WELCOME
Welcome to the Howorka group at University College London. We are excited about membrane nanopores and study, for example, protein pores of pathogenic bacteria to understand their role as gateway for transport across lipid bilayers. In addition, new synthetic pores composed of DNA are engineered to achieve unprecedented molecular control for applications in biosensing, targeted cell killing, and synthetic biology. We also enjoy developing new nucleic acids probes and linker chemistries to enable new discoveries in biological research.
NEWS
A paper in Angewandte Chemie International Edition published
24 November 2020
The article "A Biomimetic DNA‐Based Membrane Gate for Protein‐Controlled Transport of Cytotoxic Drugs" by Conor Lanphere, Patrick M. Arnott, Sioned Fôn Jones, Katarina Korlova and Stefan Howorka has been published.
Congratulations to Katya for passing her PhD viva!
18 November 2020
Congratulations to Jonah for passing his PhD upgrade viva!
13 August 2020
Congratulations to Dr. Patrick Marthijn Arnott!
4 August 2020
Patrick has been awarded the title of PhD for his work on DNA Nanopores for Biotherapeutic Applications
Dr. Rachael Dickman has been appointed as Lecturer in Drug Discovery at the UCL School of Pharmacy
7 July 2020
Conor presented his work at the ISMB PG Lockdown Symposium!
15 June 2020
Congratulations to Dr. Joanna Louise Donnelly!
28 May 2020
Jo has been awarded the title of PhD
Congratulations to Dr. Daniel Offenbartl-Stiegert!
5 May 2020
Dan has been awarded the title of PhD for his work on Light-Controlled Probes for Chemical Biology.
Successful grant application
26 March 2020
A research grant entitled “Elucidating the mechanism of membrane fusion using DNA nanostructures” has been awarded by the Human Frontier Science Program to Dr. Rahul Roy (Indian Institute of Science), Prof. Aleksei Aksimentiev (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) and Prof. Stefan Howorka.
Congratulations to Jonah for publishing some of his previous work
1 March 2020
Jonah's work was published in ACS Omega.
A paper in Nature Biotechnology published
23 January 2020
The article "Reading amino acids in a nanopore" by Stefan Howorka and Zuzanna S. Siwy has been published.
Successful grant application
12 December 2019
The grant “Functionally-enhanced PODS with targeted membrane binding and crossing ability for effective cell and gene therapy delivery” has been awarded by London Advanced Therapies to Prof. Stefan Howorka and Sixfold Bioscience Ltd.
A paper in Nature Communications published
8 November 2019
The article "Synthetic protein-conductive membrane nanopores built with DNA" by Tim Diederichs, Genevieve Pugh, Adam Dorey, Jonathan R. Burns, Quoc Hung Nguyen, Marc Tornow, Robert Tampé and Stefan Howorka has been published.
Congratulations to Rachael for publishing some of her previous work.
6 November 2019
Rachael's work was published in the Journal of Organic Chemistry and Chemistry: A European Journal.
A paper in Chemistry - A European Journal published
29 October 2019
The article "Exploring the Relationship between BODIPY Structure and Spectroscopic Properties to Design Fluorophores for Bioimaging" by Joanna L. Donnelly, Daniel Offenbartl‐Stiegert, José M. Marín‐Beloqui, Loris Rizzello, Guiseppe Battaglia , Tracey M. Clarke, Stefan Howorka and Jonathan D. Wilden has been published.
A cordial welcome to new PhD students Aamina Murtza, Alexia Rottensteiner and Catherine Webley, MRes student Qiao Ran and MSc student Naeem Kaiyum
2 October 2019
Congratulations to Alexia for passing her Master's viva!
24 June 2019
Congratulations to Helena and Will for being awarded the departmental poster prizes for their presentations!
13 June 2019
A paper in Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry published
6 June 2019
The article "Solvent-dependent photophysics of a red-shifted, biocompatible coumarin photocage" by Daniel Offenbartl-Stiegert, Tracey M. Clarke, Hugo Bronstein, Ha Phuong Nguyen and Stefan Howorka has been published.
Congratulations to Sioned for passing her PhD upgrade viva!
6 June 2019
A paper in Nanomaterials published
29 March 2019
The article "Structural and Functional Stability of DNA Nanopores in Biological Media" by Jonathan R. Burns and Stefan Howorka has been published.
