Professor Edward Tate

Winner: 2020 Corday-Morgan Prize

Imperial College London and the Francis Crick Institute

For contributions to discovery of novel chemical probes, and their application in opening up new understanding of protein modification in living systems, leading to the validation of novel drug targets in cancer and infectious disease.

Celebrate Professor Edward Tate

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The penny dropped when I realised at university that chemistry could allow one to make almost anything – from a very complex drug to a tool to answer a question in a new way.
Professor Edward Tate

Professor Tate’s research group works on the chemistry that happens inside living systems, in particular how cells modify proteins. Proteins are the machines that run cells and all life, converting chemical energy into motion, electrical activity or thought, and defending the body from infections. Chemical modification can be thought of as adding an ‘upgrade’ to a protein machine to allow it to work in a new or more efficient way – for example, by ensuring it is in the right place at the right time to do its job effectively, or allowing it to respond to a critical event in real time. These protein ‘upgrades’ are themselves added by other proteins – called enzymes – and are also used by bugs that cause disease such as malaria parasites, or even viruses which can commandeer a cell’s enzymes to upgrade their own proteins – for example to allow assembly of the protective protein shell which allows them to infect new cells. Cancer cells also switch off upgrades, or even add new ones, to evolve resistance to the body’s immune response or to drugs.

In Professor Tate’s lab, they have developed new technologies to understand how these upgrades work across whole cells or organisms and are particularly interested in identifying ways to disable or enhance protein modification to target diseases. For example, the team has developed new approaches for the potential treatment of diseases as diverse as malaria, cancer and the common cold, all by focusing on understanding and changing the chemistry of protein modification.

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Edward Tate is Professor of Chemical Biology in the Department of Chemistry at Imperial College London, and a Satellite Group Leader at the Francis Crick Institute. He completed his PhD in organic chemistry at the University of Cambridge in the group of Professor Steve Ley. Following postdoctoral research in chemistry and biology on an 1851 Research Fellowship at CNRS Gif sur Yvette and Ecole Polytechnique and the Pasteur Institute in Paris, he moved to Imperial College London on a BBSRC David Phillips Fellowship, where he was promoted to a Chair in 2014.

Professor Tate leads a team of more than 50 scientists working on the design and application of chemical approaches to understand and manipulate living systems, with a particular focus on drug target discovery and validation. He is a Fellow of the Royal Societies of Chemistry (FRSC) and of Biology (FRSB), and Director of Imperial’s Centre for Drug Discovery Science. He received the 2012 Wain Medal, the 2013 MedImmune Protein and Peptide Science Award, the 2014 Norman Heatley Award, and a 2015 Cancer Research UK Programme Foundation Award in recognition of his group’s research in chemical biology and drug discovery.

In 2019, he became the founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Myricx Pharma, a drug discovery spinout from Imperial and the Francis Crick Institute established to develop discoveries made in his labs; his team was awarded the Sir David Cooksey Translation Prize in recognition of this achievement.

Q+A

How did you first become interested in chemistry?

I enjoyed science from an early age, but the penny dropped when I realised at university that chemistry could allow one to make almost anything – from a very complex drug to a tool to answer a question in a new way.

Who or what has inspired you?

I am most inspired by the young scientists I meet in my work, and sometimes have the privilege to mentor – their passion for science and capacity to take on and apply new concepts constantly renews my enthusiasm for research.

What motivates you?

I am most motivated by two things; firstly, the possibility of using chemistry to address difficult questions in new ways – particularly in biology, where the outcomes are always complex and chemistry can sometimes cast a brand new light on something that was previously poorly understood or appreciated. And secondly, the opportunities to use this knowledge to target diseases, particularly where we can help to develop new therapies.

What has been your biggest challenge?

Probably the transition between fundamental chemistry to chemical biology and its applications to cell biology, which has taken many years of persistence to achieve, starting from my second postdoc in 2002 – and even now we are constantly learning as biology moves forward in leaps and bounds.

What has been a highlight for you?

Seeing the alumni of my research group go on to establish their own groups, and their research take off in exciting new directions. Also, the translation of some of our work into commercial applications in industry and biotech.

What advice would you give to a young person considering a career in chemistry?

To keep a careful eye on where chemistry is headed over the next decade and beyond – there are very exciting opportunities at the interface within a huge range of other fields, from biomedicine to machine learning and new materials – and the combination of these fields.

Why do you think international collaboration is important in science?

My group hosts scientists from nearly 30 countries, and the interface between cultures has as important a role to play as the interface between disciplines in driving new ways of looking at science. The other key interface for our work is between industry and academia – it is very rewarding to see the influence that fundamental academic research can have – often in very unexpected ways – on people trying to solve pressing real-world problems.

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