For forty years, SCI has supported and recognised the excellence of early career scientists, by aiding their studies in the form of an SCI Scholarship.
Since 1985 more than 80 scholarships have been awarded which have not only given the recipients financial assistance, but have enabled them to broaden their network, and strengthen their skills and knowledge. SCI Scholars receive access to publishing and mentoring opportunities and are given a platform to present their work amongst esteemed scientists and industrialists, raising their profile within the scientific community.
Emilia Taylor was awarded an SCI Scholarship in 2025. At the end of their first year, SCI Scholars present a report to SCI. Read on to find out what she has done in her first year as an SCI Scholar.
The placement
"The Bogyo lab at Stanford is internationally recognised for activity-based protein profiling and for developing covalent inhibitors targeting serine proteases, expertise directly complementary to my DPhil work. Over approximately 4 months, I conducted a comprehensive degrader discovery campaign targeting YjfP, a serine hydrolase implicated in K. pneumoniae virulence. The Bogyo group's existing panel of YjfP inhibitors provided ready-made warheads, making this an ideal model system for evaluating cyclic peptide-based BacPROTACs.
What I did
"I designed and synthesised a library of 21 cyclic peptides containing non-natural amino acids by solid-phase peptide synthesis, then assembled a 36-compound BacPROTAC library by conjugating 13 purified cyclic peptides to three YjfP inhibitor warheads via oxime ligation. I screened this library in a DegP/YjfP in vitro degradation assay alongside linear FA/FI/FL control peptides and conducted parallel protease activation and inhibition assays to elucidate the mechanism.
Key findings
- YjfP is efficiently degraded by DegP but not ClpXP, establishing DegP as the relevant proteolytic system for periplasmic targets
- Several cyclic peptide-based BacPROTACs showed enhanced YjfP degradation
- The cyclic peptide moiety alone induced the largest degradation effect, suggesting a molecular glue-like mechanism rather than strictly bifunctional activity, an unexpected and interesting finding
- YjfP inhibitors appeared to stabilise the protein against DegP degradation, informing how warheads should be selected and linked in future designs
- The 36-compound library represents the first systematic SAR dataset for cyclic peptide-based DegP recruiters
Impact and next steps
"The placement delivered a complete end-to-end degrader campaign, from peptide synthesis through in vitro screening, generating a dataset that directly advances my DPhil and informs a planned publication on periplasmic TPD. The methodological toolkit developed (oxime ligation assembly, crude CuAAC screening, non-natural amino acid synthesis) integrates directly into the Oxford programme. The immediate next steps are to evaluate the dose–response of purified hit compounds and to translate them into cellular E. coli models.
Acknowledgements
"I am grateful to the Society of Chemical Industry for the scholarship award that made this placement possible, to Professor Bogyo and the Bogyo group for their generous hospitality and scientific mentorship, and to Professor Lanyon-Hogg and Dr Isom for their continued guidance."
Emilia Taylor, University of Oxford
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