Research

Production of novel diagnostics and vaccine candidates using plants and bacteria and nanotechnology

My team have produced new platform technologies which have been exploited in conjunction with partners at the Moredun Research Institute (MRI) to develop next generation vaccines and diagnostic devices against globally important livestock pathogens.

Circular bioeconomy, revalorization of waste streams and development of new biotechnologies

My group has been collaborating with CelluComp, a company which makes nanocellulose from waste vegetable matter. This material has outstanding physical robustness, is chemically stable and can be produced as sheets, gels, slurries and can be woven and molded. Using our technologies we have been ascribing these formulations with different reactivities and functionalities; creating materials which have applications as bioreactors (such as conversion of waste sugars into more rare and valuable sugars), antibacterial coatings, bone repair substrates, chemical catalysts, and alternatives to plastics.

Characterization of virus structures and their utilization in defining spectroscopic methods and developing non-infectious and biosafe scaffolds which are decorated with functional groups.

We have utilized our understanding of virus structure to produce virus coat proteins which can self-assemble into virus-like particles (VLPs) which are non-infectious as they do not contain nucleic acid or genomes. Using these systems we have produced a candidate vaccine against Bovine papillomavirus and have also made many other functional VLPs which can sequester and deposit metals (with potential for producing new metal nanomaterials) and promote bone mineral deposition. We also collaborate with Glasgow University, who are using such virus and VLP structures to elaborate a new highly sensitive spectroscopic method (super chiral plasmonic polarimetry).

Recent funding (last 5 years)

*Principal Investigator or ^Co-Investigator

*Innovate UK: Developing innovative green packing materials (2023- 2025).

^Meat and Livestock Australia (with Moredun Research Institute and other partners): Novel vaccine production (2023- 2027).

^RESAS (Scottish Government programme): Animal disease control (2022- 2027).

*Growth Factors Industry funding (2022-2023).

^Growth Factors Industry funding (2022-2023).

*RESAS (Scottish Government programme): Green Recovery (2021- 2022).

*Innovate UK: New PPE materials (2020- 2021).

*IBioIC: New bioinspired antimicrobial platforms (2019- 2021).

^Genomia Management Ltd: Amelioration of acrylamide formation in potatoes (2019- 2021).

*Genomia Management Ltd: Virus derived surface displayed platforms for vaccine and diagnostics (2017- 2018).

*IBioIC: New bioinspired 3d nanoplatforms for green biocatalysis (2017- 2019).

^EPSRC: Mapping the mesoscale structural landscape using “sculpted” chiral plasmonic fields (2016- 2019).

Publications over the last 5 years (patents not shown)

Taliansky, M., Love, A. J., Kolowerzo-Lubnau, A., Smolinski, D. J. (2023). Cajal bodies: Evolutionarily conserved nuclear biomolecular condensates with properties unique to plants. The Plant Cell 35:3214-3235. DOI:10.1093/plcell/koad140

Love, A. J., Taliansky, M., McGeachy, K., Bukharova, T., Streetley, J., Bhella. D. (2023). 1.85 angstrom resolution cryoEM reconstruction of tobacco mosaic virus, Publication of CryoEM data on EMDB database.

Spechenkova, N., Samarskaya, V. O., Kalinina, N. O., Zavriev, S. K., MacFarlane, S., Love, A. J., Taliansky, M. (2023). Plant poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase 1 is a potential mediator of cross-talk between the Cajal body protein coilin and salicylic acid-mediated antiviral defence. Viruses 15(6), 1282; https://doi.org/10.3390/v15061282

Samarskya, V., Spechenkova, N., Ilina, I., Suprunova, T. P., Kalinina, N. O., Love, A. J., Taliansky, M. E. (2023). A non-canonical pathway induced by externally applied virus-specific dsRNA in potato plants. IJMS 24(21): 15769. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms242115769

Spechenkova, N., Kalinina, N. O., Zavriev, K. S., Love, A. J., Taliansky, M. E. (2023). ADP-Ribosylation and antiviral resistance in plants. Viruses, 15(1):241. DOI:10.3390/v15010241.

Samarskaya, V., Spechenkova, N., Markin, N., Spurnova, T. P., Zavriev, S. K., Love, A. J., Kalinina, N. O., Taliansky, M. E. (2022). Impact of exogenous application of potato virus Y-specific dsRNA on RNA interference, Pattern-Triggered Immunity and Poly(ADP-ribose) metabolism. IJMS 23(14):7915. DOI:10.3390/ijms23147915.

Glushkevich, A., Spechenkova N., Fesenko, I., Knyazev, A., Samarskaya, V., Kalinina, N. O., Taliansky, M. E., Love A. J. (2022). Transcriptomic reprogramming, alternative splicing and RNA methylation in potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) plants in response to potato virus Y
infection. Plants, 11(5):635. DOI:10.3390/plants11050635.

Spechenkova, N., Fesenko, I. A., Mamaeva, A., Suprunova, T. P., Kalinina, N. O., Love, A. J., Taliansky, M. E. (2021). The resistance responses of potato plants to potato virus Y are associated with an increased cellular methionine content and an altered SAM:SAH methylation index., Viruses, 13, Article No. 955. https://doi.org/10.3390/v13060955.

