Dr Alex Taylor is a Sir Henry Dale Fellow and proleptic Lecturer in Chemical Biology in the Department of Chemistry at King’s College London. Alex is a graduate of Imperial College (BSc, ARCS 1999) and KCL (MSc 2003, PhD 2007), where, in the Randall Centre for Cell & Molecular Biophysics, he studied the evolution of antibodies and their immune receptors.

Following the DNA path linking KCL and Cambridge, Alex joined Philipp Holliger’s lab at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in 2010, using synthetic biology to explore the possibility of chemical alternatives to Crick’s “secret of life”. Their work was the first to show that heredity, evolution and enzymatic activity – arguably the hallmarks of life – can be performed by a range of synthetic polymers beyond DNA: “Xeno-Nucleic Acids” (XNAs).

Alex’s research has profound implications for the origin of life, astrobiology, the prospects of artificial life and biotechnologies based on alternative biochemistry. His work has been published in Science, Nature, Nature Chemistry, Angewandte Chemie and others, and was featured as a Scientific American “world changing idea”.

In 2020, Alex was awarded a prestigious Wellcome Trust and Royal Society Sir Henry Dale Fellowship to start his own lab at the University of Cambridge, and has returned to KCL in 2024 to explore the potential of XNA-based tools and technologies in research and medicine.

Research Interests

• Modified DNA and RNA, Synthetic genetic polymers, Xeno-Nucleic Acids (XNAs)
• Nucleic acid tools and technologies, Therapeutic nucleic acids
• Cell-free directed evolution
• Immunomodulation, molecular medicine

Teaching

• General Chemistry
• UG Research Methods Literature Review
• MSci Research Project & Dissertation
• MRes Research Project in Interdisciplinary Chemistry

Research profile

For more information on Dr Taylor's research please see his Research Portal page

The Taylor Group

Research Associates:

• Maria Donde

PhD students:

• Alicia Montulet

In nature, heredity and evolution are enabled by DNA, RNA and proteins. Synthetic biology now allows us, at least in the test-tube, to engineer systems based on artificial genetic polymers with expanded physicochemical properties.

Although nucleic acids are a staple of the biotechnologist’s toolbox, many potential applications in the clinic remain unrealised. DNA and RNA combine an unparalleled capacity for information storage with the ability (when single-stranded) to self-assemble into sophisticated 3D structures capable of biochemical functions, including catalysts (“(deoxy)ribozymes”), chemical antibodies with remarkable affinity and specificity for target molecules (“aptamers”), and self-assembling nanostructures. However, among other limitations, natural backbones are rapidly degraded by nucleases, and can trigger immune mechanisms.

The Taylor lab uses a combination of design and artificial Darwinian selection to engineer functional “Xeno-Nucleic Acid” catalysts (“XNAzymes”) and aptamers, in which the nucleic acid backbone, sugar or base is modified or entirely replaced. The lab is exploring routes to improved oligonucleotide technologies for diagnostic and therapeutic applications, whilst addressing the fundamental question, what if evolution were given a more diverse chemical palette?