A paper in Bioconjugate Chemistry published
1 March 2019
The article "Cholesterol Anchors Enable Efficient Binding and Intracellular Uptake of DNA Nanostructures" by William L. Whitehouse, James E. Noble, Maxim G. Ryadnov and Stefan Howorka has been published.
A paper in ACS Nano published
22 February 2019
The article "A Temperature-Gated Nanovalve Self-Assembled from DNA to Control Molecular Transport across Membranes" by Patrick M. Arnott and Stefan Howorka has been published.
A paper in Angewandte Chemie International Edition published
18 February 2019
The article "Opto‐epigenetic modulation of DNA methylation with a photo‐responsive small‐molecule approach" by Ha Phuong Nguyen, Sabrina Stewart, Mikiembo N Kukwikila, Sioned Fôn Jones, Daniel Offenbartl-Stiegert, Shiqing Mao, Shankar Balasubramanian, Stephan Beck, Stefan Howorka, has been published.
Congratulations to Will and Helena for passing their PhD upgrade vivas!
13 February 2019
Congratulations to Adam for passing his PhD viva!
11 January 2019
A paper in the Journal of the American Chemical Society published
17 December 2018
The article "Spatial Presentation of Cholesterol Units on a DNA Cube as a Determinant of Membrane Protein-Mimicking Functions" by Pongphak Chidchob, Daniel Offenbartl-Stiegert, Dillon McCarthy, Xin Luo, Jianing Li, Stefan Howorka, and Hanadi F. Sleiman has been published.
Publications highlighted in a special issue and on the cover of Langmuir
13 December 2018
The recent articles "Dynamic Interactions between Lipid-Tethered DNA and Phospholipid Membranes" and "Tunable DNA Hybridization Enables Spatially and Temporally Controlled Surface-Anchoring of Biomolecular Cargo" are part of a special issue of Langmuir. Prof Howorka is also a guest editor of this issue and the article "Dynamic Interactions between Lipid-Tethered DNA and Phospholipid Membranes" is highlighted on its cover.
Congratulations to Katya for passing her PhD upgrade viva!
13 December 2018
A paper in Langmuir published
11 October 2018
The article "Dynamic Interactions between Lipid-Tethered DNA and Phospholipid Membranes" by Patrick M. Arnott, Himanshu Joshi, Aleksei Aksimentiev, and Stefan Howorka has been published.
A cordial welcome to new PhD student Jonah Ciccone, MRes Anna Wang and MSc student Alexia Rottensteiner.
8 October 2018
A paper in Langmuir published
31 August 2018
The article "Tunable DNA Hybridization Enables Spatially and Temporally Controlled Surface-Anchoring of Biomolecular Cargo" by Roland Hager, Andreas Arnold, Eva Sevcsik, Gerhard J. Schütz, and Stefan Howorka has been published.
Daniel Offenbartl-Stiegert wins poster prize at the 14th Nucleic Acids Forum
6 July 2018
PhD student Daniel Offenbartl-Stiegert wins the industry prize for the best poster at the 14th Nucleic Acids Forum for his work on DNA nanopores. The prize was sponsored by LGC-Link and awarded at Burlington House, Royal Society of Chemistry.
A paper in Nature Reviews Chemistry published
5 July 2018
The review "Comparing proteins and nucleic acids for next-generation biomolecular engineering" by Genevieve C. Pugh, Jonathan R. Burns and Stefan Howorka has been published.
Congratulations to Elena, Farzaneh and Katarina for passing the vivas for their Master's Degrees!
29 June 2018
A paper in Nature Communications published
18 April 2018
The article "Multi-functional DNA nanostructures that puncture and remodel lipid membranes into hybrid materials" by Oliver Birkholz, Jonathan R. Burns, Christian P. Richter, Olympia E. Psathaki, Stefan Howorka and Jacob Piehler has been published.
Congratulations to Conor and Daniel for passing their PhD upgrade vivas!
27 March 2018
Happy Easter from the Howorka Group!
23 March 2018
A paper in ACS Nano published
1 March 2018
The article "Defined Bilayer Interactions of DNA Nanopores Revealed with a Nuclease-Based Nanoprobe Strategy" by Jonathan R. Burns and Stefan Howorka has been published.
Congratulations to Hafi for passing her PhD viva!
