Dr Michael Booth, a former Balasubramanian group member, has received one of the 2024 ICBS Young Chemical Biologists Award from the International Chemical Biology Society. Mike is due to deliver his award lecture during the Rising Stars session at the ICBS annual conference in Toronto later in October. His lecture will be on remote-controlled nucleic acids for biology and medicine.
Mike joined the group in 2009 as a PhD student. During the four years he was with us, he made key discoveries of chemical reactivity and invented a new approach for detecting and sequencing 5-hydroxymethylcytosine and 5-methylcytosine in genomic DNA, which resulted in publications in Science and Nature Protocols. He also developed and implemented chemistry for decoding the naturally occurring DNA modification 5-formylcytosine which was published in Nature Chemistry. Having completed his PhD, he moved to Oxford to work in Hayden Bayley’s laboratory in the field of synthetic biology.
Mike is currently a Royal Society University Research Fellow and an Associate Professor in Chemical Biology and Organic Chemistry at University College London. The recent efforts from his lab include the precision targeting of synthetic cells and their communication with living cells using light-activated DNA, which will offer new methods to study and control living cells. Dr Booth’s lab has also developed the first orthogonally controllable photocaged DNAs, which offer unprecedented control over biological processes and could form a new route to targeted therapeutics.
Commenting on the award, Dr Booth said: “I am absolutely delighted to receive this award. It is a fantastic recognition of the work from my group. I’m lucky to have had wonderful supporters and collaborators throughout the beginning of my career. I’m excited to travel to Toronto for the award lecture!”
ICBS, launched in 2011, is an independent, non-profit organisation dedicated to promoting research and educational opportunities at the interface of chemistry and biology. ICBS brings together cross-disciplinary scientists from academia, non-profit organisations, government, and industry to communicate new research and help translate the power of chemical biology to advance human health and enhance a stable ecosystem for environmental sustainability.
We congratulate Mike on this well-deserved award. If you wish to know more about Mike’s research, see here.