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Link Technologies Ltd
Link Technologies was established in the West of Scotland fifteen years ago and has since built an enviable global reputation as a boutiq…
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Coggins, John Richard
Vice Principal for the Faculties of Biomedical and Life Sciences, Clinical Medicine and Veterinary Medicine, University of Glasgow; Professor of Molecular Enzymology, University of Glasgow and former Dean of the Institute of Biomedicine & Life Sciences (IBLS), University of Glasgow.
Professor John Coggins is one of the world's leading authorities on the structure and mechanism of enzymes, particularly biosynthetic enzymes.
As Professor of Molecular Enzymology, Prof Coggins' major research interests lie in the rational design and development of novel anti-microbial and anti-parasitic agents, which has resulted in him working closely with a number of global pharmaceutical and agrochemical companies.
His expertise has been called upon by research and funding councils throughout the UK and he has served on the Department of Trade and Industry's Biotechnology Joint Advisory Board.
He is currently the Vice President of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, a member of the Scottish Science Advisory Committee and Chairman of the UK Heads of Biological Science.
Prof Coggins was also responsible for establishing the first biological spin-out company to emerge from Glasgow University - Biomac - which contributed greatly to the institution's research capabilities.
Prof Coggins has over 30 years experience of structural and mechanistic studies of enzymes and has a special interest in multienzyme complexes and the overall organisation of proteins in the cell.
His pioneering research enabled industry and academia to gain a better understanding of how enzymes are organised at a cellular level and had a major impact on development of herbicides and novel drugs.
Graduating from Oxford University in 1966 with a BA in Chemistry, Prof Coggins obtained a PhD in Biochemistry from Ottawa University, Canada, before spending two years working as a postdoctoral research associate at Brookhaven National Laboratory, New York then accepting a fellowship within the biochemistry department at Cambridge University.
After taking up his first permanent post at Glasgow University in 1974 as a lecturer in biochemistry, Prof Coggins went on to study the bio-synthesis of amino acids and concentrated on the shikimic acid pathway.
Shikimic acid is the key intermediate in the seven step shikimate pathway. This pathway only occurs in plants and microorganisms, which is why it provides an attractive target for the development of herbicides, antiparasitic agents, and antimicrobial drugs.
In groundbreaking research carried out at Glasgow in the 1970s, Prof Coggins was first to characterise all the enzymes of the shikimate pathway. He also showed that in one group of organisms - the fungi - the shikimate pathway enzymes were very highly organised with five occurring as one very large multifunctional protein, whereas in plants and bacteria the enzymes were not organised. This work attracted considerable interest across the world. As a result Prof Coggins undertook several collaborative research projects with ICI Agrochemicals to try to design an alternative to Roundup - a non-selective herbicide which became the first chemical to generate $1 billion in sales, which he had shown was an inhibitor of one of the shikimate pathway enzymes.
He also worked with other companies including Zeneca Pharmaceuticals, GlaxoSmithKline and Aventis trying to develop novel antimicrobial agents and herbicides.
In the 1990s Prof Coggins became involved in several prestigious collaborative projects, one of which saw him team up with PanTherix, a Glasgow-based company attempting to develop novel antimicrobial agents, particularly against drug-resistant microorganisms, and with Dr Craig Roberts of the University of Strathclyde. This collaboration with Strathclyde was very successful and will hopefully lead to novel strategies for treating human parasitic diseases.
Prof Coggins said, "In over 30 years of teaching and conducting research in the West of Scotland I have watched our life science cluster develop into one of the most sizeable in Europe. One of the key reasons for the success and rapid growth of the sector is the high calibre of graduates emerging from our universities, especially Glasgow and Strathclyde."
"Researchers in Scotland work closely together and are quite prepared to learn from one another - this openness and willingness to work in partnership has helped to strengthen the life science sector."
Prof Coggins has long been committed to promoting Scotland's research and development capabilities and as a member of the Scottish Science Advisory Committee has provided advice to the Scottish Executive on how to strengthen science education and encourage more children to take an active interest.
He added, "Children, from a very young age, have an almost unlimited desire to understand the world around them and science makes a major contribution to this. The desire to understand new and exciting phenomena must be harnessed and developed so Scotland has both excellent science graduates to drive our knowledge economy and a more scientifically literate society."
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