Thomas Fryer

• University of Cambridge

Many biological disciplines rely upon the transformation of host cells with heterologous DNA to edit, engineer, or examine biological phenotypes. Transformation of model cell strains (Escherichia coli) under model conditions (electroporation of circular supercoiled plasmid DNA; typically pUC19) can achieve >10¹⁰ transformants/μg DNA. Yet outside of...

Snakebite envenoming remains a devastating and neglected tropical disease, claiming over 100,000 lives annually and causing severe complications and long-lasting disabilities for many more1,2. Three-finger toxins (3FTx) are highly toxic components of elapid snake venoms that can cause diverse pathologies, including severe tissue damage³ and inhibit...

Snakebite envenoming is a global public health issue that causes significant morbidity and mortality, particularly in low-income regions of the world. The clinical manifestations of envenomings vary depending on the snake's venom, with paralysis, haemorrhage, and necrosis being the most common and medically relevant effects. To assess the efficacy...

Many biological disciplines rely upon the transformation of host cells with heterologous DNA, the limited efficiency of which can significantly hinder a researcher’s work. Directed evolution in particular typically requires the screening of large (thousand-billion member) libraries to identify sequences of interest, and the creation of these librar...

Venom-induced haemorrhage constitutes a severe pathology in snakebite envenomings, especially those inflicted by viperid species. To both explore venom activity accurately and evaluate the efficacy of viperid antivenoms for the neutralisation of haemorrhagic activity it is essential to have available a precise, quantitative tool for empirically det...

The American Association of Poison Control Centers yearly receives approximately 50,000 telephone calls due to plant exposures, most of which occur in children. These poisonings are caused by cardiac glycosides, sodium channel openers, anticholinergics, and many more. Common for all the above cases are that the toxins have a very small molecular si...

This work establishes a new genotype:phenotype linked display platform: Polyacrylamide Hydrogel bead Display (PHD). Four core elements have been designed into it; compatibility with ultra-high throughput microfluidic workflows, stability of genotype linkage, stability and control of protein display, and compatibility with a diverse range of assays...

Animal toxins present a major threat to human health worldwide, predominantly through snakebite envenomings, which are responsible for over 100,000 deaths each year. To date, the only available treatment against snakebite envenoming is plasma-derived antivenom. However, despite being key to limiting morbidity and mortality among snakebite victims,...