We warmly invite alumni from the research groups of Prof. Nicholas Turner and Prof. Sabine Flitsch (University of Manchester, along with interested guests, to join us for a special celebration of Chemical Biology. This event aims to bring together former and current members of both groups to reconnect, reflect on past achievements, and explore exciting developments at the interface of chemistry, biocatalysis, and carbohydrate chemistry.
Date: 16-17 April 2026
Attendance to the scientific event is free of charge.
If you would like to attend, please register here:
https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=i9hQcmhLKUW-RNWaLYpvlOqne8ejfIdBk0aEiuvoaElUQ042RTRUMUpPVU42MlFPUjRLVzNLMFFOSi4u
Scientific Programme
Thursday 16th April 2026
Registration
09:00 – 09:30 Refreshments and registration
Session 1
09:30 – 10:00 Nick and Sabine: Welcome and opening remarks
10:00 – 10:25 Godwin Aleku, Mapping Sequence–Activity Relationships to Enable Rapid Biocatalyst Discovery and Engineering
10:25 – 10:50 Ian Archer, Talk title TBC
10:50 – 11:15 Roslyn Bill, New Insights into the Regulation of the CNS Water Channel Aquaporin-4: from Cell Biology to Clinical Trials
11:15 – 11:40 Cara Brocklehurst, Tackling synthetic challenges and applying synthetic technologies across the Novartis drug discovery portfolio
11:40 – 12:05 Reuben Carr, Petri dishes & Pitch decks: A scientist’s leap into innovation
12:05 – 12:55 Lunch
Session 2
13:00 – 13:25 James Dowden / Talk title TBC
13:25 – 13:50 Scott France, Leveraging Biocatalytic Cascades for the Commercial Manufacture of Enlicitide (MK-0616)
13:50 – 14:15 Anthony Green, Building Enzymes with New Function
14:15 – 14:40 Gideon Grogan, Biooxidations in Edinburgh, Manchester and York: From Fungi to Fusions and back again
14:40 – 15:10 Refreshments
Session 3
15:15 – 15:40 Vicente Gotor-Fernandez, A golden era in Biocatalysis. Enzymes in multicatalytic approaches
15:40 – 16:05 Vanessa Harawa, Bridging Innovation and Industry: The Role of Enzyme Engineering in Hybrid Enzymatic Oligonucleotide Synthesis
16:05 – 16:30 Rachel Heath, Chemo-enzymatic Nylon Recycling: From Milligrams to Tonnes
16:30 – 16:55 Sarah Lovelock, Biocatalytic Approaches to Nucleic Acid Therapeutics Manufacturing
Friday 17th April 2026
Session 4
10:00 – 10:25 Derek Macmillan, Talk title TBC
10:25 – 10:50 Juan Mangas-Sanchez, Asymmetric synthesis through artificial cascades combining organocatalysis and enzyme catalysis
10:50 – 11:15 Sarah Montgomery, Ahead of the game: unsolved challenges in biocatalysis
11:15 – 11:40 Jolanda van Munster, Talk title TBC
11:40 – 12:05 Bettina Nestl, Catalophore-guided insights in enzyme discovery and engineering
12:05 – 13:05 Lunch
Session 5
13:05 – 13:30 Iustina Slabu, Talk title TBC
13:30 – 13:55 Matthew Thompson, Reimagining what is possible with enzymes: AI x Physics
13:55 – 14:20 Rein Ulijn, Towards a Universal Assembly Code for Peptide Materials
14:20 – 14:45 Iain Wilson, Bring together natural, remodelled and synthetic glycans on arrays
14:45 – 15:10 Bo Yuan, Stereocomplementary synthesis of novel molecules enabled by enzyme design
15:10 – 15:35 Josef Voglmeir, Talk title TBC
Date: 16-17 April 2026
Attendance to the scientific event is free of charge.
If you would like to attend, please register here:
https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=i9hQcmhLKUW-RNWaLYpvlOqne8ejfIdBk0aEiuvoaElUQ042RTRUMUpPVU42MlFPUjRLVzNLMFFOSi4u
Scientific Programme
Thursday 16th April 2026
Registration
09:00 – 09:30 Refreshments and registration
Session 1
09:30 – 10:00 Nick and Sabine: Welcome and opening remarks
10:00 – 10:25 Godwin Aleku, Mapping Sequence–Activity Relationships to Enable Rapid Biocatalyst Discovery and Engineering
10:25 – 10:50 Ian Archer, Talk title TBC
10:50 – 11:15 Roslyn Bill, New Insights into the Regulation of the CNS Water Channel Aquaporin-4: from Cell Biology to Clinical Trials
11:15 – 11:40 Cara Brocklehurst, Tackling synthetic challenges and applying synthetic technologies across the Novartis drug discovery portfolio
11:40 – 12:05 Reuben Carr, Petri dishes & Pitch decks: A scientist’s leap into innovation
12:05 – 12:55 Lunch
Session 2
13:00 – 13:25 James Dowden / Talk title TBC
13:25 – 13:50 Scott France, Leveraging Biocatalytic Cascades for the Commercial Manufacture of Enlicitide (MK-0616)
13:50 – 14:15 Anthony Green, Building Enzymes with New Function
14:15 – 14:40 Gideon Grogan, Biooxidations in Edinburgh, Manchester and York: From Fungi to Fusions and back again
14:40 – 15:10 Refreshments
Session 3
15:15 – 15:40 Vicente Gotor-Fernandez, A golden era in Biocatalysis. Enzymes in multicatalytic approaches
15:40 – 16:05 Vanessa Harawa, Bridging Innovation and Industry: The Role of Enzyme Engineering in Hybrid Enzymatic Oligonucleotide Synthesis
16:05 – 16:30 Rachel Heath, Chemo-enzymatic Nylon Recycling: From Milligrams to Tonnes
16:30 – 16:55 Sarah Lovelock, Biocatalytic Approaches to Nucleic Acid Therapeutics Manufacturing
Friday 17th April 2026
Session 4
10:00 – 10:25 Derek Macmillan, Talk title TBC
10:25 – 10:50 Juan Mangas-Sanchez, Asymmetric synthesis through artificial cascades combining organocatalysis and enzyme catalysis
10:50 – 11:15 Sarah Montgomery, Ahead of the game: unsolved challenges in biocatalysis
11:15 – 11:40 Jolanda van Munster, Talk title TBC
11:40 – 12:05 Bettina Nestl, Catalophore-guided insights in enzyme discovery and engineering
12:05 – 13:05 Lunch
Session 5
13:05 – 13:30 Iustina Slabu, Talk title TBC
13:30 – 13:55 Matthew Thompson, Reimagining what is possible with enzymes: AI x Physics
13:55 – 14:20 Rein Ulijn, Towards a Universal Assembly Code for Peptide Materials
14:20 – 14:45 Iain Wilson, Bring together natural, remodelled and synthetic glycans on arrays
14:45 – 15:10 Bo Yuan, Stereocomplementary synthesis of novel molecules enabled by enzyme design
15:10 – 15:35 Josef Voglmeir, Talk title TBC
