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Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry

 

Herchel Smith Professor of Medicinal Chemistry

Nucleic acids are fundamental to life. Our research is focused on the chemical biology of nucleic acids, and employs the principles of chemistry and the molecular sciences to address questions of importance in biology and medicine. Projects are inherently interdisciplinary and will provide scope for a diversity of intellectual and experimental approaches that include: organic synthesis, biophysics, molecular and cellular biology and genomics. Our scientific goals are problem-driven, which constantly raises the need to invent new methodology.

 

A major interest is to elucidate and manipulate mechanisms that control the expression of genes (either transcription, or translation). We are particularly interested in the role of non-canonical nucleic acid structures that control gene expression (e.g. G-quadruplexes, micro RNA and RNA structures in the 5' untranslated regions of mRNAs). Our goal is to design and synthesise small organic molecules that target such structures and alter the expression of certain genes of interest. Such small molecule gene regulators are valuable tools to study mechanisms in biology and will also open up new approaches for therapeutics and molecular medicine, particularly for diseases characterized by aberrant expression of certain genes (e.g. various cancers).

Our fundamental science will inevitably create opportunities for translation and commercialisation. One such example was our invention (with Professor David Klenerman) of new DNA sequencing technology ("Solexa sequencing") that was commercialised as a Cambridge University spinout company (now part of Illumina Inc.) and is used routinely for applications in genomics, including human genome sequencing. 

Hear Shankar Balasubramanian discuss some of the group's research.

Watch Professor Balasubramanian discuss his research

Take a tour of the Balasubramanian Lab

Publications

Selective inhibitors of trypanosomal uridylyl transferase RET1 establish druggability of RNA post-transcriptional modifications.
A Cording, M Gormally, PJ Bond, M Carrington, S Balasubramanian, EA Miska, B Thomas
– RNA Biology
(2016)
14,
611
Photoactivation of Mutant Isocitrate Dehydrogenase 2 Reveals Rapid Cancer-Associated Metabolic and Epigenetic Changes.
OS Walker, SJ Elsässer, M Mahesh, M Bachman, S Balasubramanian, JW Chin
– J Am Chem Soc
(2016)
138,
718
Enhanced methylation analysis by recovery of unsequenceable fragments
GR McInroy, D Beraldi, E-A Raiber, K Modrzynska, P van Delft, O Billker, S Balasubramanian
– PloS one
(2016)
11,
e0152322
Molecular signatures of plastic phenotypes in two eusocial insect species with simple societies
S Patalano, A Vlasova, C Wyatt, P Ewels, F Camara, PG Ferreira, CL Asher, TP Jurkowski, A Segonds-Pichon, M Bachman, I González-Navarrete, AE Minoche, F Krueger, E Lowy, M Marcet-Houben, JL Rodriguez-Ales, FS Nascimento, S Balasubramanian, T Gabaldon, JE Tarver, S Andrews, H Himmelbauer, WOH Hughes, R Guigó, W Reik, S Sumner
– Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A
(2015)
112,
13970
5-Formylcytosine can be a stable DNA modification in mammals.
M Bachman, S Uribe-Lewis, X Yang, HE Burgess, M Iurlaro, W Reik, A Murrell, S Balasubramanian
– Nature Chemical Biology
(2015)
11,
555
High-throughput sequencing of DNA G-quadruplex structures in the human genome.
VS Chambers, G Marsico, JM Boutell, M Di Antonio, GP Smith, S Balasubramanian
– Nat Biotechnol
(2015)
33,
877
High-resolution sequencing of DNA G-quadruplex secondary structures in the human genome
VS Chambers, G Marsico, JM Boutell, MD Antonio, GP Smith, S Balasubramanian
– Nature Biotechnology
(2015)
33,
877
FOXM1 binds directly to non-consensus sequences in the human genome.
DA Sanders, MV Gormally, G Marsico, D Beraldi, D Tannahill, S Balasubramanian
– Genome Biol
(2015)
16,
130
5-Formylcytosine can be a stable DNA modification in mammals
M Bachman, S Uribe-Lewis, X Yang, HE Burgess, M Iurlaro, W Reik, A Murrell, S Balasubramanian
– Nature Chemical Biology
(2015)
11,
555
Targeted detection of g-quadruplexes in cellular RNAs
CK Kwok, S Balasubramanian
– Angewandte Chemie - International Edition
(2015)
54,
6751
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Research Group

Research Interest Group

Telephone number

01223 336347

Email address

sb10031@cam.ac.uk