̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - Gregory Winter

Sir Greg Winter wins the 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry

Anonymous — Wed, 03 Oct 2018 09:58:49 +0000

̽��ֱ��first pharmaceutical based on this method, adalimumab, was approved in 2002 and is used for rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis and inflammatory bowel diseases. Since then, phage display has produced antibodies that can neutralise toxins, counteract autoimmune diseases and cure metastatic cancer.

̽��ֱ��Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced the 2018 Prize this morning with one half to Frances H. Arnold and the other half jointly to George P. Smith and Sir Gregory P. Winter.

̽��ֱ��Nobel Assembly said: “ ̽��ֱ��2018 Nobel Laureates in Chemistry have taken control of evolution and used it for purposes that bring the greatest benefit to humankind. Enzymes produced through directed evolution are used to manufacture everything from biofuels to pharmaceuticals. Antibodies evolved using a method called phage display can combat autoimmune diseases and in some cases cure metastatic cancer.”

Winter, the Master of Trinity College, is a genetic engineer and is best known for his research and inventions relating to humanised and human therapeutic antibodies. Sir Gregory is a graduate of Trinity College and was a Senior Research Fellow before becoming Master.

His research career has been based almost entirely in Cambridge at the Medical Research Council’s Laboratory of Molecular Biology and the Centre for Protein Engineering, and during this time he also founded three Cambridge biotech companies based on his inventions: Cambridge Antibody Technology (acquired by AstraZeneca), Domantis (acquired by GlaxoSmithKline) and Bicycle Therapeutics.

Winter becomes the 107th Affiliate of Cambridge to be awarded a Nobel Prize. Born in 1951 in Leicester, Sir Greg studied Natural Sciences at Trinity College, Cambridge, and was awarded his PhD, also from Cambridge, in 1977.

"It came as a bit of a shock, and I felt a bit numb for a while. It's almost like you're in a different universe," said Winter, on hearing he had been jointly awarded the Prize.

"For a scientist, a Nobel Prize is the highest accolade you can get, and I'm so lucky because there are so many brilliant scientists and not enough Nobel Prizes to go around."

̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ��'s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Stephen Toope, said: "I am thrilled to hear that Sir Greg Winter has been awarded this year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Greg’s work has been vital in the development of new therapies for debilitating health conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, and has led to breakthroughs in cancer care. These advances continue to transform the lives of people across the world.

"It gives me the greatest pleasure, on behalf of our community, to congratulate the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge’s latest Nobel Prize winner.”

Patrick Maxwell, Regius Professor of Physic and Head of the School of Clinical Medicine at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, said: “I am absolutely delighted that Sir Greg’s work has been recognised with a Nobel Prize. ̽��ֱ��work for which the prize is awarded was carried out on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus. It directly led to the power of monoclonal antibodies being harnessed for treatment of disease. His inventions really have produced silver bullets that have transformed the way medicine is practised.”

Professor Sir Alan Fersht, former Master of Gonville and Caius, collaborated with Winter on early protein engineering work. "Greg Winter is an outstandingly creative scientist of a practical bent," he said.

"He has applied his skills and imagination to the benefit of humankind to create, amongst other inventions, novel engineered antibodies that have formed the basis of a new pharmaceutical industry to treat disease and cancer. It is a thoroughly worthy Nobel Prize."

Professor Dame Carol Robinson, Royal Society of Chemistry president, said: “Today’s Nobel Prize in chemistry highlights the tremendous role of chemistry in contributing to many areas of our lives including pharmaceuticals, detergents, green catalysis and biofuels. It is a great advert for chemistry to have impact in so many areas.

“Directed evolution of enzymes and antibody technology are subjects that I have followed with keen interest; both are now transforming medicine. It would have been hard to predict the outcome of this research at the start – this speaks to the need for basic research.

“I am delighted to see these areas of chemistry recognised and congratulate all three Nobel Laureates.”

Frances H. Arnold, who also shared today's Prize, conducted the first directed evolution of enzymes, which are proteins that catalyse chemical reactions. Since then, she has refined the methods that are now routinely used to develop new catalysts. ̽��ֱ��uses of Frances Arnold’s enzymes include more environmentally friendly manufacturing of chemical substances, such as pharmaceuticals, and the production of renewable fuels for a greener transport sector.

In 1985, George Smith developed an elegant method known as phage display, where a bacteriophage – a virus that infects bacteria – can be used to evolve new proteins.

