September 2024

Maria and Cameron are joining the Lovelock group as the newest PhD students! Maria earned her MChem in the Lovelock group and Cameron did his summer placement with us.

A very warm welcome back to both!

June 2024

Dr Lovelock was awarded the prestigious Royal Society of Chemistry Harrison-Meldola Early Career Prize for Chemistry for “the development of innovative biocatalytic approaches to produce therapeutic oligonucleotides”. Congratulations Sarah!

May 2024

Stefan joins us as the newest member of the Lovelock lab from the Institute of Microbiology at ETH Zürich.

A very warm welcome to Stefan!

May 2024

Dr Lovelock was picked from nearly 450 nominations for this year's C&EN’s Talented 12 class for “developing new approaches to oligonucleotide manufacturing”. Congratulations Sarah!

Read more about it here

April 2024

We are excited to announce our newest review in the latest issue of Science, where authors Obexer, Nassir, Moody, Baran, and Lovelock review the most “recent advances in the chemical and enzymatic synthesis of oligonucleotides that promise to transform the manufacturing landscape and enable a wider range of therapeutic applications”. Congratulations to all the authors!

Read the review here

February 2024

We are excited to announce our latest paper in Faraday discussions. The study “provides an important step towards scalable production of engineered enzymes that contain non-canonical amino acids such as MeHis as key catalytic elements.” Congratulations to everyone involved!

Read the paper here

December 2023

Earlier this week, Dr Lovelock was recognised by the UK Catalysis Hub as an outstanding early-career scientist. Sarah was awarded the Sir John Meurig Thomas Catalysis Medal for her contributions to the field of sustainable pharmaceutical syntheses.

This year’s judges commented that they were particularly delighted to choose Sarah, citing her impressive record of high quality publications and world class research lab.

A thoroughly deserved honour, congratulations Sarah!

Read more here

September 2023

Congratulations to Ewan who passed his PhD viva!

June 2023

We are excited to announce our newest publication in the latest issue of Science, where authors Moody, Nickl, Spiess, Obexer and Lovelock showcase our approach to oligonucleotide synthesis.

Congratulations to Ewan on his debut first author paper!

Read the paper here

June 2023

Kyle returned to his roots this week, visiting the Year 6 pupils of Andrews Memorial Primary School. During the lesson Kyle introduced students to the concept of matter, the atoms and molecules that make it up and the idea that matter can undergo phase changes. The lesson was concluded with a fiery showstopper to help explain the nature of chemical reactions (all while wearing appropriate PPE of course) .

May 2023

Annette joins us as the Lovelock group’s newest PhD student. After completing her Master’s at Stanford University, Annette moved to Sweden where she gained valuable industry experience at Enginzyme. During her degree Annette will be working on biocatalytic strategies for NTP synthesis.

A very warm welcome to Annette!

May 2023

Earlier this week, Ewan presented his PhD project at Pint of Science’s “Mighty Molecules” event. Alongside other talented academics and scientists Ewan showcased the power of oligonucleotides and versatility of proteins to the audience. Sadly, no awards were up for grabs so for once Ewan had to go home empty handed.

March 2023

In our first publication of 2023, authors Obexer and Lovelock review engineered T7 RNA polymerases considering the impact these advances have on the biocatalytic synthesis of mRNA therapeutics. This review was published in Chem Catalysis as part of their Women in Science issue. Read the review here.

January 2023

After earning her PhD from the University of Manchester, Megan makes the short journey to the Lovelock group in the MIB to begin her postdoctoral research.

Congratulations Megan and welcome to the group!

December 2022

We’re very pleased to share our new review article “Biocatalytic Synthesis of Antiviral Nucleosides, Cyclic Dinucleotides, and Oligonucleotide Therapies”, published in JACS Au. Congrats to authors Kyle, Matthew and Qinglong! Read More Here

September 2022

We are currently hiring. We have 3 positions available for Postdoctoral Research Associates working on the development of Biocatalytic approaches to therapeutic oligonucleotide manufacturing. We are looking for candidates with a PhD in Biocatalysis and/or protein engineering. APPLY HERE

July 2022

The Lovelock group travelled to the Gordon Research Conference in Boston where 3rd Year PhD Candidate Ewan Moody was selected as 1 of only 4 winners from the poster session.

Congratulations Ewan on your fantastic talk and poster presentation!

June 2022

We are excited to share that our review ‘The road to fully programmable catalysis’ has been published in Nature. Read more here

April 2022

iCAT CDT student and Manchester alum Charli Griffith joins the Lovelock lab, continuing her PhD journey. Charli, will be working with non-natural amino acids, pushing the boundaries of enzymatic chemistry.

Welcome Charlotte!

February 2022

We are excited to share that our paper describing ‘An Engineered Cytidine Deaminase for Biocatalytic Production of a Key Intermediate of the Covid-19 Antiviral Molnupiravir’ has been published in JACS. Read more here

December 2021

Our paper on the engineering of an efficient and enantioselective enzyme for the Morita–Baylis–Hillman reaction is out today. Read more here

November 2021

Dr Qinglong Meng joins the Lovelock group following a successful PhD in the Netherlands. Qinglong will be working on novel ligase based approaches to oligonucleotide synthesis.

Welcome to the group Qinglong!

November 2021

Find out how Gates Foundation funding helped us develop a low cost enzymatic manufacturing route to the Covid-19 therapy Molnupiravir.

The drug has just been approved for use in UK health trusts. Read more here

September 2021

Congratulations to Kyle and Matthew who join the group as 1st Year PhD candidates!

Both hailing from Northern Ireland, they will be working on novel enzymatic strategies for the synthesis of therapeutic oligonucleotides.

Welcome to the group gents.

July 2021

The Lovelock lab welcomes its newest postdoctoral research associate Dr Richard Obexer.

Richi joins us from the University of Bristol and will be applying his veteran expertise to the development of enzymatic cascades for oligonucleotide synthesis.

Welcome to the group Riccardo.