9 January 2018
A cordial welcome to new PhD rotation student Sioned Fôn Jones and Msc student Elena Georgiou.
8 January 2018
A cordial welcome to new PhD students Helena Philpott and William Whitehouse, PhD rotation student Gorjan Stojanovski, MRes student Kai Chen and MSc students Katarina Korlova and Farzaneh Ataei.
25 September 2017
Research Associate in Biophysics: Apply now
20 July 2017
A position in biophysics working on the development of molecular rulers is now open for applications.
A paper in Nature Nanotechnology published
6 July 2017
The review "Building membrane nanopores" by Stefan Howorka has been published.
A paper in Nature Chemistry published
23 June 2017
The News & Views commentary "DNA nanotechnology: Bringing lipid bilayers into shape" by Stefan Howorka has been published.
A paper in Nature Communications published
20 March 2017
The article "Stability and dynamics of membrane-spanning DNA nanopores" by Vishal Maingi, Jonathan R. Burns, Jaakko J. Uusital, Stefan Howorka, Siewert J. Marrink and Mark S. P. Sansom has been published.
Successful grant application
17 March 2017
A Leverhulme Trust grant led by Prof. Stefan Howorka in collaboration with Prof. Ulrike Eggert entitled "New chemical tools to probe lipid bilayer thickness in live cells” has been accepted for funding.
A cordial welcome to new PhD student Katya Ahmad.
16 March 2017
Congratulations to Jo for passing her PhD upgrade viva!
16 February 2017
A paper in Scientific Reports published
13 February 2017
The article "Arrays of Individual DNA Molecules on Nanopatterned Substrates" by Roland Hager, Alma Halilovic, Jonathan R. Burns, Friedrich Schäffler and Stefan Howorka has been published. http://www.nature.com/articles/srep42075
A paper in ACS Nano published
10 November 2016
The perspective "Nanopores and Nanochannels: From Gene Sequencing to Genome Mapping" by Stefan Howorka and Zuzanna Siwy has been published. http://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acsnano.6b07041
A cordial welcome to new PhD students Conor Lanphere and Daniel Offenbartl-Stiegert and Master's Students Constantinos Onisiforou, Luka Jelcic and Charlie Haywood.
28 September 2016
Congratulations to Patrick for passing his PhD upgrade viva!
A paper in Angewandte Chemie International Edition published
25 August 2016
The article "Biomimetic Hybrid Nanocontainers with Selective Permeability" by Lea Messager, Jonathan R.
Burns, Jungyeon Kim, Denis Cecchin, James Hindley, Alice L. B. Pyne, Jens Gaitzsch, Giuseppe Battaglia and Stefan Howorka has been published. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/anie.201604677
Dr. Stefan Howorka has been promoted to Professor of Chemical Biology.
15 June 2016
A paper in Science published
19 May 2016
The Perspective "Changing of the guard: DNA nanostructures mimic membrane proteins" by Stefan Howorka has been published in the recent issue of Science. http://science.sciencemag.org/content/352/6288/890?utm_campaign=toc_sci-mag_2016-05-19&et_rid=40172272&et_cid=499312
A CASE PhD studentship awarded: Apply now
4 May 2016
An EPSRC-sponsored and industrially co-funded CASE PhD studentship on DNA nanopores is open for applications. Interested PhD candidates should send their CV to Dr. Stefan Howorka.
A paper in Small published
9 April 2016
The article "Co-Immobilization of Proteins and DNA Origami Nanoplates to Produce High-Contrast Biomolecular Nanoarrays" by Roland Hager, Jonathan R. Burns, Martyna J. Grydlik, Alma Halilovic, Thomas Haselgrübler, Friedrich Schäffler and Stefan Howorka has been published. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/smll.201600311/abstract
Successful BBSRC/NSF grant application
16 March 2016
A bilateral NSF/BIO-BBSRC grant led by Dr. Stefan Howorka and Prof. Hao Yan, Arizona State University, entitled "Synthetic DNA Nanopores for Selective Transmembrane Transport" has been accepted for funding.
Collaboration with Oxford Nanopore Technologies
09 March 2016
An exciting collaboration between industry and academia has been announced to develop a new DNA sequencing nanopore pioneered from work undertaken in the laboratory of Dr Han Remaut of VIB and Vrije Universiteit Brussel together with Dr Stefan Howorka, department of Chemistry at UCL. http://www.uclb.com/news-and-events/news-post/new-dna-sequencing-nanopore
Recent publication in Nature Nanotechnology highlighted in Science and BioCentury
February 2016
The recent publication in Nature Nanotechnology was highlighted by Science in the Editors' Choice and has also been featured in BioCentury.
