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SUMMARY:The World’s Stickiest Proteins and Insights on Creating New Tech
 nologies from Einstein to Steve Jobs - Mark Howarth\, Sheild Professor of 
 Pharmacology
DTSTART:20251110T173000Z
DTEND:20251110T190000Z
UID:TALK239281@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Lawrence Ng
DESCRIPTION:Synthetic biology makes grand claims about the potential from 
 re-engineering of living systems. How does one go about harnessing surpris
 ing features of the natural world? What does it take to go from a cute ide
 a to having wide impact? Describing insights from many of the world’s gr
 eatest inventors and designers\, this talk will consider a path forwards\,
  with reference to my lab’s curiosity about creating the world’s stick
 iest protein. A special feature of a flesh-eating bacterium enables sponta
 neous covalent bond formation within its surface proteins. We re-engineere
 d this system to generate an irreversible peptide-protein interaction (Spy
 Tag/SpyCatcher). This reaction is genetically-encodable\, super-fast\, and
  specific in bacteria\, plants and animals. This Spy toolbox has now been 
 used around the world in thousands of different situations. Applications w
 ill be discussed for cancer therapy and vaccination for pandemic threats a
 nd global health.
LOCATION:Department of Chemistry (Pfizer lecture theatre)
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