Institute for Structural and Chemical Biology
People
All our research is driven by people. Our academics lead research groups with postdocs, PhD students and technical staff, often in collaboration with each other and other colleagues. Our facility managers provide technical expertise and are outstanding scientists in their own right.
See our Management and Advisory BoardInstitute Director
Professor John Schwabe
- Professor of Structural Biology
- Structural Biology: NMR Spectroscopy and X-ray Crystallography
- Molecular mechanisms of the regulation of gene expression
- Nuclear receptors and their role in metabolism, development and disease
Institute Deputy Director
Professor Andrew Hudson
- Professor of Biophysical Chemistry
- Specialises in applying optical methods including optical tweezing molecular spectroscopy and microscopy (and combinations of these) to address problems at the life science interface
Institute Manager
Dr Tennie Videler
Academics
Philip Ash
Research group
- Metalloenzyme mechanism with sub-turnover frequency time resolution
Nick Brindle
Research Group:
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Directed evolution to understand protein function, robustness, and evolvability.
Steve Bull
Synthetic methodologies for functional molecules with interesting physical and biological properties
Learn more about Steve Bull
Amanda Chaplin
Research groupCyril Dominguez
Richard Doveston
Research groupIan Eperon
Research groupBibek Gooptu
Research groupGareth Hall
Research group
- Structure-based drug discovery
James Hodgkinson
Research groupRichard Hopkinson
Research group
- Understanding the functional role of formaldehyde in health and disease
Andrew Hudson
Abhinav Koyamangalath Vadakkepat
Research Group: Structural biology of cell wall integrated nanomachines
Hanna Kwon
Research group
- Metalloenzyme mechanisms
Our research focuses on understanding how proteins that depend on metal cofactors, particularly heme, carry out and regulate essential biological processes. Heme is an essential cofactor in a wide range of enzymes that catalyse redox reactions, including oxygen activation and electron transfer. It also serves regulatory roles in proteins that sense and respond to environmental or metabolic changes. The ability of proteins to bind, position, and utilise heme precisely is one of the ways to maintain functional cellular systems.
A central aim of our work is to uncover the structural and mechanistic principles that govern both heme-dependent enzymatic activity and the controlled binding and delivery of heme. We focus on characterising both metalloenzymes and heme-binding proteins involved in dynamic, tightly regulated processes.
To do this, we use an integrated structural biology approach, combining X-ray and neutron crystallography, electron microscopy, and X-ray free-electron lasers to determine atomic-level structures and explore conformational changes.
We are particularly interested in heme enzymes that form transient catalytic intermediates as part of their reaction cycles. Using time-resolved crystallography, we capture these short-lived species to understand the sequence of structural and electronic changes that underpin their activity.
Alongside this, we study proteins that participate in the cellular handling and distribution of heme, which are critical for ensuring that newly synthesised or recycled heme is delivered safely and efficiently to target sites. These systems are essential for preserving heme and iron homeostasis, and their dysregulation is linked to stress responses and disease.
Through this combination of high-resolution structural analysis and mechanistic investigation, our goal is to build a dynamic picture of how heme-dependent proteins function—from cofactor binding to biological output.
Learn more about Hanna KwonYolanda Markaki
Research groupPeter Moody
Research groupHelen O'Hare
Research group
- Molecular mechanisms of sensory perception and metabolic regulation in bacteria
Daniel Panne
Research group
- Structural biology of signal transduction and epigenetic gene regulation
Patricia Rodriguez Macia
Biocatalysis to learn from and mimic nature at the intersection of chemistry, biology and materials science
Learn more about Patricia Rodriguez Macia
Thomas Schalch
Research groupRalf Schmid
Research groupJohn Schwabe
Research group
- Structural biology of transcriptional repression complexes
Rama Suntharalingam
Research group
- Metallopharmaceuticals for the treatment of cancer
Geerten W Vuister
Research group
- Structural biology of Ca2+-transport regulation complexes
Facility managers
Dr Jaswir Basran
Biophysical characterisationDr Fred Muskett
Biological NMRDr Emma Hesketh
CryoEM Facility ManagerDr TJ Ragan
Research Computing Officer
TJ is the Scientific Computation Officer at the Institute of Structural and Chemical Biology.
Previous to this role he was a postdoctoral scientist at Leicester University and before that at NIMR in Mill Hill. His scientific interests are protein NMR protein structure calculations and single particle cryo-EM.
Honorary members
Some of our past principal investigators remain affiliated to the Institute for Structural and Chemical Biology as honorary members.
Ivan Campeotto
Research group
- Structural studies of key regulators of malaria and trypanosomal infections
Mark Carr
Research groupAlfredo De Biasio
Research group
- Molecular architecture and function of DNA replication and repair machines
Joanna Fox
Research group
- Regulation and molecular architecture of apoptotic protein complexes
Pietro Roversi
Research group
- ERQC/ERAD modulation for broad-spectrum glycoprotein secretion-rescue in rare disease
Russell Wallis
Postdoctoral researchers
Beatriz Romartinez Alonso
Beatriz Romartinez Alonso is part of the group of John Schwabe.
Robert Turnbull
Robert Turnbull is part of the group of John Schwabe.
Chris Millard
Chris Millard is part of the group of John Schwabe