Projects per year
Personal profile
Biography
We are always looking for candidates to join our group for PhD or Postdoctoral work. Please contact Amit Sachdeva (a.sachdeva@uea.ac.uk) directly to express your interest.
PhD studentship opportunity: We currently have one fully funded PhD studentship available in our group. If you are interested in this position, please read more- Development of ultrafast and highly sensitive diagnostics for airborne viral infections (SACHDEVA_U23DTP) (uea.ac.uk)
Amit Sachdeva is the Director of Postgraduate Research in Chemistry at UEA. His research interests are in the area of Chemical Biology and Synthetic Biology. Amit completed his PhD from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he was involved in identification of DNA-based enzymes with potential for biomedical and diagnostic applications. He then moved to Cambridge for postdoctoral work at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology. Here, he was involved in developing methods to enable synthesis of proteins containing multiple non-natural amino acids in live cells.
At the University of East Anglia, Amit’s research group is interested in developing novel therapeutics and diagnostics. His group has developed light-activated antibodies. These antibodies bind to cell surface receptors on live cancer cells only upon irradiation with light of a specific wavelength. More recently, his group has developed one of the first photoactive photoreactive protein. His research group is also focusing its efforts on developing methods to genetically encode new unnatural amino acids that would provide access to several medically important proteins.
Selected publications
Bridge, U. Wegmann, K. Orman, S. A. Shaikh, J. Crack, W. Farndon & A. Sachdeva* (2022).
Site-specific encoding of photoactivity and photoreactivity into antibody fragments. Nature Chemical Biology, Accepted for Publication (Pending Editorial Review).
Sachdeva & T. Bridge (2020)
Photoactive antibodies - Patent WO-2020193981-A1 - PubChem (nih.gov)
Cheng, E. Kuru, A. Sachdeva & M. Vendrell (2020)
Fluorescent amino acids as versatile building blocks for chemical biology.
Nature Reviews Chemistry, 4, 275.
T. Bridge, S.A. Shaikh, P. Thomas, J. Botta, P.J. McCormick & A. Sachdeva (2019)
Site‐Specific Encoding of Photoactivity in Antibodies Enables Light‐Mediated Antibody–Antigen Binding on Live Cells.
Angewandte Chemie Int. Ed., 58,17986.
D.T. Rogerson, A. Sachdeva, K. Wang, T. Haq, A. Kazlauskaite, S.M. Hancock, N. Huguenin-Dezot, M.M.K. Muqit, A.M. Fry, R. Bayliss and and J.W. Chin. (2015)
Efficient genetic encoding of phosphoserine and its non-hydrolyzable analog.
Nature Chemical Biology, 11, 496-503.
A. Sachdeva, K. Wang, T.S. Elliott and and J.W. Chin. (2014)
Concerted, rapid, quantitative and site-specific dual labeling of protein.
Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS), 2014, 136, 7785-7788.
K. Wang*, A. Sachdeva*, D.J. Cox, N.W. Wilf, K. Lang, S. Wallace R.A. Mehl and J.W. Chin. (2014)
Optimized orthogonal translation of unnatural amino acids enables spontaneous protein double labelling and FRET.
Nature Chemistry, 2014, 6, 393-403. (*=equal contributions)
Key Research Interests
Nature elegantly orchestrates complex chemical and physical transformations to accomplish functions as diverse as transmitting information across generations to harvesting energy from sunlight. These natural processes are achieved by the limited chemical functionality available to biology. Expanding the repertoire of chemical functional groups available to biology can lead to development of new biological systems with potential applications in biotechnology, biofuels and medicine. The focus of our current research work is in developing methods to enable genetic incorporation of structurally diverse non-natural amino acids into proteins and also, to employ these non-natural amino acids to create novel proteins that can be used in medicine.
If you are interested in a postdoctoral position in our laboratory, please email me directly. We are very interested in potential postdocs with a strong background in cell biology, synthetic biology or chemical biology. Applicants are encouraged to look for funding sources, including Wellcome Trust Postdoctoral Fellowship, Marie Curie Fellowships, Newton Fellowship.
Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals
In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):
Network
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Better by Design: Chemically Diverse Biomolecular Wires
Butt, J., Clarke, T., Meech, S. & Sachdeva, A.
15/03/21 → 14/12/24
Project: Research
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Fluorescent switches for direct ultrafast detection of SARS-CoV-2
1/04/23 → 31/03/24
Project: Research
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Gas chromatography-mass-spectrometry and fluorescence facilities
Lettice, F., Fielden, J., Marin, M. J., Munoz-Herranz, M. P., Sachdeva, A., Storr, T., Waller, Z., Wildgoose, G. & Wright, J.
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
1/10/18 → 31/03/20
Project: Research
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Genetic encoding of Post-translational modifications
Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council
15/01/18 → 14/01/21
Project: Research
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Fluorescent amino acids as versatile building blocks for chemical biology
Cheng, Z., Kuru, E., Sachdeva, A. & Vendrell, M., 1 Jun 2020, In: Nature Reviews Chemistry. 4, p. 275-290 16 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Review article › peer-review
Open AccessFile68 Citations (Scopus)45 Downloads (Pure) -
Site‐specific encoding of photoactivity in antibodies enables light‐mediated antibody‐antigen binding on live cells
Bridge, T., Shaikh, S. A., Thomas, P., Botta, J., McCormick, P. J. & Sachdeva, A., 9 Dec 2019, In: Angewandte Chemie. 58, 50, p. 17986-17993 7 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile22 Citations (Scopus)46 Downloads (Pure) -
Efficient genetic encoding of phosphoserine and its non-hydrolyzable analog
Rogerson, D. T., Sachdeva, A., Wang, K., Haq, T., Kazlauskaite, A., Hancock, S. M., Hugenin-Dezot, N., Muqit, M. M. K., Fry, A. M., Bayliss, R. & Chin, J. W., 1 Jun 2015, In: Nature Chemical Biology. 11, 7, p. 496–503 8 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
149 Citations (Scopus) -
Concerted, Rapid, Quantitative, and Site-Specific Dual Labeling of Proteins
Sachdeva, A., Wang, K., Elliott, T. & Chin, J. W., 4 Jun 2014, In: Journal of the American Chemical Society. 136, 22, p. 7785-7788Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
118 Citations (Scopus) -
DNA-Catalyzed Lysine Side Chain Modification
Brandsen, B. M., Velez, T. E., Sachdeva, A., Ibrahim, N. A. & Silverman, S. K., 18 Aug 2014, In: Angewandte Chemie International Edition. 53, 34, p. 9045-9050Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
17 Citations (Scopus)