Welcome to the Chudasama Group website

Based in University College London, our group is primarily focused on answering important biological questions through the application of Organic Chemistry. We do this by designing and tuning a variety of chemical tools (from chemoselective reagents with orthogonal “click” handles to photoswitchable azobenzenes) for the particular system we are studying.

We also work on novel methodologies based on aerobic C-H activation for the functionalisation of aldehydes and ethers with a plethora of azo-dicarboxylates and various alkenes/alkynes in a controlled manner.

News

05/02/24 Welcome to the lab to Dr Ning Wang as a new post-doc!
08/01/24 Welcome to the lab to Mark, Maggie and Yijia for their Masters projects, Jonathon on his PhD rotation and to Suman as a new post-doc!
18/12/23 Congratulations to Mikesh and Lea on passing their PhD vivas; tremendous efforts by the pair of them!
25/11/22 After having a great time working together for ca. 5 years, it is a bittersweet moment to see Dr Richard Spears leave the lab – best of luck in the new job!
26/09/22 Welcome to new PhD students Charlie and Toby – both working on cutting-edge technologies in the area of protein modification!
20/05/22 Congratulations to Peter the PI on passing his PhD viva with flying colours – what a privilege it has been to work with you
31/03/21 Thank you and all best wishes for the future Fabien – it has been fantastic to host your fellowship at UCL – a real pleasure
28/09/20 Really looking forward to working with new PhD students Lea, Ioanna, Chapman and Mikesh – a strange time to start but confident they will all do great
01/08/20 After 8 years of working together, I am sad (both personally and academically) to no longer be working alongside the fantastic Antoine Maruani BUT I am very happy that he is now setting up his own lab! – he is going to do awesome!
01/04/20 Best of luck to graduating PhD students Andre and Marcos – both fantastic scientists and people
24/09/19 Great to have Nehaal Ahmed start his PhD with us today. Also a nice way to start a new collaboration Prof. Tom Sheppard
29/07/19 Mixed emotions – very proud of Joao on passing his viva today but gutted to see him leave; promise to help as best I can with the next steps
17/01/19 It was an absolute pleasure to give the Judith Howard Lecture at the University of Durham
24/09/18 Welcome to our new PhD student Alex Furby, and Master’s students Isaline Castan, Nehaal Ahmed and Fang Lan
11/09/18 Congratulations to PhD student André Shamsabadi on publishing his latest work in Chemical Communications
07/06/18 Very pleased that Peter Szijj will be joining our group on a Wellcome Trust studentship from September 2018
07/12/17 Very pleased to have published our latest work on point-of-care diagnostics in ACS Nano
06/10/17 Congratulations to Max Lee on obtaining his PhD!! – well deserved, great scientist
25/09/17 Huge welcome to Faiza Javaid who has joined the group on a Wellcome Trust studentship
23/05/17 Congratulations to PhD student André Shamsabadi on being awarded the Tuffnell Prize
06/05/17 Been a real pleasure to share our recent work in Leiden and Boston at ATDC and PEGS Boston
25/03/17 Our key translation works have now been accepted in RSC Advances and OBC – optimised ADCS, in vivo validated
07/12/16 PhD students from the Chudasama Group scoop two 1st prizes at national-level poster competitions in two days
30/11/16 My favourite paper of the year thus far published in my favourite journal (Chemical Science); “springy” PD is here
16/09/16 New papers published in Chemical Science and Oncotarget
08/09/16 Great trip to Lisbon for the 1st ITN workshop
16/08/16 Dual modification leading to applications in photodynamic therapy – published in Photochemical & Photobiological Sciences
15/06/16 Very pleased to have our review on the dual modification of biomolecules accepted in OBC and highlighted as a hot article
22/04/16 Very pleased to have accepted André on a Graduate Research Scholarship, Calise on an EPSRC CASE award with MRCT, Marcos on a DTA Studentship, and João on an ITN grant as PhD students – look forward to working with you all in the near future
01/04/16 Congratulation to Max on winning the Bader Prize and to Antoine on winning another poster prize (!)
21/03/16 Very pleased to have papers accepted in OBC (2) – well done Eifion, a paper in ACS MacroLetters with the Battaglia Research Group, and an article in J Chem Res – well done Max & Antoine
04/01/16 Very pleased to start 2016 with papers accepted in OBC and RSC Advances, and a review published in Nature Chemistry
01/01/16 Welcome to our two new post-docs: Dan and Ben
30/09/15 Welcome to our new group members: Emma (PhD); Ihaab, Noyonika, Calise and André (Masters)
15/09/15 Delighted to see our two-in-one reagent published in Chemical Science – Congratulations Max and Antoine
09/09/15 Fantastic to have the support of UCL through an UCL Excellence Fellowship
25/08/15 Our antibody-based photodynamic therapeutic work has been published in Chemical Communications – Congratulations Antoine
22/06/15 Great to see that our latest Albumin work in OBC – Congratulations Mark, Eifion et al.
 01/06/15 Great to see that our latest ADC work in Chemical Communications – Congratulations João, Mauricio et al.

Highlighted Publications

Macrocyclic Dual-Locked “Turn-On” Drug for Selective and Traceless Release in Cancer Cells – Angewandte Chemie

The Nitrile Bis-Thiol Bioconjugation Reaction – JACS

Use of pyridazinediones for tuneable and reversible covalent cysteine modification applied to peptides, proteins and hydrogels – Chemical Science

Chemical generation of checkpoint inhibitory T cell engagers for the treatment of cancer – Nature Chemistry

Modular Synthesis of Semiconducting Graft Co-polymers to Achieve “clickable” Fluorescent Nanoparticles with Long Circulation and Specific Cancer Targeting – Advanced Materials

Enabling the formation of native mAb, Fab′ and Fc-conjugates using a bis-disulfide bridging reagent to achieve tunable payload-to-antibody ratios (PARs) – Chemical Science

Modular Chemical Construction of IgG-like Mono- and Bispecific Synthetic Antibodies (SynAbs) – ACS Central Science

Functionalisation of ethereal-based saturated heterocycles with concomitant aerobic C–H activation and C–C bond formation – Chemical Science

Employing defined bioconjugates to generate chemically functionalised gold nanoparticles for in vitro diagnostic applications – Nanoscale

Refined construction of antibody-targeted nanoparticles leads to superior antigen binding and enhanced delivery of an entrapped payload to pancreatic cancer cells – Nanoscale

Cysteine-To-Lysine Transfer Antibody Fragment Conjugation – Chemical Science

Post-translational site-selective protein backbone α-deuteration – Nature Chemical Biology

Platinum Nanocatalyst Amplification: Redefining the Gold Standard for Lateral Flow Immunoassays with Ultra-Broad Dynamic Range – ACS Nano

Forming next-generation antibody–nanoparticle conjugates through the oriented installation of non-engineered antibody fragments – Chemical Science

Enabling the controlled assembly of antibody conjugates with a loading of two modules without antibody engineering – Chemical Science

A plug-and-play approach to antibody-based therapeutics via a chemoselective dual click strategy – Nature Communications

Recent advances in the construction of antibody–drug conjugates – Nature Chemistry

Next-generation disulfide stapling: Reduction and functional re-bridging all in one – Chemical Science