Å·ÃÀAV

The surface of every living cell is covered in a layer of complex carbohydrate structures known as the glycocalyx. The types of carbohydrates present differ from one cell type to another and can also change when healthy cells become cancerous. The glycocalyx is like a forest with long polysaccharides forming the forest’s canopy. This canopy sits above smaller tree-like glycoproteins and glycolipids – like the forest floor – which are embedded in the cell membrane. Anything approaching the cell membrane must travel through this carbohydrate forest. Professor Turnbull’s group is interested in understanding how proteins interact with the carbohydrates of the glycocalyx ‘forest’. They are investigating methods to re-engineer the carbohydrate-binding proteins and the sugars they recognise for applications in diagnosing disease and targeting drugs to specific cell types.

Biography

Bruce Turnbull grew up on a farm in the Scottish Borders and was first introduced to the wonders of chemistry as a pupil at Berwickshire High School in Duns. He graduated with a BSc in chemistry at the University of St Andrews, where he stayed on to study for a PhD in carbohydrate chemistry with Professor Rob Field. A Wellcome Trust International Prize Travelling Research Fellowship then gave him the opportunity to join the lab of another farmer’s son, Professor Sir Fraser Stoddart FRS, at the University of California, Los Angeles. There, he worked on multivalent glycoconjugates, which became a recurring theme through the next 25 years of his research career. After five years in synthetic chemistry labs, he realised it was time for a change, and so he used the return leg of his Wellcome Fellowship to branch out into protein biophysics in the lab of Professor Steve Homans in the Astbury Centre for Structural Molecular Biology at the University of Leeds. In 2004, he moved from the University of Leeds campus to the School of Chemistry, where he has been ever since, becoming Professor of Biomolecular Chemistry in 2016. During this time, a Royal Society University Research Fellowship helped him to lay the foundations for his broad research programme in the use of chemical and enzymatic methods to make and modify carbohydrates and proteins for use in targeted delivery and synthetic biology. Bruce’s work has always been highly collaborative, working closely with colleagues in Leeds and across Europe. He has been the coordinator for several European glycoscience networks, most recently the ‘synBIOcarb’ Marie SkÅ‚odowska Curie Initial Training Network in synthetic glycobiology. He was the chair of the Å·ÃÀAV Carbohydrate Interest Group in its 50th anniversary year and currently represents the UK at the European Carbohydrate Organisation.