Professor Robert Field to deliver 2024 Ferrier Public Lecture
The 2024 Ferrier Public Lecture, presented annually in honour of the late Professor Robin Ferrier, will be delivered by Professor Robert Field, Director, Manchester Institute of Biotechnology, and Professor of Chemistry at the University of Manchester.
The 2024 Ferrier Public Lecture, presented annually in honour of the late Professor Robin Ferrier, will be delivered by Professor Robert Field, Director, Manchester Institute of Biotechnology, and Professor of Chemistry at the University of Manchester.
Professor Gary Evans, Director, Te Kāuru—Ferrier Research Institute, said “Each year, we extend invitations to renowned scientists from around the globe who have made significant contributions to the application of chemistry, and more broadly biotechnology, to addressing real-world challenges through fundamental research. We then approach these individuals to present the annual Ferrier Public Lecture and this year’s lecturer is Professor Robert Field.
Professor Field has been involved in developing chemistry principles and tools, and applying them to important questions in medicine and agriculture in particular the detection of viruses and the control of toxic algal blooms. His particular forte lies in sugars—carbohydrates—a passion in common with Professor Ferrier, and with the Ferrier Research Institute. Also, in common with the Victoria University of Wellington team, Professor Field has been active in the commercialisation of academic research, in the fields of diagnostics and therapeutics. In addition, and importantly, he has played a major role in developing talented young scientists, through his own research program but also through extensive work with the Royal Society of Chemistry. We are truly honoured to have Professor Field as the distinguished speaker for this year's Ferrier Public Lecture.”
Titled Sugars, viruses, and teeth whitener: taking chemistry from the ivory tower to the real world, Professor Field’s presentation will cover two distinct but linked studies, which emanated from an ambition to make an impact through chemistry. The first part concerns medical diagnostics, while the latter relates to environmental challenges of harmful algal blooms. The surfaces of human and animal cells are coated with sugars, which inadvertently serve as receptors for infectious bacteria and viruses as part of their infection process. For example, the molecular basis of influenza infection is well-established and involves the specific recognition of host cell-surface sugars. Professor Field’s work has shown that these recognition events can be exploited in the detection and discrimination of human and avian influenza, and COVID-19, with carbohydrate-based lateral flow tests.
In unrelated work on harmful algal blooms, a novel virus that infects and lyses a toxin-producing golden algae was discovered. This results in toxin release and mass fish deaths on important tourist waterways of the Norfolk Broads. Unexpectedly, the algal virus appears to produce variants of key proteins involved in influenza infection, which provides clues to its infection mechanism. The culmination of these studies lies in efforts to provide practical solutions for waterways management.
Professor Field is the co-founder and CSO of Iceni Glycoscience. He is a University of East Anglia graduate (1986), where he was also awarded a PhD (1989; Dr Alan Haines) for work in carbohydrate chemistry. He went on to pursue postdoctoral work at the University of Oxford (1989–91; Professor Sir Jack Baldwin) on the penicillin biotechnology program, followed by a period with the parasite biological chemistry team at the University of Dundee (1992–94; Professor Sir Mike Ferguson and Professor Steve Homans).
Professor Field was subsequently appointed to a faculty position in Chemistry at the University of St Andrews (1994), where he was rapidly promoted through the ranks to full Professor (1999). He returned to Norwich, initially at University of East Anglia (2001-06) and latterly at the BBSRC-supported John Innes Centre (2007-19), where he applied his expertise in the chemistry of biological systems to questions relating to the structure, metabolism and dietary potential of important plant polysaccharides, such as starch. With experience spanning the physical sciences, biology and medicine, in both academia and industry, Robert joined the University for Manchester in January 2020 to lead the next phase of development on Manchester Institute of Biotechnology, embracing academics drivers, commercial opportunities and global societal needs.
Professor Field’s research interests span the contemporary challenges and opportunities presented by sustainable nutrition, infectious diseases and industrial biotechnology. The projects undertaken by his research group range from bacterial adhesion and infection, through plant and algal polysaccharide biochemistry and enzymology, to the development of small molecule inhibitor approaches to understand carbohydrate metabolism. From a biology perspective, the group works cross-Kingdom—plants, algae, animals, bacteria, viruses and parasitic protozoa—which inevitably requires collaboration to ensure relevance and impact.
The 2024 Ferrier Public Lecture will be held on Thursday 29 February, at Lecture Theatre 1, Rutherford House, Pipitea Campus, 33 Bunny Street.