More details on previous Cambridge winners can be found here: /research/research-at-cambridge/nobel-prize

You can read more about the 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry here: https://www.nobelprize.org/uploads/2018/10/popular-chemistryprize2018.pdf

Sir Gregory Winter, awarded the #NobelPrize in Chemistry, has used phage display to produce new pharmaceuticals. Today phage display has produced antibodies that can neutralise toxins, counteract autoimmune diseases and cure metastatic cancer. pic.twitter.com/p5fOfo0DwJ
— ̽��ֱ��Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) October 3, 2018

Sir Greg Winter, of the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, has been jointly awarded the 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, along with Frances Arnold and George Smith, for his pioneering work in using phage display for the directed evolution of antibodies, with the aim of producing new pharmaceuticals.

It came as a bit of a shock, and I felt a bit numb for a while. It's almost like you're in a different universe.

Greg Winter on finding out about his Nobel Prize award

Sir Gregory Winter

Sir Greg Winter

Born in 1951 in Leicester, Greg studied Natural Sciences at Trinity College, Cambridge, and completed a PhD in 1977 at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB), Cambridge, where he worked on the amino acid sequence of tryptophanyl tRNA synthetase from the bacterium Bacillus stearothemophilus. Greg continued to specialise in protein and nucleic acid sequencing through post-doctoral research at the LMB and became a Group Leader in 1981.

In the 1980s, Greg became interested in the idea that all antibodies have the same basic structure, with only small changes making them specific for one target. Previously, Georges Köhler and César Milstein had won the Nobel Prize for their work at the LMB in discovering a method to isolate and reproduce individual, or monoclonal, antibodies from among the multitude of antibody proteins the immune system makes to seek and destroy foreign invaders attacking the body. However, these monoclonal antibodies had limited application in human medicine, because mouse monoclonal antibodies are rapidly inactivated by the human immune response, which prevents them from providing long-term benefits.

Greg Winter then pioneered a technique to “humanise” mouse monoclonal antibodies – a technique that was used in the development of Campath-1H by Cambridge scientists. This antibody now looks promising for the treatment of multiple sclerosis. Humanised monoclonal antibodies form the majority of antibody-based drugs on the market today and include several blockbuster antibodies, such as Keytruda, which was developed by LifeArc, the Medical Research Council’s technology transfer organisation, and works with your immune system to help fight certain cancers.

Greg then went on to develop methods for making fully human antibodies. This technique was used in the development of Humira (also known as adalimumab) by Cambridge Antibody Technology, an MRC spin-out company founded by Greg. Humira, the first fully human monoclonal antibody drug, was launched in 2003 as a treatment for rheumatoid arthritis. Today, monoclonal antibodies account for a third of all new treatments. These include therapeutic products for breast cancer, leukaemia, asthma, psoriasis and transplant rejection, and dozens more that are in late-stage clinical trials.

Greg has been presented with many awards for his work, including the 2013 Gairdner Foundation International Award, the MRC’s 2013 Millennium Medal, and the Cancer Research Institute’s William B. Coley Award in 1999. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society and of the Academy of Medical Sciences, was Deputy Director of the LMB from 2006-2011, and acting Director 2007-2008. He has been Master of Trinity College, Cambridge since 2012, and received a Knighthood for services to Molecular Biology in 2004.

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Yes

Cambridge start-up raises £40 million in funding to develop new cancer treatments

Anonymous — Fri, 16 Jun 2017 04:00:00 +0000

Among the investors in the new funding round is Cambridge Innovation Capital, which invests in companies based on valuable intellectual property in the Cambridge Cluster, or with links to the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge. ̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ�� is the largest investor in Cambridge Innovation Capital (CIC), which was founded by Cambridge Enterprise, the ̽��ֱ��’s commercialisation arm, in 2013.

Bicycle Therapeutics is developing a new class of drugs called ‘Bicycles’, which are based on small protein chains, or peptides, which have been chemically constrained, and have a similar shape to a bicycle wheel. They have been designed to combine the best features of small molecule and antibody based drugs. ̽��ֱ��science behind the creation of Bicycles is based on work initiated at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology by Professor Sir Greg Winter, a pioneer in monoclonal antibody development and the Master of Trinity College, working together with Professor Christian Heinis from the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne.

