News

We are thrilled to share some highlights from our recent Royal Society International Exchange-funded visit to the laboratory of Professor Rebecca Page at UConn Health. This ongoing collaboration is significantly strengthening the EDV lab international partnership and advancing our research in chemical biology for protein phosphatases.

Over the course of the visit, Elena and PhD student Tara Shutes had the opportunity to work closely with Prof. Page’s and Prof Peti’s teams, exchanging complementary expertise in protein structural biology and biochemistry. In particular, we are extremely thankful to Dr Meng Choy and Dr Daniel Yeggoni for their mentorship and support with the planned experiments. The visit promoted scientific exchange, hands-on training, and the development of new collaborative strategies to tackle complex biological questions around protein phosphatases. In total, we spent two weeks in the beautifully autumn-painted West Harford. Despite the short time, we were also able to solve novel structural insights on our favourite phosphatase!

This visit not only enhanced our technical capabilities but also laid the foundation for future joint projects to understand phosphatase function and designing innovative chemical biology tools. We are grateful to the Royal Society for supporting this initiative and to Prof. Page and her team for their warm welcome and inspiring collaboration.

Stay tuned for updates on the scientific outcomes of this exciting partnership!

Photos by Elena De Vita and Tara Shutes

This week we have been delighted to host Gabriella Weller, a visiting school student, to gain hands-on experience in scientific research.

During her time in the lab, Gabriella shadowed Tara in her experiments, learning about her research while performing standard techniques in our lab, including western blotting and plate-based biochemical assays.

Gabriella showed great curiosity and enthusiasm as she explored new experimental workflows. Reflecting on her experience, she shared: “It was such an honour to have been given the opportunity to shadow Tara Shutes in Dr De Vita’s lab, and to learn about their vital and innovative research. I particularly enjoyed learning about the mechanism of the cancer drugs that Tara and Dr De Vita are developing, as well as trying out a vast range of professional equipment which I had never used before.“

Our group is always excited to share the research environment with students at early stages of their academic journey. We hope this experience has enriched Gabriella and provided her with deeper insight into the process of scientific discovery. Perhaps it will inspire her future studies too.

Best of luck with whatever comes next — we’ve been glad to have you with us!

24th July 2025 – First MSci graduations from the EDV Group!

The EDV lab is proud to share the news that both Azzah Abubacar and Soumiah Jegatheswaran, who joined our group for their MSci research project in September 2024 have now completed their studies and successfully obtained their degrees.

A highly deserved ‘Well Done!’ from us to Both Azzah and Soumiah, who have been fantastic students and a great addition to our team. Both Azzah and Soumiah have achieved their degree with a First!

The graduation ceremony for Azzah’s and Soumiah’s MSci degree took place at 4 PM on Thursday 24th July in the People’s Palace at Queen Mary University main campus in Mile End. This session included awards from our School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences, the School of Physical and Chemical Sciences and the School of Mathematical Sciences.

Congratulations are in order for Azzah and Soumiah and we are looking forward to seeing where the next step in your careers will take you!

We are very pleased to announce that Roan has been awarded a Summer Vacation Studentship from the Biochemical Society!

The Biochemical Society Summer Vacation Studentship is a competitive programme that offers undergraduate students the opportunity to gain valuable research experience in a laboratory setting. Over the course of 6–8 weeks, students undertake a supervised research project in the field of biochemistry or related life sciences, developing practical skills and contributing to ongoing scientific work. The studentship is designed to support aspiring scientists early in their careers and provide hands-on insight into academic research environments.

Roan is keen to gain practical skills in organic synthetic chemistry applied to chemical biology research. Over the summer, Roan will join our group for 6 weeks to synthesise novel bifunctional probes to study induced proximity modalities for different targets.

We are very grateful to the Biochemical Society for the support to Roan and our research!

As an active member of the Biochemical Society, Elena is keen to support students who wish to apply to this scheme also in the future! If you are eligible for the programme and considering applying next year, get in touch closer to the new round opening in Spring 2026.

We are proud to share that the lab we are based in has recently been certified by the Laboratory Efficiency Assessment Framework (LEAF) and was awarded a Silver status to recognise our efforts in implementing more sustainable practices in our everyday research.

The LEAF framework is a sustainability initiative that was started by UCL to help research laboratories improve their environmental performance. The tiered system is used to assess and reduce environmental impacts, from energy and water usage to waste and resource management. The framework offers practical actions and guidance to support sustainable lab practices, while also promoting a culture of responsible research across the research staff.

Many thanks to our fantastic lab managers Jonathan Palmer and Yumiko Tashiro for spearheading this important milestone towards sustainable research! We are very lucky to have your support in our research.

We will continue to commit to more sustainable practices wherever we can while continuing to push the boundaries of our knowledge!

Last 28-31st January, Elena and Tara attended the 2nd International Symposium on Chemical Biology (EFMC-ISBC) in Basel, organised by the European Federation for Medicinal Chemistry and Chemical biology (EFMC) and the Swiss Chemical Society, Division for Medicinal Chemistry & Chemical Biology (DMCCB). Tara was delighted to have the opportunity to present her first poster at an international conference, ‘A Covalent Approach Towards Proximity-Based Protein Dephosphorylation’, which covered all the exciting progress that the EDV lab has made in the first year of active research.

It was inspiring to hear from so many medicinal chemists and chemical biologists working worldwide on new, cutting-edge tools to probe biological processes, ranging from the development of novel therapeutics based on chemical probes, RNA and peptides to advancements in high-throughput proteomics. On the whole, the conference was a fantastic opportunity to make new connections within the international chemical biology community and learn about fascinating new areas of research, and it was great to explore beautiful Basel too!

More information on the EFMC-ISCB 2025 is available via their website here: https://www.efmc-iscb.org

Elena and Tara’s next conference outing will be to the 14th International Activity Based Protein Profiling Meeting (ABPP 2025) in London in March – do get in touch if you plan to attend, and we look forward to presenting more of our research there!

The year starts with a fantastic piece of news for the EDV lab: Tara joins us today to embark on a journey of chemical biology for protein phosphatases!

Tara will be based in our laboratory space in the JP Building on Mile End campus. Her PhD thesis will be co-supervised by Prof Viji Draviam. Tara brings an excellent background for the project and we are looking forward to seeing her developing as a scientist in the next years.

A warm welcome to Tara, exciting times ahead!