Mr Daniel Fenton

Research

Cell Permeable Peptides (CPPs) are short amino acid sequences that can translocate organic membranes, often used to deliver additional 'cargo' material (ie. enzymes, transcription factors, oligonucleotides, etc) into cellular systems. There are a wide variety of CPPs, each of which have different methods of membrane-permeation, and can carry different types and sizes of cargo into different regions of a system. As such, CPP research is a wide and varied field, limited only by the range of available cargo.

My history with CPP research has thus far focused on the CPP Cupid, and its possible uses as a means of delivering foreign proteins into Arabidopsis thaliana.

Growth Project

As CPPs are capable of facilitating their own entry into a cell outside of the usual uptake parameters, their presence within a growth solution is an effective means of squewing the uptake equilibrium; as CPPs are composed of amino acids, they could easily be classed as nutritional themselves, in effect increasing the maximum nutritional uptake of a cell. In addition, many organisms (such as plants) have periods of zero uptake, in which CPPs may be one of the few methods of nutrient delivery.

In addition to this rather secondary usage, CPPs are more often used to deliver cargo in order to cause an affect. When the goal becomes the enhanced growth rate, survivability and vigor of an organism, there are a wide range of potential cargos that could be chosen to provide a separate and targeted boost, customised to cater to the organism's stage of life, environment, or even the production of secondary metabolites. 

It should be noted at this time that, due to the nature of the protein life-cycle within most organisms, CPPs have a limited duration within a living system. While this does not mean that any effects caused by the introduction of a CPP are temporary, it does notably separate CPP-related manipulations from the more invasive and perminant DNA-related GMO techniques.

Collaborations

Aberystywth University:
-Dr Dylan Phillips
-Prof Huw Jones
-Dr Anne Maddison

Cupid Peptides:
-Dr Jonny Ryves

Swansea University:
-Dr Christopher George