Liliana Jeziorska-Clifford

PIPS Host Organisation: Syngenta UK, Jealott’s Hill International Research Centre

PIPS Project Title: An in vivo nanobody feeding technology to C. elegans intestine as a measure of the pharmacokinetic testing of nanobody stability in the gut

During her placement, Liliana wanted to characterise the the CRISPR/Cas9 engineered strains, which she had previously generated at the University. At Syngenta, Liliana learnt confocal imagining and using it, she confirmed that the engineered strains express the ALFA tag epitope in the gut. She tested the pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic properties of nanobodies conjugated to a fluorophore and the fluorophore on its own harbouring the feeding mechanism. Liliana fed nanobodies to C. elegans recombined strains and observed whether these ingested nanobodies would bind to the exposed gut epitopes. Additionally, she wanted to confirm the ALFA tag expression using a different biochemical approach – Western Blots. In summary, Liliana has learnt not only how to use confocal microscope, but she designed feeding assays to test the pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic properties of nanobodies delivered to C. elegans intestine in vivo.

Liliana has learnt the aforementioned techniques, but also developed soft skills and knowledge of the general organisation. She developed her understanding of conducting research to meet industrial needs and she got to experience a different research environment. She attended meetings and presented her research at the end of the internship to the Invertebrate Genetics Group. She worked on networking within the group and in between different labs.

Syngenta rated her placement as “excellent” and were keen to host more placements in the future.