Joanna McGouran

Peptidic Probes to Capture Enzyme Activity Using Novel Solid Phase Compatible Warheads Activity-Based Probes (ABPs) are invaluable tools for investigating enzymatic activity but can suffer from onerous syntheses and low stability in complex proteomes. Herein, we present the first synthesis of a robust, vinyl methyl ester (VME), bearing amino acid, which is compatible with solid phase peptide synthesis (SPPS). Novel peptidic probes incorporating the VME motif were prepared, and their labeling activity was investigated against the deubiquitinating enzyme (DUB) Otubain 1 (OTUB1), a critical cysteine protease DUB with remarkable specificity for Lys48 linked polyubiquitin chains. OTUB1 is implicated in DNA repair and immune response mechanisms and is currently considered a biomarker for tumorigenesis. A probe featuring the VME warhead demonstrated high reactivity and selectivity toward OTUB1, highlighting the significant potential of this approach to create robust and selective covalent tools for interrogating cysteine isopeptidases.

One last piece of good news to share before the holidays- our groups latest work on activity based probes is out in ACS Chemical Biology:
Peptidic Probes to Capture Enzyme Activity Using Novel Solid Phase Compatible Warheads | ACS Chemical Biology pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

A picture of group members and Tomasz following his viva

Huge congratulations to Tomasz for passing his viva this week! And good luck in his new position at Eli Lilly.

An image of Ilaria being awarded her poster prize

Congratulations to Ilaria for her poster prize at the CSCB symposium “Recent Advances in Synthesis and Chemical Biology XXIV” on Friday!

Electrochemically-generated ferricyanide enables thiol–ene capture of protein–protein binding Due to its efficiency, selectivity and biocompatibility, the thiol–ene coupling has demonstrated its potential for protein labelling. Here, we report the electrochemical thiol–ene activation to captur...

Delighted to share our groups latest publication & our first foray into electrochemistry to capture protein binding events:
pubs.rsc.org/en/content/a...

It's been a great week so far -two papers accepted and a further one subject to revisions. Watch this space for some publication updates coming soon!

New group photo 😊

Connor & Valerio in their graduation gowns in Trinity College Dublin front square

Congratulations to Connor & Valerio who celebrated their PhD graduations from the group recently and good luck in all your future endeavors!

We have an opportunity for a 24 month postdoc position in chemical proteomics starting after January 1st 2026 and another for September 2026 to join the group. More details on our website:
joannamcgouran.wixsite.com/mysite/join

Huge congratulations to Gemma on her poster prize at the RSC Organic Ireland meeting yesterday! Very proud supervisor moment for me as it was Gemma's first poster presentation.

A picture of Ellen & Susie in their PhD graduation gowns

Delighted that I could make it to Ellen & Susie's graduation celebration last week! Susie is about to begin a postdoc in The University of Sheffield and Ellen has moved into publishing at the Lancet.

Nominations for the CBBG Lectureship Award are now open! Get your nominations in by 30th April, to recognise individuals who have made excellent contributions to both research and the UK chemical biology community.

www.rsc.org/membership-a...

Function and inhibition of the DNA repair enzyme SNM1A SNM1A is an enzyme involved in several important biological pathways. To date, most investigations have focused on its role in repairing interstrand c…

Our group's latest review of DNA damage repair enzyme SNM1A is now online! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Huge congratulations to 1st author Mark who wrote the first draft of this review as his PhD thesis introduction. Mark has just taken up a Lecturer position in Queens University Belfast.

Chemical- and photo-activation of protein-protein thiol-ene coupling for protein profiling - Communications Chemistry The thiol-ene coupling between an alkene and a thiol can be exploited for selective labelling of cysteine residues in protein profiling applications, however, the labelling of complex cell lysate mixt...

Delighted to share our latest publication using the thiol-ene reaction for protein profiling. Very versatile modes of activation can be used from uv and blue light activated initiators to a redox initiator.
www.nature.com/articles/s42...
Huge congratulations to André for leading the research

A picture of the research group celebrating Valerio's viva

We have another Dr in the house! Congratulations to Valerio for passing his PhD viva on Monday. Next month Valerio will begin a new adventure in Canada as a postdoc at McGill University 🍾🥂👨‍🎓

The research group Celebrating Connor's viva

Congratulations to Connor for passing his viva with minor corrections last week! 🍾🥂Dr O'Leary is PhD number 7 from the McGouran group 👨‍🔬👨‍🎓

I've come up with an organic chemistry version of the name game. Original(ish) rules here:(grandmaideas.com/play-the-nam...)

I'm very tempted to subject the lab to it in our next group meeting

Here are some free/open-source sites for the preparation of scientific illustrations, including icon libraries: bioicons.com, scidraw.io, bioart.niaid.nih.gov, inkscape.org, biogdp.com, reactome.org/icon-lib

If you like total synthesis and Wordle, check out Synthordle, a retrosynthetic analysis game created by Shenvi Lab associates Kevin Zong (GS 2) and Jonah Luo (HS sophomore!).
shenvilab.github.io/Synthordle/
Easy problems for Sophomore OChem, hard problems for advanced practitioners.

The annual Royal Society of Chemistry Chemical Biology and Bioorganic Group Forum will be in Bristol next year (18th Feb)!

Talks spots are open to new group leaders and postdocs - so get your abstracts in by 8th December!

Please share 🙏 🧪 #chemsky

www.rsc.org/events/detai...

Check out this list of ubiquitin and Ubl profiles to follow. Repost if you want me to add you to it. Let’s create a good community here ☁️ go.bsky.app/3VPQofn

I would love to join! joannamcgouran.wixsite.com/mysite