Khorana Prize Lecture: Professor Sir Shankar Balasubramanian
The Department of Natural Sciences, Manchester Metropolitan University, is delighted to host Professor Sir Shankar Balasubramanian for his Khorana Prize lecture.
The Department of Natural Sciences, Manchester Metropolitan University are delighted to be hosting Professor Sir Shankar Balasubramanian from the University of Cambridge for his Khorana Prize talk on the 29th April 2026.
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Khorana Prize
The Khorana Prize is awarded for outstanding contributions through work at the chemistry and life science interface.
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Bio
Shankar began his independent academic career in 1994 at the University of Cambridge as College Lecturer, then University Lecturer (1998), University Reader in Chemical Biology (2003) and Professor of Chemical Biology (2007). He was appointed Herchel Smith Professor of Medicinal Chemistry in 2008.
HeÌýdirects research laboratories in the Department of ChemistryÌýand also theÌýCancer Research UKÌý(CRUK) Cambridge Institute at theÌýCambridge Biomedical Campus.
He is an internationally recognised leader in the field of nucleic acids, who is distinguished for pioneering contributions to chemistry and its application to the biological and medical sciences. He is a principal inventor of the leading next generation sequencing methodology, Solexa sequencing, that has made routine, accurate, low-cost sequencing of human genomes a reality and has revolutionised biology. He has made seminal contributions to the identification, elucidation and manipulation ofÌý, particularly four-stranded structures calledÌý. His work on the intervention of nucleic acid function using small molecules has revealed a number of molecular mechanisms that can be exploited, e.g. to modulate the biology of cancer.
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Abstract
The structure and function of G-quadruplex DNA
DNA can exist in folded structures that are distinct from the B-DNA double helix.Ìý One such structure is the four-stranded G-quadruplex, which can form in certain G-rich sequences. Over the past 25 years or so, our lab has been seeking to understand the nature of such structures and whether they are simply a curiosity or might they exist in natural systems.Ìý To address this, we have created and used numerous chemical approaches.Ìý I will discuss the evidence on the existence of G-quadruplexes in human cells and tissues along with our current working hypothesis for what they may be doing in biology. Some of these ideas suggest potential for new therapeutic approaches, especially in oncology.
Speakers
Professor Sir Shankar Balasubramanian
University of Cambridge
UK
Event details
The structure and function of G-quadruplex DNA
DNA can exist in folded structures that are distinct from the B-DNA double helix.Ìý One such structure is the four-stranded G-quadruplex, which can form in certain G-rich sequences. Over the past 25 years or so, our lab has been seeking to understand the nature of such structures and whether they are simply a curiosity or might they exist in natural systems.Ìý To address this, we have created and used numerous chemical approaches.Ìý I will discuss the evidence on the existence of G-quadruplexes in human cells and tissues along with our current working hypothesis for what they may be doing in biology. Some of these ideas suggest potential for new therapeutic approaches, especially in oncology.
Deadlines
Please register for FREE via Eventbrite
Deadlines
Faculty of Business and Law, Manchester Metropolitan University
BS 1.23, Faculty of Business and Law, Manchester Metropolitan University, Faculty of Business and Law, Manchester Metropolitan University, All Saints Campus, Manchester, M15 6BY, UK
Manchester and District