Nature Communications paper published by two collaborating teams at Clarkson University (NY, USA) and Queensland University of Technology (Australia)…

Figure 1. Leading researchers in the collaborative project. The full list of the co-authors in the Nature Communication paper: Zhong Guo, Oleh Smutok, Wayne A. Johnston, Patricia Walden, Jacobus P. J. Ungerer, Thomas S. Peat, Janet Newman, Jake Parker, Tom Nebl, Caryn Hepburn, Artem Melman, Richard J. Suderman, Evgeny Katz, Kirill Alexandrov.

The best and most efficient way to perform multi-disciplinary research is by doing it in collaboration. One of such research programs, including synthetic biology, materials science, bioelectrochemistry, bioelectronics, and biosensors, has been performed in a close collaboration between scientists at the Department of Chemistry and Biomolecule Science, Clarkson University, Dr. Oleh Smutok, Dr. Artem Melman (deceased on November 25, 2021), and Dr. Evgeny Katz, with a team of Australian scientists led by Dr. Kirill Alexandrov, Queensland University of Technology (Figure 1). This collaboration being active for several years has been supported with grants from Human Frontiers Science Program (HFSP) and US Department of Defense with the total funding over 1 million dollars. The results from the collaborative efforts have been published in numerous scientific papers and covered by several patents. The most recent and impressive publication was a paper in Nature Communications one of the top scientific journals (Impact Factor 14.92). The paper entitled Design of a methotrexate-controlled chemical dimerization system and its use in bio-electronic devices (Nature Commun. 2021, 12 article No. 7137) reports on a novel artificial enzyme produced by genetic engineering that can be activated with a drug (methotrexate) molecules. The artificial enzyme was immobilized at an electrode surface and used for the drug biosensing with extremely high sensitivity and specificity (Figure 2).

In addition to the fundamental novelty of using the artificial signal-activated enzyme, the study is highly relevant for practical biomedical application. Methotrexate is a toxic drug used in anti-cancer chemotherapy and its overdose has serious, life-threatening side effects. Thus, the methotrexate analysis in biological fluids is important for keeping the drug at the optimal concentration. The study opens the future options for biomedical applications of the developed biosensor and possibilities for other biosensing systems based on the same concept. It should be noted that the success of this project was based on the collaboration of scientists with expertise in different areas, synthetic biology, synthetic organic chemistry, and bioelectrochemistry. This is an exemplary collaboration that serves as a model of performing multi-disciplinary research. While the artificial enzyme preparation was carried out by the Australian team led by Dr. Alexandrov, the bioelectrochemical study of the developed biosensor was performed by Dr. Smutok at Clarkson University. Both US and Australian teams are continuing their successful work combining synthetic biology and bioelectronics and are expecting many more interesting and practically important results. The scientific efforts are combined with the education of graduate and undergraduate students participating in the project.

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Nature Communications paper published by two collaborating teams at Clarkson University (NY, USA) and Queensland University of Technology (Australia)...