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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

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)
132,
16157
(doi: 10.1002/anie.202008012)
Back Cover: Tetrazine Carbon Nanotubes for Pretargeted In Vivo “Click‐to‐Release” Bioorthogonal Tumour Imaging (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 37/2020)
H Li, J Conde, A Guerreiro, GJL Bernardes
– Angewandte Chemie International Edition
(2020)
59,
16248
(doi: 10.1002/anie.202010067)
Rücktitelbild: Tetrazine Carbon Nanotubes for Pretargeted In Vivo “Click‐to‐Release” Bioorthogonal Tumour Imaging (Angew. Chem. 37/2020)
H Li, J Conde, A Guerreiro, GJL Bernardes
– Angewandte Chemie
(2020)
132,
16388
(doi: 10.1002/ange.202010067)
Continuous Flow Reactors from Microfluidic Compartmentalization of Enzymes within Inorganic Microparticles.
TA Hakala, F Bialas, Z Toprakcioglu, B Bräuer, KN Baumann, A Levin, GJL Bernardes, CFW Becker, TPJ Knowles
– ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces
(2020)
12,
32951
(doi: 10.1021/acsami.0c09226)
Platinum-Triggered Bond-Cleavage of Pentynoyl Amide and N-Propargyl Handles for Drug-Activation
BL Oliveira, BJ Stenton, VB Unnikrishnan, CR de Almeida, J Conde, M Negrão, FSS Schneider, C Cordeiro, MG Ferreira, GF Caramori, JB Domingos, R Fior, GJL Bernardes
– Journal of the American Chemical Society
(2020)
142,
10869
(doi: 10.1021/jacs.0c01622)
Alkynyl Benzoxazines and Dihydroquinazolines as Cysteine Targeting Covalent Warheads and Their Application in Identification of Selective Irreversible Kinase Inhibitors.
K McAulay, EA Hoyt, M Thomas, M Schimpl, MS Bodnarchuk, HJ Lewis, D Barratt, D Bhavsar, DM Robinson, MJ Deery, DJ Ogg, GJL Bernardes, RA Ward, MJ Waring, JG Kettle
– J Am Chem Soc
(2020)
142,
10358
(doi: 10.1021/jacs.9b13391)
Synthesis, characterization and photoinduced CO-release by manganese(i) complexes
AL Amorim, A Guerreiro, VA Glitz, DF Coimbra, AJ Bortoluzzi, GF Caramori, AL Braga, A Neves, GJL Bernardes, RA Peralta
– New Journal of Chemistry
(2020)
44,
10892
(doi: 10.1039/d0nj02260h)
Precise Installation of Diazo-Tagged Side-Chains on Proteins to Enable in Vitro and In-Cell Site-Specific Labeling
B Bernardim, L Dunsmore, H Li, B Hocking, R Nuñez-Franco, CD Navo, G Jiménez-Osés, ACB Burtoloso, GJL Bernardes
– Bioconjugate Chemistry
(2020)
31,
1604
(doi: 10.1021/acs.bioconjchem.0c00232)
A Sweet Galactose Transfer: Metabolic Oligosaccharide Engineering as a Tool To Study Glycans in Plasmodium Infection
A Kitowski, GJL Bernardes
– Chembiochem : a European journal of chemical biology
(2020)
21,
2696
(doi: 10.1002/cbic.202000226)
Brain-Sparing Sympathofacilitators Mitigate Obesity without Adverse Cardiovascular Effects.
I Mahú, A Barateiro, E Rial-Pensado, N Martinéz-Sánchez, SH Vaz, PMSD Cal, B Jenkins, T Rodrigues, C Cordeiro, MF Costa, R Mendes, E Seixas, MMA Pereira, N Kubasova, V Gres, I Morris, C Temporão, M Olivares, Y Sanz, A Koulman, F Corzana, AM Sebastião, M López, GJL Bernardes, AI Domingos
– Cell Metab
(2020)
31,
1120
(doi: 10.1016/j.cmet.2020.04.013)
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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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    About the University

    Research at Cambridge