This Web Page briefly details ALL collaborations I have been involved in over the last twenty years!
The list is alphabetical:
Dr Tatyana
Akimkina - Russian Academy of
Sciences.
This work was initiated after successfully
receiving a Wellcome Trust Collaborative Research
Grant together with Dr James McClellan (also at
Portsmouth). Since then we have produced a number
of gDNA libraries from thermophilic bacteria or
archaebacteria and we have started a screen for
interesting genes including those encoding
various topoisomerases and DNA helicases. We also
isolated a highly
conserved plasmid from Thermotoga maritima
that appears to behave as a selfish piece of DNA.
Dr Paul Berryman -
Hampshire Scientific Services
This project was an
external consultancy to
investigate the most reliable method for PCR
screening of GM-content in food. The project
developed into the use of real-time PCR for the
same purpose and showed that the technology
could be used to quantify GM-content in various
food; although, it also showed there are major
problems associated with extraction of high-quality
DNA from some foods.
Prof Cees Dekker
(Dr David Bensimon, Dr John Gallop, Dr Marie Weiserova and Prof Roberto Favilla)
- part of the EC-funded
Mol Switch Project investigating the use
of EcoR124I and other molecular motors as nanoactuators.
This led to a further EC-funded Project (BioNano-Switch
- NEST Pathfinder, Synthetic Biology Grant No. 043288), which
has brought two new collaborators to the Consortium - Prof Paulo
Freitis, Portugal and Dr Ivo Utke, Switzerland. Finally David Bensimon and
Paulo Freitis have joined with Dr Ralf Seidel (TUDelft) on a new Project funded
through the NanoSci-E+ scheme called Molecular Machines.
Dr David Dryden -
Edinburgh
University.
David Dryden was at Newcastle University at the
same time I was and we spent many hours
discussing Type I R-M systems (I did most of the
discussing I seem to remember). Amazingly, Dave now heads a group working on the EcoKI R-M
system at Edinburgh University, Department of
Chemistry. We still discuss our work and have
published papers together - many thanks for all of the PhD
examinations you have done for me.
Dr Kevin Dybvig -
University of Alabama, USA.
This collaboration involves an unusual R-M system
from Mycoplasma pulmonis. We are still
trying to identify the DNA recognition sequence
of this system, but the project has been very
problematic!
Dr Pavel Janscak and Dr Mark
Szczelkun
- Bristol University.
This collaboration sprang from a discussion about
the use of catenanes to determine if the
restriction enzyme binds DNA in cis prior
to DNA translocation. We have published a number
of papers together (initially with Dr Pavel
Janscak - second from the right on the above
photograph) and the collaboration continues as we
work toward understanding EcoR124I as a
molecular motor. Pavel has now moved from the
Czech group to work with Prof. Tom Bickle at the
Biozentrum in Basel.
Prof
Gabi Kaufmann - Tel Aviv
University, Israel.
My
collaboration with Gabi started as a virtual
project through email contacts and exchange of
information. After a couple of years Gabi and I
were lucky enough to obtain one the British
Council sponsored UK-Israel Technology Initiative
grants (only about 30 were supported in
biological science). This led to a three year
collaborative project studying the anti-restriction
polypeptide Stp,the type IC R-M system EcoprrI
and the PrrC anti-codon nuclease.
Dr Marie Weiserova -
Czech Academy of Sciences.
This collaboration started in 1991 through
contacts made with Dr Josef Hubacek (on the right
of the photograph) and has continued since, but
with the Czech research group being led by Dr.
Marie Weiserova (in the yellow shirt in the
photograph). We have published a number of paper
since then and we have both obtained a number of research
grants based around this collaborative work. Dr
Weiserova is also part of the EC-funded
Mol Switch Consortium.
Dr Marcus Yeo - works for a local SME (Small to
Medium-sized Enterprise), Cybersense,
with whom we are working toward the use of the multisubunit EcoR124I
as a toxin-sensitive biosensor.
Prof. Darek Gorecki and
Dr Cameron Alexander - University of
Portsmouth.
This collaboration involved a highly imaginative project, funded
through a Wellcome Trust Showcase Award, to develop the EcoR124I
molecular motor as a controllable dynamic system for gene delivery
in a gene therapy system. The work involved linking "intelligent" polymers
to the HsdR subunit of EcoR124I and showing control of activity of the enzyme
through collapse of the polymer.
Dr Gerry Ronan -
Farfield Scientific
Limited.
The
identification of EcoR124I as a molecular motor has initiated a move
toward commercialisation of this research. Part of this
process is a collaboration with Farfield Scientific Limited, with
whom we hope to produce an orthogonal biosensing system
incorporating the nanoactuator onto the Dual Polarisation
Interferometer (DPI).
Last modified on
21 September 2011
© Dr Keith Firman
Author Dr Keith Firman.