Congratulations to Gen for passing her PhD upgrade viva!
16 February 2016
Recent publication featured on the cover of the February issue of Nature Nanotechnology.
1 February 2016
"A biomimetic DNA-based channel for the ligand-controlled transport of charged molecular cargo across a biological membranes” by Jonathan Burns, Astrid Seifert, Niels Fertig, and Stefan Howorka is featured on the cover of the February issue of the journal. The publication is also highlighted in the editorial as part of a focus commentary on Advanced Nanopores.
A paper in Nature Nanotechnology published
11 January 2016
The research letter "A biomimetic DNA-based channel for the ligand-controlled transport of charged molecular cargo across a biological membranes" by Jonathan Burns, Astrid Seifert, Niels Fertig, and Stefan Howorka has been published in Nature Nanotechnology. The publication is also highlighted in a press release on the University College London Website.
http://www.nature.com/nnano/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nnano.2015.279.htm
A cordial welcome to new post-doc Dr. Yongzheng Xing who has joined the Howorka group
11 January 2016
BBSRC industrial case PhD studentship awarded: Apply now
17 November 2015
The iCASE PhD studentship with the National Physical Laboratory on "Membrane-spanning DNA nanopores" is open for applications. More information is available on http://lido-dtp.ac.uk/case13.html or from Dr. Howorka, and applications can be submitted here.
A paper in Nature Nanotechnology published
4 November 2015
The commentary "Broadening students’ minds" by Philip S. Lukeman and Stefan Howorka provides a training programme to improve the interdisciplinary breadth and depth of a nanoscience research group. It has been published in the November 2015 issue of Nature Nanotechnology.
http://www.nature.com/nnano/journal/v10/n11/full/nnano.2015.266.html
A new paper in ACS Nano
27 October 2015
The article "Gating-Like Motions and Wall Porosity in a DNA Nanopore Scaffold Revealed by Molecular Simulations" by Vishal Maingi, Mickael Lelimousin, Stefan Howorka, and Mark S. P. Sansom has been published. http://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsnano.5b06357
A cordial welcome to Dr. Jonathan Burns
14 October 2015
Jon Burns has re-joined the Howorka lab
Article in Langmuir published
6 October 2015
The article "Molecular and Thermodynamic Factors Explain the Passivation Properties of Poly(ethylene glycol)-Coated Substrate Surfaces against Fluorophore-Labeled DNA Oligonucleotides" by Chun-lai Ren, Robert Schlapak, Roland Hager, Igal Szleifer, and Stefan Howorka has been published. http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.langmuir.5b02674
A cordial welcome to new PhD student Joanna (Jo) Donnelly, EngD student Patrick Arnott and MRes student Daniel Offenbartl-Stiegert
1 October 2015
Article in Analytical Chemistry published
25 August, 2015
The article "Nanopore-Based Electrical and Label-Free Sensing of Enzyme Activity in Blood Serum" by Mikiembo Kukwikila and Stefan Howorka has been published. http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.analchem.5b01764
EPSRC research proposal funded
31 July, 2015
The grant application "Minimal DNA nanopores" led by Dr. Howorka has been accepted for funding
Dr. Jon Burns wins poster prize at the 11th Nucleic Acids Forum
10 July, 2015
Former postdoc Dr. Burns wins the prize for the best poster at the 11th Nucleic Acids Forum for his work on DNA nanopores from the Howorka lab. The prize was sponsored by Bippy Scientific and awarded by Prof. David Lilley at Burlington House, Royal Society of Chemistry.
A new publication in Nano Letters published
June 15, 2015
"Dendrimers in Nanoscale Confinement: The Interplay between Conformational Change and Nanopore Entrance" by Emel Ficici, Ioan Andricioaei, Stefan Howorka
Congratulations to Hafi for passing her PhD upgrade viva!
May 30, 2015
Successful BBSRC grant application
April 24, 2015
The grant application "Hybrid Nanopores for Single-Molecule Sensing" led by Dr. Howorka and Prof. Hagan Bayley, Oxford, has been accepted for funding