The RSC Biotechnology Group Committee has named Dr Matt Jenner as winner of the 2024 RSC Felix Franks Biotechnology MedalLink opens in a new window.

Matt Jenner receives the award for his internationally leading research into the discovery and biosynthesis of natural products through application of innovative mass spectrometry-based approaches.

Matt’s outstanding contribution to the field of natural products has combined his expertise in cutting-edge mass spectrometry techniques with challenging biosynthetic questions to provide unique insights and methods for studying complex natural product assembly lines. His work highlights the immense value of interdisciplinary science, which is underscored by the numerous fruitful collaborations he has established in his career to date.

His work has challenged previous ‘traditional’ methods for studying polyketide and nonribosomal peptide natural product assembly lines, allowing rapid interrogation of these complex systems. The application of techniques such as intact protein mass spectrometry to monitor the location of biosynthetic intermediates (often conducted using radioactivity assays), and carbene footprinting to map transient protein-protein interactions in natural product assembly lines (otherwise requiring crosslinked crystal structures), have provided unparalleled insights into extremely challenging biosynthetic systems. These mass spectrometry-based approaches are now being employed by other researchers in the field, recognising their value over more traditional approaches. Furthermore, the discoveries that Matt has made using these methods have set the stage for a wealth of bioengineering endeavours to generate novel analogues of natural product scaffolds, an area he is now actively pursuing.

Read more about this prize and the full story on the RSC Biotechnology Group Awards websiteLink opens in a new window