Taliansky, M. E., Samarskaya, V., Zavriev, S. K., Fesenko, I., Kalinina, N. O., Love A. J. (2021). RNA-based technologies for engineering plant virus resistance. Plants 10(1):82. https://doi.org/10.3390/plants10010082.

Fesenko, I., Spechenkova, N., Mamaeva, A., Makhotenko, A. V., Love, A. J., Kalinina, N. O., Taliansky, M. E. (2021). Role of the methionine cycle in the temperature-sensitive responses of potato plants to potato virus Y. Molecular Plant Pathology, 22, 77-91.

Burgess, S. T. G., Nunn, F., Bartley, K., Frew, D., McLean, K., Inglis, N. F., McGeachy, K., Taliansky, M. E., Love, A. J., Nisbet, A. J. (2020). Psoroptes ovis-Early Immunoreactive Protein (Pso-EIP-1) a novel diagnostic antigen for sheep scab. Parasite Immunology, Article No. e12788. Published online.

Kakkar, K., Keijzer, C., Rodier, M., Bukharova, T., Taliansky, M. E., Love, A. J., Milner, J. J., Karimullah, A. S., Barron, L. D., Gadegaard, N., Lapthorn, A. J. Kadodwala, M. (2020) Superchiral near fields detect virus structure. Light: Science and Applications, 9, Article No. 195.

Sinitsyna, O. V., Kalinina, N. O., McGeachy, K., Whale, E., Hepworth, D., Love, A. J., Taliansky, M. E., Yaminsky, I. V. (2020). Interaction between nanocellulose and tobacco mosaic virus-like particles: an atomic force microscopy study. Cellulose, 27: 2381–2387; https://doi.org/10.1007/s10570-020-02978-1.

Mamaeva, A., Taliansky, M. E., Filippova, A., Love, A. J., Golub, N., Fesenko, I. (2020). The role of chloroplast protein remodelling in stress responses and shaping of the plant peptidome. New Phytologist https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.16620.

Kalinina, N. O., Khromov, A., Love, A. J., Taliansky, M. E. (2019). CRISPR applications in plant virology: virus resistance and beyond. Phytopathology. https://doi.org/10.1094/PHYTO-07-19-0267-IA.

Shaw, J., Yu, C., Makhotenko, A. V., Makarova, S. S., Love, A. J., Kalinina, N. O., MacFarlane, S., Chen J., Taliansky, M. E. (2019). Interaction of a plant virus protein with the signature Cajal body protein coilin facilitates salicylic acid‐mediated plant defence responses. New Phytologist. https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.15994.

Sinitsyna, O. V., Makarov, V. V., McGeachy, K., Bukharova, T., Whale, E., Hepworth, D., Yaminsky, I. V., Kalinina, N. O., Taliansky, M. E., Love, A. J. (2019). Virus-like particle facilitated deposition of hydroxyapatite bone mineral on nanocellulose after exposure to phosphate and calcium precursors. IJMS 2019, 20(8), 1814; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms20081814.

Makarova, S., Makhotenko, A., Spechenkova, N., Love, A. J., Kalinina, N. O., Taliansky, M. (2018). Interactive responses of potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) plants to heat stress and infection with potato virus Y. Frontiers in Microbiology, 9, Article No. 2582.

Kalinina, N. O., Makarova, S., Makhotenko, A., Love, A. J., Taliansky, M. (2018). The multiple functions of the nucleolus in plant development, disease and stress responses. Frontiers in Plant Science, 9, Article No. 132.

Taliansky, M. E., Love, A. J. (2018). Propagation and isolation of tobacco mosaic virus that surface displays metal binding and reducing peptides for generation of gold nanoparticles., In: Wege, C. & Lomonossoff, G. (eds.). Virus-Derived Nanoparticles for Advanced Technologies. Methods in Molecular Biology, Volume 1776. Humana Press, New York, pp363-381.

Measures of esteem

  • Honorary Professor at the University of Glasgow (2023- ).
  • Viruses Journal Editor: Special Issue “Plant Viruses: Pirates of Cellular Pathways” (2022- 2023).
  • Convenor/Chair, Association of Applied Biologists (Virology) (2022-).
  • Review Editor for Frontiers in Plant Sciences (2019- ).
  • Scientific Advisory Board member of the Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre (2019- 2023).
  • Current Pharmaceutical Biotechnology Editorial Board member (2018- 2020).
  • Honorary Senior Lecturer at the University of Glasgow (2018- 2023).
  • Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre- grant review committee member (2017- 2023).
  • Association of Applied Biologists (Virology)- committee member (2017- ).
  • Scottish Synthetic Biology- steering group member (2016- 2018).
  • EU COST Action on Molecular Farming (FA0804)- management board member (2012- 2013).
  • Invited peer reviewer of BBSRC and IBioIC research grants and manuscripts for publication (PNAS, Materials, Phytoremediation, Vaccine, Nanoscale, PLoS One, Planta, Virology, Archives of Virology).
  • Inventor on 4 patents and another 2 are pending filing.