Our Research

Our research can help change lives, from early cancer diagnosis and better treatment, through to protecting marine environments and improving food security.

• How we developed a new window to the wonders of the living microscopic world - We helped develop a new type of microscope that improves our ability to analyse live samples, increasing our knowledge and improving the quality of research in to living organisms.
• How we are helping protect European native oyster - Our research has led to estuaries in Essex becoming a Marine Conservation Zone, giving legal protection to European native oysters in the area and helping us develop a model of restoration that can be used locally and nationally.
• Getting under the skin with biomarkers - An interdisciplinary project led by the Institute for Social and Economic Research. This research project links genomics expertise with socio-economic data, to build a complete picture of people as individuals.
• Could this wheat help feed the world? - Researchers at Essex are working to engineer improved photosynthesis in wheat in order to increase yields. 
• Blood, blood, glorious (artificial) blood - The HaemO2 project aims to develop an artificial blood substitute that will help overcome some of the inherent problems in blood transfusions.
• Looking to revolutionise prostate cancer treatment - Scientists from Essex are working to create a "Trojan Horse", using stem cells to introduce a protein that can kill prostate cancer cells.
• Helping improve early diagnosis for cancer - How can you tell the difference between benign and malignant prostate tumours? Look for BORIS.

Our academics have been featured in press in the UK and around the world, and have contributed articles to The Conversation including:

• Professor Graham Underwood's article, "Disappearing sea ice is changing the whole ecosystem of the Arctic Ocean".
• Professor Leo Schalkwyk co-wrote "Ageing: how our ‘epigenetic clocks’ slow down as we get older".
• Dr Tom Cameron focused on the impact of lead shot on wildlife in his article "Hunting ammo: Britain’s shooters less divided on a lead ban than expected".
• Plant scientist Dr Amanda Cavanagh has questioned the role of plants in carbon emission mitigation, in her article "Carbon dioxide feeds plants, but are earth’s plants getting full?"

Ecology and Environmental Microbiology

• Underwood, Graham and Michel, Christine and Meisterhans, Guillame and Niemi, Andrea and Belzile, Claude and Witt, Matthias and Dumbrell, Alex J and Koch, Boris P (2019) 'Organic matter from Artic sea ice loss alters bacterial community structure and function.' Nature Climate Change, 9. 170 - 176. ISSN 1758-678X https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-018-0391-7
• O’Gorman, E., Zhao, L., Pichler, D. et al. 'Unexpected changes in community size structure in a natural warming experiment.' Nature Clim Change 7, 659–663 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate3368
• Hoyal Cuthill, JF and Guttenberg, N and Budd, GE (2020) 'Impacts of speciation and extinction measured by an evolutionary decay clock.' Nature, 588 (7839). 636 - 641. ISSN 0028-0836 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-3003-4

Genomics and Computational Biology

• Fellows, R and Denizot, J and Stellato, C and Cuomo, A and Jain, P and Stoyanova, E and Balázsi, S and Hajnády, Z and Liebert, A and Kazakevych, J and Blackburn, H and Corrêa, RO and Fachi, JL and Sato, FT and Ribeiro, WR and Ferreira, CM and Perée, H and Spagnuolo, M and Mattiuz, R and Matolcsi, C and Guedes, J and Clark, J and Veldhoen, M and Bonaldi, T and Vinolo, MAR and Varga Weisz, PD (2018) 'Microbiota derived short chain fatty acids promote histone crotonylation in the colon through histone deacetylases.' Nature Communications, 9. ISSN 2041-1723 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-017-02651-5
• Clarkson, Christopher T and Deeks, Emma A and Samarista, Ralph and Mamayusupova, Hulkar and Zhurkin, Victor B and Teif, Vladimir B (2019) 'CTCF-dependent chromatin boundaries formed by asymmetric nucleosome arrays with decreased linker length.' Nucleic Acids Research. ISSN 0305-1048 https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkz908
• Marzi, Sarah J and Leung, Szi Kay and Ribarska, Teodora and Hannon, Eilis and Smith, Adam R and Pishva, Ehsan and Poschmann, Jeremie and Moore, Karen and Troakes, Claire and Al-Sarraj, Safa and Beck, Stephan and Newman, Stuart and Lunnon, Katie and Schalkwyk, Leonard C and Mill, Jonathan (2018) 'A histone acetylome-wide association study of Alzheimer’s disease identifies disease-associated H3K27ac differences in the entorhinal cortex.' Nature Neuroscience, 21 (11). 1618 - 1627. ISSN 1097-6256 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-018-0253-7

Plant Productivity

• Lopez-Calcagno, Patricia E and Brown, Kenny L and Simkin, Andrew J and Fisk, Stuart J and Vialet-Chabrand, Silvere and Lawson, Tracy and Raines, Christine (2020) 'Stimulating photosynthetic processes increases productivity and water use efficiency in the field.' Nature Plants, 6. 1054 - 1063. ISSN 2055-026X https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-020-0740-1
• Bowles, Alexander MC and Bechtold, Ulrike and Paps, Jordi (2020) 'The Origin of Land Plants Is Rooted in Two Bursts of Genomic Novelty.' Current Biology, 30 (3). 530 - 536.e2. ISSN 0960-9822 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2019.11.090
• Exposito-Rodriguez, M and Laissue, PP and Yvon-Durocher, G and Smirnoff, N and Mullineaux, PM (2017) 'Photosynthesis-dependent H₂O₂ transfer from chloroplasts to nuclei provides a high-light signalling mechanism.' Nature Communications, 8 (1). ISSN 2041-1723 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-017-00074-w

Protein Structure and Mechanisms of Disease

• Domínguez-Medina, C Coral and Pérez-Toledo, Marisol and Schager, Anna E and Marshall, Jennifer L and Cook, Charlotte N and Bobat, Saeeda and Hwang, Hyea and Chun, Byeong Jae and Logan, Erin and Bryant, Jack A and Channell, Will M and Morris, Faye C and Jossi, Sian E and Alshayea, Areej and Rossiter, Amanda E and Barrow, Paul A and Horsnell, William G and MacLennan, Calman A and Henderson, Ian R and Lakey, Jeremy H and Gumbart, James C and López-Macías, Constantino and Bavro, Vassiliy N and Cunningham, Adam F (2020) 'Outer membrane protein size and LPS O-antigen define protective antibody targeting to the Salmonella surface.' Nature Communications, 11 (1). ISSN 2041-1723 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-14655-9
• Liang, Yi-Lynn and Khoshouei, Maryam and Deganutti, Giuseppe and Glukhova, Alisa and Koole, Cassandra and Peat, Thomas S and Radjainia, Mazdak and Plitzko, Jürgen M and Baumeister, Wolfgang and Miller, Laurence J and Hay, Deborah L and Christopoulos, Arthur and Reynolds, Christopher A and Wootten, Denise and Sexton, Patrick M (2018) 'Cryo-EM structure of the active, Gs-protein complexed, human CGRP receptor.' Nature, 561. 492 - 497. ISSN 0028-0836 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41586-018-0535-y
• Kimata, N and Pope, A and Eilers, M and Opefi, CA and Ziliox, M and Hirshfeld, A and Zaitseva, E and Vogel, R and Sheves, M and Reeves, PJ and Smith, SO (2016) 'Retinal orientation and interactions in rhodopsin reveal a two-stage trigger mechanism for activation.' Nature Communications, 7. ISSN 2041-1723 https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms12683