‘Bicycles’ have a range properties which make them an excellent choice as a potential drug. They have the binding capacity and specificity of an antibody, but can penetrate tissue such as solid tumours easily because of their relatively small size. In addition, due to their small size and peptidic nature, they are cleared from the body via the kidneys, allowing them to be designed in such a way as to maximise their efficiency while minimising the chance of any side effects.

Bicycle Therapeutics’ most advanced potential product, known as BT1718, is the first example of its Bicycle Drug Conjugate® (BDC) technology, in which the Bicycle is targeted to bind specifically to malignant tumours and is harnessed to a chemical payload designed to destroy cancer cells once it reaches its target.

BT1718 targets a cell surface protein called Membrane Type 1 Matrix Metalloproteinase (MT1-MTP). MT1-MTP occurs in high concentration in many solid malignant tumours. Consequently BT1718 may have the capacity to become a treatment for a range of cancers which currently do not have good treatment options such as ‘triple negative’ breast cancer and non-small cell lung cancer. It is expected to enter clinical trials in 2017 in partnership with Cancer Research UK.

Bicycle Therapeutics is not the first start-up in which Professor Winter has been involved. Cambridge Antibody Therapeutics, the discoverers of rheumatoid arthritis drug Humira, and Domantis were both based on his work on therapeutic monoclonal antibodies. This work has enabled great improvements in the treatment of cancer and immune disorders and, as a result, many of the world’s blockbuster pharmaceutical drugs are based on the techniques he developed.

“ ̽��ֱ��pre-clinical studies to date show Bicycles have many of the attributes needed to be an effective medical treatment,” said Dr Michael Anstey, Investment Director at CIC. “ ̽��ֱ��next big step is to take this into humans and if they show the same characteristics this will be very exciting. Bicycle Therapeutics is an ambitious company, with a world-class team, that has all the ingredients for another Cambridge success story.”

“I am delighted that Bicycle Therapeutics has secured this new funding to enable the team to move multiple programmes into the clinic,” said Professor Winter. “Bicycles are different from both antibodies and small molecules, with some of the benefits of each, giving them the potential to deliver an exciting new class of therapeutics across different diseases.”

“This financing represents an important validation of our approach, while providing Bicycle Therapeutics with the resources to continue to turn our bicyclic peptide technology into important new treatment options for patients,” said Dr Kevin Lee, Bicycle Therapeutics’ CEO. “We are grateful for the strong support from our investors as we move BT1718 rapidly towards the clinic and continue to advance our other preclinical programmes, that have the potential to treat cancer and other debilitating diseases.”

Cambridge-based start-up company Bicycle Therapeutics has recently raised £40 million from a range of investors to bring its cancer drug candidates to clinical trials.

Bicycle Therapeutics is an ambitious company, with a world-class team, that has all the ingredients for another Cambridge success story.

Michael Anstey

Bicycle Therapeutics

Bicyclic peptides

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Yes

New technology centre announced for Cambridge Science Park

pbh25 — Fri, 20 Feb 2015 11:12:32 +0000

̽��ֱ��Prime Minister David Cameron visited the Cambridge Science Park yesterday for the announcement of a new technology centre.

̽��ֱ��partnership between Trinity College and the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills is part of plans to build the Sir John Bradfield Centre in the heart of the science park.

Trinity College, the college of Sir Isaac Newton among many other distinguished scientists, has long been at the centre of scientific innovation in Cambridge ̽��ֱ��.

It was an early promoter of technology transfer to industry with the development of the Cambridge Science Park, which is now occupied by more than 90 companies with some 5,000 employees.

Trinity would like to do more to translate Cambridge research into companies and products; particularly in the very early stage companies.

It is known that science incubators can help in these early stages, in particular by providing teams and start-up companies with flexible and affordable space, education, mentoring and finance. It is expected that these companies will thrive in the self-sustaining entrepreneurial culture of the new centre and the Science Park.

Sir Gregory Winter, Master of the college, said: “Trinity College is pleased to help on all these fronts by providing a highly flexible building at the heart of the Science Park, and working with other partners to help with education, mentoring and seed financing.

“We hope to promote a culture in which we not only help to develop technologies and companies, but also the entrepreneurs who will build the industries of the future.

“We are particularly pleased to associate this building with Sir John Bradfield, former Senior Bursar of the college, who was instrumental in the creation of the Cambridge Science Park.”

̽��ֱ��Sir John Bradfield Centre will be in the heart of the science park.

We hope to promote a culture in which we not only help to develop technologies and companies, but also the entrepreneurs who will build the industries of the future.

