Visit the BBSRC website (opens in a new window)

The John Innes Centre receives strategic funding from BBSRC

BBSRC News feed
John Innes Centre

Department of Biological Chemistry

Head of Department Tony Maxwell
Associate Head of Department Stephen Bornemann
Department Administrator Sarah Tolland

Contact Us

Tel: +44 (0)1603 450717
Fax: +44 (0)1603 450018
Email: sarah.tolland@jic.ac.uk

Introduction

The Biological Chemistry Department at the John Innes Centre carries out fundamental research on molecular processes in plants and microbes.  With activities ranging from determining DNA topoisomerase structure and mechanism and the generation of novel functional nanostructures from engineered viruses, we employ a multidisciplinary approach that embraces contemporary aspects of enzymology, structural and molecular biology, bionanotechnology, carbohydrate and natural product chemistry.  Coupled with state-of-the-art platform technologies for structural, proteomic and chemical genomic analysis, the Department bridges the gap between molecular science and cellular and systems biology.  Collectively these studies provide key information with which to manipulate and control molecules, pathways and processes of agronomic, environmental and industrial importance.

Research topics

  • DNA topoisomerases in bacteria and plants: mechanism and drug-targeting
  • Structural biology and engineering of aminocoumarin antibiotic biosynthesis in Streptomyces
  • Surface enzymology of relevance to the starch granule
  • Carbohydrate arrays and the chemical glycobiology of the plant cell wall
  • Chemical genomics to probe carbohydrate biochemistry and cell biology
  • Enzymology of nodulation signalling  
  • Protein-protein and protein-RNA interactions in the morphogenesis of virus structures  
  •  RNA plant virus-based vectors for vaccine production  
  •  Bionanotechnology: the virus-chemistry interface
  • Structure and function of virulence-associated proteins from pathogenic microbes