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Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry

 

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

Immunodiagnostic plasma amino acid residue biomarkers detect cancer early and predict treatment response
C Tang, P Corredeira, S Casimiro, Q Shi, Q Han, W Sukdao, A Cavaco, C Melo-Alvim, CO Matos, C Abreu, S Walsh, G Nogueira-Costa, L Ribeiro, R Sousa, AL Barradas, JE Fonseca, L Costa, EV Yates, GJL Bernardes
– Nature communications
(2025)
16,
6474
Targeted Protein Modification with an Antibody-Based System
O Rimon, J Konc, I Černauskienė, M Ali, V Roy Chowdhury, P Sormanni, GJL Bernardes, M Vendruscolo
– ACS Central Science
(2025)
acscentsci.5c00651
Organic Carbon Monoxide Prodrugs Activated by Endogenous Re-active Oxygen Species for Targeted Delivery
I Cernauskiene, CD Navo, C Labão-Almeida, RS Rupert, BH Gless, WT Khaw, C Tang, MM Muriel-Olaya, G Jiménez-Osés, GJ Gonçalo
– Journal of the American Chemical Society
(2025)
Balancing Antigen Loading on Gold Nanoparticles: Implications for Future Cancer Vaccine Strategies.
M Ghirardello, A Guerreiro, C Bretón, I Compañón, J Zabalza, V Mangini, JM Peregrina, GJL Bernardes, F Corzana
– Chemistry - A European Journal
(2025)
31,
e202501286
An Expanded View of RNA Modification with Carbohydrate-Based Metabolic Probes.
ME Hazemi, MB Geeson, FM Müller, S Mikutis, AJ Enright, GJL Bernardes
– Jacs Au
(2025)
5,
2309
Conditional Activation of Protein Therapeutics by Templated Removal of Peptide Nucleic Acid Masking Groups.
BH Gless, E Jones, C Labão-Almeida, C Tang, N Gottscheber, R Couto, GJL Bernardes
– Angewandte Chemie International Edition
(2025)
64,
e202502268
Conditional Activation of Protein Therapeutics by Templated Removal of Peptide Nucleic Acid Masking Groups
G Lopes Bernardes, B Gless, E Jones
– Angewandte Chemie International Edition
(2025)
137,
Conditional Activation of Protein Therapeutics by Templated Removal of Peptide Nucleic Acid Masking Groups
BH Gless, E Jones, C Labão‐Almeida, C Tang, N Gottscheber, R Couto, GJL Bernardes
– Angewandte Chemie
(2025)
137,
e202502268
Bifunctional Phagocytic Synapse Enhancers for Cancer Immunotherapy
V Sabatino, S Fleisch, C Tang, FM Müller, C Labão-Almeida, WT Khaw, S Hogan, DR Hicks, M Fontes, AR Coelho, W Yang, I Sarkar, D Shome, AV Vidal, M Cabeza-Cabrerizo, T Rohm, RM Reijmers, D Kaymak, F Gerster, D Baker, R Fior, G Hutter, GJL Bernardes
(2025)
Ultrasensitive Protein Aggregate Quantification Assays for Neurodegenerative Diseases on the Simoa Platform (vol 97, pg 290, 2025)
D Böken, Z Xia, JYL Lam, E Fertan, Y Wu, EA English, J Konc, F Layburn, GJL Bernardes, H Zetterberg, MR Cheetham, D Klenerman
– Analytical Chemistry
(2025)
97,
4251
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Research Group

Research Interest Groups

Telephone number

01223 336305

Email address

gb453@cam.ac.uk

College

Trinity Hall