News
2023
November:
Our next preprint is out, where we demonstrate RIDME measurements at protein concentrations as low as 10 nanomolar, in collaboration with the Schiemann lab.
October: A new study from the Czekster group at St Andrews on the catalytic mechanism of a metalloaminopeptidase with some EPR contributions from Laura and Bela is in press in Biochemistry – congratulations everyone.
September: The New Academic Year is here!
Bela delivers a tutorial and a workshop on DEER/PELDOR and DeerAnalysis at the 9th EFEPR Summer School in Geneva.
Two weeks later, he gives a talk at the 44th FGMR Annual Discussion Meeting in Konstanz.
Also our alumnus Josh talks at the meeting about his St Andrews work on variable-time RIDME.
Hannah joins the group for her final year’s project on protein structure prediction using deep learning neural network tools – welcome, Hannah!
And further good news at the end of the month: a new CRISPR study by the Gloster and White labs here at St Andrews is published in Nucleic Acids Research. Our EPR data confirm the dramatic conformational change of Csm6 ribonuclease upon activation by cyclic nucleotides.
August:
We are having a busy time this August: another summer project student joins the group – welcome, Max!
Yannik, our joint PhD student and Josh, our former PhD student and now postdoc in the Schiemann group, both join us for a one-week visit with lots of experiments and ample measurement time!
Valentina's paper on spectroscopically orthogonal labelling to disentangle site-specific nitroxide label distributions has just been accepted for publication by Applied Magnetic Resonance - well done everyone!
July:
Bela spends a couple of days in Bonn with the Schiemann group and delivers a seminar and two lectures on EPR and applications in biophysics and catalysis.
This year the EUROMAR takes place in Glasgow, and Bela is involved as one of the local organisers, as well as chairing a session and delivering a talk in the other EPR session.
Summer joins us for a 6-week project on biomolecular applications of EPR distance measurements – welcome, Summer! Also Kirsty is back for 6 weeks to learn more about biomolecular work and hands-on EPR measurements – great to see you back, Kirsty!
June:
We have our annual CMR conference – Valentina and Katrin give oral presentations and Bela and Katrin present a poster.
June is graduation time!
Laura graduates with a PhD in Chemistry – many congratulations and all the best!
Kirsty graduates with a Master in Chemistry, and is awarded a prize for her master project with us (best Biological Chemistry project) and also the Head of School prize for her work as School President – many congratulations, well done!
May:
Kirsty passes her viva and wraps up her project - well done and thanks for all your hard work.
April:
Josh's new paper on enhanced sensitivity for pulse dipolar EPR using a variable-time RIDME experiment has been accepted by JMR – well done Josh, Katrin and Angeliki!
March:
Valentina Vitali from the Banci group joins us for six months as a visiting PhD student - welcome Valentina!
Our latest EPR study on native metal ion binding sites in a mammalian plasma protein, a collaboration with Alan Stewart from St Andrews Medicine, has just been accepted for publication in JACS – well done everyone!
Bela and Katrin travel to Leeds for the 56th RSC ESR conference, organised by local host and long-standing collaborator Christos Pliotas. Bela is invited to give a plenary lecture, Katrin presents a poster, and also former PhD students Laura (now MPI Göttingen) and Josh (now University of Bonn) present posters with work from St Andrews. And we can finally present Maria with her Deer for graduation! What a nice conference!
February:
Happy to report that we can finally get back to measuring at the Q-band spectrometer in Physics, which is back to work and humming along after several months of downtime for essential repairs.
January: We wish everyone a Happy and Healthy 2023!
A good start to the New Year: A collaborative research project on qubits between Stergios Piligkos and our group is accepted for publication in JACS.
Our first preprint of 2023 is available, where we study metal ion binding sites in a native mammalian plasma protein by EPR.