BSc Biochemistry (University of Bristol, 1993)
PhD Biochemistry (University of Bristol, 1997)
After my undergraduate degree in Biochemistry, I stayed in Bristol to do a PhD on the molecular chaperones GroEL and GroES. Together these proteins constitute an essential 1MDa, ATP-hydrolysing molecular machine that is required for the correct folding and assembly of many E. coli proteins. Working with Professor Tony Clarke and colleagues, I worked on the mechanistic enzymology of both the ATPase and protein folding activities.
I then crossed trained into cryo-EM with Professor Helen Saibil FRS, at Birkbeck College London. I again worked on GroEL and GroES, but now looking at how large structural changes are induced by ATP binding and how this conformation change is linked to GroEL's protein folding activity.
I came to Leeds in October 2002 as an independent "University Research Fellow" and have been here ever since, as a Lecturer (2008) and Associate Professor (2012). My research interests are pretty broad - but all centred around macromolecular structure and CryoEM, two subjects that I'm perennially fascinated by. I am currently Professor of Structural Molecular Biology here at the University. I'm Academic Director for the world-class ABSL cryoEM Facility here in Leeds, and as of March 2021, I'm also Director of the Astbury Centre for Structural Biology.