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Research over the last 20 years by Jane Nicklin (née Faull) and her research group has established expertise in fungi, which has led to impacts in three areas: impacts on the licensing of commercial products for the control of insect pests which affect food crops, which have led to a new product being licensed in the US to the benefit of vine growers; impacts on heritage conservation, where the work has benefitted English Heritage, the National Trust and many other conservation groups; and impacts on public awareness and media engagement with science, in particular through her work with Channel 4's How Clean is your House? in 2009.
Genetically engineered plants are increasingly used to over-express foreign genes, including those for pharmaceutically valuable polypeptides. However, expression of transgenes is repressed via RNAi, a system that probably evolved to combat viral pathogens. In response, viruses themselves encode a "silencing suppressor protein" that counteracts this defence response. This was discovered by David Baulcombe and colleagues at the Sainsbury Laboratory at UEA, who exploited this phenomenon by introducing the suppressor gene into plants and improving them as hosts for transgene expression. RNAi Suppression Technology was patented worldwide and licensed for fees >£500k to several companies, including Medicago, that use it to generate plants that effectively produce pharmaceuticals.
Plant resistance provides sustainable control of the $125bn annual world crop losses to nematodes to replace environmentally hazardous pesticides. Urwin and Atkinson have developed three biosafe resistance technologies that 1) suppress feeding success, 2) reduce root invasion and 3) suppress nematode development by RNA interference. We have developed GM agriculture with leading industry (Sinochem, Monsanto) and in emerging economies through free access to technology, capacity building initiatives, review of collaborative R&D plans (India) and regulatory approval of field trials (Uganda). The work has also influenced policy-makers in the UK and in Switzerland, leading to new security measures for GM field trials in these countries..
Bacillus species constitute an industrially-important group of bacteria that are used worldwide to produce carbohydrate and protein-digesting enzymes on a large scale. While the bacteria secrete native enzymes at an economically viable rate, generating strains of bacteria that could do the same for non-native enzymes has been an industry challenge. Researchers at Newcastle University have collaborated with industry since the early 1990s to study the mechanism of protein secretion in Bacillus. They discovered bottlenecks in the protein secretion pathway and used that knowledge to engineer more productive strains of bacteria. Since 2008, companies, including Novozymes (the world's largest manufacturer of industrial enzymes), have developed strains of bacteria, based on the Newcastle findings, for use in their manufacturing processes improving yields by more than four orders of magnitude in some cases.
Protein modification represents a highly significant and growing source of new products for the biopharmaceuticals market. This case study outlines the development of PolyTherics, a highly successful spin-out company from the UCL School of Pharmacy, and the impact that their enabling technology has had on the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. The company was developed as a direct result of new conjugate technology developed by Professor Steve Brocchini and coworkers at the School. The company moved to independent premises in 2006 and now manages a portfolio of over 100 granted and pending patents. Several licensing agreements are in place, including with Celtic Pharma Holdings for haemophilia treatments and Nuron for a multiple sclerosis treatment based on PEGylation conjugation technology. Revenue is expected to be £8m in 2013. The impact of Polytherics is therefore as a significant and effective technology provider to the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.
The impact of this work is that commercial growers of protected fruit, flower and vegetable crops around the world now have a tool to help them to detect the presence of Western Flower Thrips (WFT) in their crops, earlier and at lower numbers than they are currently able to. Growers can also enhance their existing control measures. WFT are insects that cause serious economic loss to growers because of feeding damage and virus transmission. By taking earlier and more effective action against WFT they can reduce plant damage, insecticide use and consequent financial loss.
Diseases of plants impact upon global food production and the environment, necessitating careful control. University of Nottingham (UoN) research has contributed to new lab-based and in-field tests that are extensively used by plant health inspectors and overseas organisations. The research has produced validated, accurate pathogen detection systems for use by plant health inspectorates and quarantine services as part of their testing services. The methods have been adopted by the Food and Environment Research Agency (Fera) in the UK for routine testing, and also by the Swiss diagnostics company Bioreba as part of their diagnostic services.
A portfolio of Oxford University research, relating to the chemistry of natural products extracted from plants, has formed the basis of a substantial and multifaceted programme of outreach activity targeted at schools and the general public from 2011-2013. Research students and staff have collaborated with the Oxford University Botanic Garden to deliver multiple events including a poster exhibition, an audio trail, interactive guided walks and a `solar fuels' stand at the prestigious 2013 Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition, with the emphasis on face-to-face in-depth interaction where possible and a strong link to Oxford Chemistry research. The events have educated thousands of people and helped to inform their views on, and enthusiasm for, plant-related chemistry. They have also engaged the interest and support of industry.
Our research has led to increased crop yields and a reduction in the need for synthetic pesticides, through a new patented technology of treating seed with the natural plant signalling molecule, jasmonic acid. Lancaster's fundamental research in to the biology of plant-herbivore interactions showed for the first time that jasmonic acid (JA) seed treatment of a range of crops improved pest resistance for many weeks after germination, without the physiological costs of foliar JA application. We have patented this JA seed treatment technology (patents awarded in USA, Canada, Japan, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and Mexico, applied for in three other major countries) and licensed it to BASF (previously Becker Underwood). JA seed treatments have been available to growers in the USA since 2010, and the technology is being rolled-out internationally for a range of major global crops.
Impact: EaStCHEM spin out Albachem (1994), subsequently incorporated into the Almac group, enabling the latter company to become a world leader in the provision of chemically synthesised proteins.
Significance: Chemical synthesis is competitive with recombinant methods for commercial production of the therapeutic polypeptides that represent ~50% of drugs in big pharma pipelines and have a market value in 2008 of over $13B. The value attributable to Ramage's methods for polypeptide syntheses over the REF period is estimated at approximately £6M.
Beneficiaries: Drug manufacturers, contract research organisations, patients, clinicians.
Research: Studies (1993-6) led by Ramage (at the University of Edinburgh) on new methods for high-yield total syntheses and purification of long polypeptides.
Reach: Almac's protein-manufacturing team remains in the UK with 24 staff members. The Almac Group, headquartered in N. Ireland, has 3300 employees globally (1300 outside UK) and sells to 600 companies worldwide.