Sir Gregory Winter, Master of Trinity College

More information:

Sir John Bradfield 1925 – 2014: One name alone is synonymous with the foundation of Cambridge Science Park: Sir John Bradfield, Senior Bursar of Trinity College from 1956 to 1992. Right from the start, Sir John saw that establishing and developing the links between the ̽��ֱ�� and hi-tech tenants was critical to the success of Cambridge Science Park. His evident fascination in science and technology was deep rooted. Sir John won a scholarship to study natural sciences at Trinity College in 1942 and he became a research fellow in zoology in 1947. On October 13th 2014, Sir John passed away at Trinity College, on his way to a Cambridge Science Park Forum.
̽��ֱ��proposed Technology Centre will be a new building on a 1.25 acre site providing a net internal floor area of 36,000 sq ft over three floors. Two thirds of the building will be innovation and lab space. In addition, about 6,000 sq ft will provide space for a café, retail unit, conference and meeting rooms and communal networking area.

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Yes

Dr Frederick Sanger (1918-2013)

sj387 — Wed, 20 Nov 2013 16:37:18 +0000

A pioneer of DNA sequencing, Dr Sanger started his scientific career by reading Natural Sciences as an undergraduate at St John’s College, Cambridge. He subsequently undertook a PhD, completed in 1943 with a thesis entitled " ̽��ֱ��metabolism of the amino acid lysine in the animal body". After receiving his doctorate, he continued to work at the ̽��ֱ��, aiming to determine the entire sequence of amino acids in a protein chain.

Dr Sanger is one of only four double Nobel laureates, and the only person ever to have won both prizes in chemistry. In 1958, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for his research on protein structure and, in particular, the discovery of the structure of insulin. In 1962 he left the ̽��ֱ�� and moved to the new UK Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) as Head of the Protein and Nucleic Acid Chemistry Division.

Whilst at the LMB, Sanger worked with colleagues in developing methods to sequence the nucleic acids DNA and RNA. His group produced the first complete sequence of a virus genome, of just over 5000 base-pairs; they went on to sequence the first human genome of about 16,000 base-pairs, and in 1982 they sequenced the genome of a virus of around 48,000 base-pairs. This work foreshadowed modern research into the human genome, including that done by the Sanger Institute.

It was this work on DNA that earned Sanger his second Nobel Prize in 1980, received jointly with Paul Berg (Stanford ̽��ֱ��) and Walter Gilbert (Harvard ̽��ֱ��), “for their contributions concerning the determination of base sequences in nucleic acids”. His development of the “dideoxy” or “Sanger” technique of sequencing is still used today, and allows 500-800 bases to be read at a time. Three years later, in 1983, Sanger retired.

Venki Ramakrishnan, Deputy Director of the LMB, said: “Fred was one of the outstanding scientists of the last century and it is simply impossible to overestimate the impact he has had on modern genetics and molecular biology. Moreover, by his modest manner and his quiet and determined way of carrying out experiments himself right to the end of his career, he was a superb role model and inspiration for young scientists everywhere.”

Richard Henderson, former LMB Director, remembers, “He was a superb hands-on scientist with outstanding judgement and skill, and an extremely modest yet encouraging way of interacting with his younger colleagues. I particularly remember one young scientist who had asked Fred for advice being told, ‘I think you should try harder’. ̽��ֱ��example he set will continue to motivate young scientists even now he has gone.”

Sir Gregory Winter, Master of Trinity College, is a former Head of Division of Protein and Nucleic Acid Chemistry at LMB - a position that Sanger also held. He said: " ̽��ֱ��impact of Fred Sanger's work in reading the polymers of life has been felt in almost every area of biology and medicine; it is difficult to imagine a world without his contributions. Not only did his work provide deep insights into the chemical nature of life, but it had huge practical implications - it led directly to the sequencing of the human genome and also helped to lay the foundations of the modern biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries."

Dr Frederick Sanger, recognised by many as the “father of genomics”, died in 2013 at the age of 95. ̽��ֱ��founding member of the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, and the person after whom the Sanger Institute is named, he was known as an extremely modest and self-effacing man whose innumerable scientific contributions had an extraordinary impact on molecular biology.

Fred was one of the outstanding scientists of the last century and it is simply impossible to overestimate the impact he has had on modern genetics and molecular biology

Venki Ramakrishnan

Nick

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Yes