Meeting reports

The conference was held in the Leonardo Royal Brighton Waterfront Hotel on the 27th–29th August 2025, and kindly supported by the Biochemical Society. The event attracted some top names in RNA research, with particular focus on the role of RNA turnover in host-pathogen interactions and RNA therapeutics. Sponsorship for the meeting included the Biochemical Journal, Parse Biosciences, Moderna, the Company of Biologists, the RNA Society, the Microbiology Society, and Brighton and Sussex Medical School, which allowed us to support the travel and registration of three Early Career Researchers, two invited speakers, poster and talk prizes and a networking reception.Talks and posters throughout the meeting covered a broad range of topics, including structural biology of large molecular complexes (e.g., Neils Gehring (Univ. Cologne), James Stowell (MRC LMB)), targeted degradation of viral and cellular RNAs (e.g., Sara Cherry (Penn Medicine), Chad Swanson (Kings College, Univ. London), James Burke (e.g., Scripps Institute, USA)), transcription-associated RNA degradation (Lidia Vasilieva (Univ. Oxford)), stress-associated RNA degradation (e.g., Manolis Maragkakis (NIH), Ben Towler (Univ. Sussex, UK)), RNA degradation in development and disease (e.g., Marina Chekulaeva (Univ. Berlin)) and RNA modification in therapeutics (Josh Zimmer (Moderna)).The meeting also hosted the Colworth medal award lecture by Alex Borodavka (Univ. Cambridge) with an inspirational talk on RNA-controlled self-assembly of multi-segmented viral genomes.Conference included talks on the assembly and function of large molecular machines as well as single cell and single molecule approaches to elucidate new mechanisms underlying RNA stability control. The meeting also provided an opportunity for international researchers at different stages of their careers, across academia and industry, to communicate their unpublished research. A careers panel for students and postdocs provided insights and connections for the junior members of the field on academic, industry and off-the-bench career pathways. Feedback from the meeting was excellent, with participants particularly praising the quality of the speakers and the interest of the science. While attendance was lower than expected due to recent changes in the US science funding landscape, smaller numbers made for more in-depth discussions and engagement during Q&As and networking time. The venue of the meeting, overlooking Brighton beach, was appreciated, with one participant remarking it was “an excellent meeting in a wonderful location”. We expect to hold a similar international RNA turnover meeting in two years time.This year’s twoday Synthetic Biology UK 2025 conference, held in London, marked the 10th anniversary of the UK’s leading synthetic and engineering biology conference series. To celebrate this milestone, we invited keynote speaker Karen Pollizzi (Imperial College London) to reflect on a decade of progress and the next ten years of innovation. Sessions across the 2 days demonstrated the huge diversity of synthetic and engineering biology being undertaken nationally and internationally, covering cell-free systems, modelling and control, health and therapeutics, sustainability, and future manufacturing. This first day was topped off with a lively and provocative panel session on the policy and innovation landscape for the field, with panellists from the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, Innovate UK, UCL, and Imperial College London. Poster sessions showcased the vibrancy and diversity of the community, with prizes awarded for outstanding contributions, while an Early Career panel session explored challenges and opportunities for the next generation of researchers. The conference closed with talks from both government and academia highlighting the amazing developments being made and the support from government to enable this in the future. The event underscored the importance of collaboration and diversity across academia, industry, and policy to ensure responsible innovation. We gratefully acknowledge the Biochemical Society’s support in making this milestone meeting possible and fostering a thriving UK synthetic biology community.We had a lively and interactive 2-day training workshop in Birmingham, UK, where over 60 researchers from as far as Saudi Arabia, USA, Canada, Spain and Italy gathered to explore the challenges and opportunities in recombinant protein engineering for structural and functional studies. Supported throughout by the Biochemical Society, from planning right through to delivery, the event ran smoothly and offered a rich mix of new research, practical tips and collaborative discussion.Key themes included advances in protein design, with Dan Rigden and Chris Cooper showcasing tools such as AlphaFold, RFdiffusion and proteinMPNN. Nicola Burgess-Brown shared expert insights into expression strategies, while Ellie Williams brought interactive energy through choose-your-own-adventure activities that helped delegates think critically about expression and purification choices. Abstract talks from Adedotun Adefolalu and Suman Mandal highlighted exciting work on proline catabolism and horseradish peroxidase engineering.Day two focused on purification and protein quality, featuring clear purification guidance from Cytiva’s John Hinks, practical “tips and tricks” for biophysical assays and design of experiments from Elliott Stollar, and a compelling case for mass spectrometry from Rod Chalk. Case studies from Ellie Williams, Rivka Isaacson and Chris Cooper demonstrated how these approaches translate into real research challenges, from rare-disease therapeutics to construct optimisation.Round-table discussions helped consolidate the key takeaways: smarter experimental design, informed method selection, and the power of integrating bioinformatics, expression, purification and biophysics. Poster prizes were awarded to Clare Mcfall from University of Oxford and Shashwati Nanda from University of Edinburgh.Thanks again to the Biochemical Society for their invaluable support—delegates left inspired and ready to apply their new knowledge.