A modified cyclosporine enhances lentivector transduction ex vivo and in vivo by degrading IFITM3 Intrinsic innate immune barriers have evolved to suppress viral infection and can reduce effective gene delivery in gene therapy. We have developed BG147, a novel cyclosporine A analogue, optimised vi...

New preprint from our lab, led by our postdocs Dara Annett and Kate Morling in collaboration with Selwood Lab!

We developed a modified cyclosporine, BG147, which enhances lentivector gene therapy transduction, ex vivo in HSPC and in vivo in mouse photoreceptors, by degrading IFITM3. Check it out!

Huge congratulations Che! Well done!

Blizard Institute welcomes world-leading team of virologists

We are delighted to be joining the Blizard Institute in Autumn. The Blizard Institute is an amazing place for discovery science and we're looking forward to more transformative research and collaborations.

www.qmul.ac.uk/blizard/abou...

Towers Lab attending @londoninfectionecr.bsky.social (LINE) annual symposium. Great talk lineups at the Francis Crick Institute, London. #LINE #ScienceIsCool.

Virtual Virology is back - our first ever phage session. Do join us...

Microbiology and infectious diseases This page highlights recent articles on all aspects of bacteriology, mycology, parasitology and virology, covering the biology of pathogens, host-pathogen ...

Great seeing our recent antiviral PROTAC paper chosen by Nature Comms Editors as one of the 50 best papers in Microbiology and Infectious Diseases!

www.nature.com/collections/...

Macrocycle-based PROTACs selectively degrade cyclophilin A and inhibit HIV-1 and HCV - Nature Communications Targeted protein degradation has so far been rarely applied as an antiviral strategy. Here, the authors report that macrocycle-based PROTACs targeting host protein cyclophilin A, exploited during vira...

Antiviral drug development:

Small molecules inducing degradation of host protein cyclophilin A show #antiviral activity against HIV-1 & HCV

@towerslab.bsky.social ‬ @lsnewton.bsky.social @claragathmann.bsky.social
@jollylab.bsky.social @alessiociulli.bsky.social

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Thanks to all involved - @towerslab.bsky.social @claragathmann.bsky.social @katemorling.bsky.social @akreuschl.bsky.social @jollylab.bsky.social @alessiociulli.bsky.social & others!

My PhD work is now published!

We designed PROTACs that degrade the viral cofactor CypA and demonstrated their antiviral activity against HIV & HCV. We anticipate broad efficacy against unrelated viruses and reduced evolution of viral resistance. They also make excellent tools to probe Cyp biology.

Today @gogs-k.bsky.social, @tlhr.bsky.social, and I are launching @bindresearch.org, a UK-based not-for-profit research startup to deliver publicly–available tools and datasets to make intrinsically disordered proteins druggable. 🍝 💊🧲 💻 🦠