseases without interfering either with the protein’s structure, function, activity and location or upsetting the cell’s normal functions. Another important potential application for this work is linking cytotoxic drug molecules (molecules that are poisonous to cells) to antibodies and then using the antibody to deliver the drug in a very targeted way to the diseased tissue. This could improve the effectiveness of cancer treatments and reduce their side effects.

These are two examples from among our lines of research that use site-selective and bioorthogonal chemistry to address challenges in biology and medicine. We hope our methods may in future be used in laboratories around the world to help develop new drugs with improved effectiveness and reduced side-effects for some of the most common diseases such as cancer.

Funding

We are funded by the Royal Society, by UKRI (EPSRC) and by the European Commission (Marie Sklodowska Curie actions & European Research Council)

For further information on our research and for opportunities, please check our research group website.

Watch Professor Bernardes discuss his research

Take a tour of the Bernardes Lab

Publications

Mechanistic insights into transition metal-mediated bioorthogonal uncaging reactions
E Latocheski, GM Dal Forno, TM Ferreira, BL Oliveira, GJL Bernardes, JB Domingos
– Chem Soc Rev
(2020)
49,
7710
(doi: 10.1039/d0cs00630k)
Serine-Selective Bioconjugation
JC Vantourout, SR Adusumalli, KW Knouse, DT Flood, A Ramirez, NM Padial, A Istrate, K Maziarz, JN deGruyter, RR Merchant, JX Qiao, MA Schmidt, MJ Deery, MD Eastgate, PE Dawson, GJL Bernardes, PS Baran
– J Am Chem Soc
(2020)
142,
17236
(doi: 10.1021/jacs.0c05595)
Sequential dual site-selective protein labelling enabled by lysine modification
MJ Matos, L Brown, B Bernardim, A Guerreiro, G Jiménez-Osés, GJL Bernardes
– Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry
(2020)
28,
115783
(doi: 10.1016/j.bmc.2020.115783)
Biomimetic peptide self-assembly for functional materials.
A Levin, TA Hakala, L Schnaider, GJL Bernardes, E Gazit, TPJ Knowles
– Nature reviews. Chemistry
(2020)
4,
615
(doi: 10.1038/s41570-020-0215-y)
Structural and biophysical insights into the mode of covalent binding of rationally designed potent BMX inhibitors.
JD Seixas, BB Sousa, MC Marques, A Guerreiro, R Traquete, T Rodrigues, IS Albuquerque, MFQ Sousa, AR Lemos, PMF Sousa, TM Bandeiras, D Wu, SK Doyle, CV Robinson, AN Koehler, F Corzana, PM Matias, GJL Bernardes
– RSC chemical biology
(2020)
1,
251
(doi: 10.1039/d0cb00033g)
Selective N-Terminal Cysteine Protein Modification with Cyclopropenones
A Istrate, C Navo, B Sousa, M Marques, M Deery, A Bond, F Corzana, G Jiménez-Osés, G Bernardes
(2020)
(doi: 10.26434/chemrxiv.12866873.v1)
Selective N-Terminal Cysteine Protein Modification with Cyclopropenones
A Istrate, CD Navo, BB Sousa, MC Marques, M Deery, A Bond, F Corzana, G Jiménez-Osés, G Bernardes
(2020)
(doi: 10.26434/chemrxiv.12866873)
Protein-Protein Conjugates: Tyrosine Delivers.
MB Geeson, GJL Bernardes
– ACS central science
(2020)
6,
1473
(doi: 10.1021/acscentsci.0c01008)
A scalable insect cell-based production process of the human recombinant BMX for in-vitro covalent ligand high-throughput screening
BB Sousa, MFQ Sousa, MC Marques, JD Seixas, JA Brito, PM Matias, GJL Bernardes, A Roldão
– Bioprocess and Biosystems Engineering
(2020)
44,
209
(doi: 10.1007/s00449-020-02421-6)
Tetrazine Carbon Nanotubes for Pretargeted In Vivo “Click‐to‐Release” Bioorthogonal Tumour Imaging
H Li, J Conde, A Guerreiro, GJL Bernardes
– Angewandte Chemie International Edition
(2020)
59,
16023
(doi: 10.1002/anie.202008012)
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Head of group

Research Interest Groups

Synthesis
Biological

Telephone number

01223 336305

Email address

College

Trinity Hall

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