News
Hunter et al. 2011
New paper in Journal of Basic Microbiology
New Synbion Website
A new website for the Synbion Network is here. Synbion is a network of synthetic biologists interested in engineering novel metabolic pathways and making nanoscale biological devices.
Synthetic biology MRes
Details here.
Dr Markus Gershater
m.gershater(at)ucl.ac.uk
Background
PhD from Rob Edwards's lab in Durham University (2006) in plant biochemistry
One year postdoc in Durham (2007)
Biotransformation Scientist at Novacta Biosystems until 2009, when I joined UCL.
Current Research Interests
So far in my career I've moved through a few related disiplines, so although I'd describe myself as a biochemist, I can also turn my hand to molecular biology, biocatalysis, process optimisation and fermentation. As might be expected from the nature of my current project, I'm very excited about exploring the possiblities afforded by applying synthetic biology to pathway engineering. I'm very interested in natural products: their metabolism and their potential as therapeutic scaffolds. As well as integrated pathways in vivo, I'm interested in using individual enzymes as biocatalysts in vitro for the generation of chiral products, using multifactorial Design of Experiments to optimise enzyme expression and biocatalytic yield. Since the latter part of my time at Durham, I have had the good fortune to work in cross-disciplinary environments, with chemists in particular, and enjoy the extra research possibilities that this has opened up. I lean more towards applied than pure research, and I'm keen to investigate potential applications of my work, commercial and otherwise.
Publications
Gershater M, Sharples K, Edwards R (2006): Carboxylesterase activities toward pesticide esters in crops and weeds.
Phytochemistry 67 (23): 2561-2567
Gershater MC, Cummins I, Edwards R (2007): Role of a Carboxylesterase in Herbicide Bioactivation in Arabidopsis thaliana. Journal of Biological Chemistry 282 (29): 21460-21466
Gershater MC, Edwards R (2007): Regulating biological activity in plants with carboxylesterases. Plant Science 173 (6): 579-588
Brazier-Hicks M, Offen W, Gershater MC, Revett T, Lim E, Bowles D, Davies G, Edwards R (2007): Characterization and engineering of the bifunctional N- and O-glucosyltransferase involved in xenobiotic metabolism in plants. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 104 (51): 20238-20243
Brazier-Hicks M, Evans KM, Gershater MC, Puschmann H, Steel PG, Edwards R (2009): The C-Glycosylation of Flavonoids in Cereals. Journal of Biological Chemistry 284 (27): 17926-17934
