Chris Abell

Christopher Abell, MA, PhD (born 11 November 1957)^[1] is a British biological chemist. As of 2009, he is a professor of biological chemistry at the Department of Chemistry of the University of Cambridge and Todd-Hamied Fellow of Christ's College.^[2]

Education and career

Abell attended St John's College of the University of Cambridge, gaining an MA in Natural Science (1979) and a PhD on the topic of polyketide biosynthesis under the supervision of James Staunton, FRS (1982). He held a research fellowship in the laboratory of David E. Cane at Brown University, Providence, USA, studying terpene biosynthesis (1982–3).

In 1984, Abell joined the Department of Chemistry of the University of Cambridge, successively holding the positions of demonstrator, lecturer and reader in chemical biology, and becoming professor in biological chemistry in 2002.^[1] He has held visiting professorships at the Australian National University in Canberra, University of Santiago de Compostela and University of Canterbury, Christchurch.^[1][3]

He has been a fellow of Christ's College since 1986; as of 2009, he is the college's Todd-Hamied Fellow.^[2] He serves on the steering committee of the multidisciplinary Cambridge Infectious Disease group.^[4]

Research

His research interests include vitamin and amino acid biosynthesis as targets for the rational design of antimicrobials and antiparasitics; fragment-based approaches to enzyme inhibition; bacterial and plant riboswitches; reactions in microdroplets; and biological nanotechnology.^[5]

Awards

His awards include an ICI Prize in Organic Chemistry in 1992.^[1]

Companies

Abell is the co-founder of two companies. Astex Technology Ltd uses fragment-based drug discovery technology to discover cancer therapeutics.^[3] Akubio developed biosensors for detecting bacteria and viruses; it was acquired by Inverness Medical Innovations in 2008.^[6]

Selected publications

Reviews

• Ciulli A, Abell C. (2007) Fragment-based approaches to enzyme inhibition. Curr Opin Biotech 18: 489–496
• Blundell TL, Jhoti H, Abell C. (2002) High throughput crystallography for lead discovery in drug design. Nat Rev Drug Discov 1: 45–54

Research papers

• Fidalgo LM, Whyte G, Bratton D, Abell C, Huck WTS. (2008) From microdroplets to microfluidics: selective emulsion separation in microfluidic devices. Angew Chimie (Intl Ed) 47: 2042–2045
• Kerbarh O, Ciulli A, Chirgadze DY, Blundell TL, Abell C. (2007) Nucleophile selectivity of chorismate-utilizing enzymes. ChemBioChem 8: 622–624
• Howard N, Abell C, Blakemore W, Carr R, Chessari G, Congreve M, Howard S, Jhoti H, Murray CW, Seavers LCA, van Montfort RLM. (2006) The application of fragment screening and fragment linking to the discovery of novel thrombin inhibitors. J Med Chem 49: 1346–1355
• Bruckbauer A, Zhou D, Kang DJ, Korchev YE, Abell C, Klenerman D. (2004) An addressable antibody nanoarray produced on a nanofabricated surface. J Am Chem Soc 126: 6508–6509
• Bulloch EM, Jones MA, Parker EJ, Osborne AP, Stephens E, Davies GM, Coggins JR, Abell C. (2004) Identification of 4-amino-4-deoxychorismate synthase as the molecular target for the antimicrobial action of (6S)-6-fluoroshikimate. J Am Chem Soc 126: 9912–9913
• Webb ME, Stephens E, Smith AG, Abell C. (2003) Rapid screening by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry to probe binding specificity at enzyme active sites. Chem Commun Oct 7: 2416–2417
• Cooper MA, Dultsev FN, Minson T, Ostanin VP, Abell C, Klenerman K. (2001) Direct and sensitive detection of a human virus by rupture event scanning. Nat Biotechnol 19: 833–837
• Albert A, Dhanaraj V, Genschel U, Khan G, Ramjee MK, Pulido R, Sibanda BL, von Delft F, Witty M, Blundell TL, Smith AG, Abell C. (1998) Crystal structure of aspartate decarboxylase at 2.2 Å resolution provides evidence for an ester in protein self-processing. Nat Struct Biol 5: 289–293
• McKendry R, Theoclitou ME, Rayment T, Abell C. (1998) Chiral discrimination by chemical force microscopy. Nature 391: 566–568

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d} Abell Group Home Page: Curriculum vitae: Professor Christopher Abell (via Internet Archive; accessed 5 January 2009)
2. ^ ^{a b} Christ's College, University of Cambridge: The Fellows of Christ's College (accessed 5 January 2009)
3. ^ ^{a b} Astex Therapeutics: Scientific Advisors and Clinical Consultants (accessed 5 January 2009)
4. ^ Cambridge Infectious Disease: About Cambridge Infectious Disease (accessed 5 January 2009)
5. ^ University of Cambridge: Department of Chemistry: Professor Chris Abell (accessed 5 January 2009)
6. ^ Vargas L. Recycled Cambridge biosensor technology attracts millions in investment Business Weekly (27 August 2008) (accessed 5 January 2009)

External links

• Biography at Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge
• Biography at Astex
• Bridging the gap between protein chemistry and organic synthesis, Chem@Cam, 2004

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Name	Abell, Chris
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Date of birth	11 November 1957
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