Radford Research Group

Group Leader - Prof. Sheena E. Radford, OBE FMedSci FRS
Research Interests: Protein Folding and Misfolding.
BSc in Biochemistry, University of Birmingham; PhD Biochemistry, University of Cambridge; Royal Society University Research Fellow (Protein Folding) in the Oxford Centre for Molecular Sciences; University Lecturer in the School of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, University of Leeds; Reader in Structural Molecular Biology, University of Leeds; Professor of Structural Molecular Biology, University of Leeds.

The laboratory also accommodates the groups of Professor David Brockwell and Dr Anton Calabrese. Their own websites are:
Professor David Brockwell - Astbury Centre website - Faculty of Biological Sciences website
Dr Anton Calabrese - Astbury Centre website - Faculty of Biological Sciences website

Contact details:
Astbury Centre of Structural Molecular Biology, Garstang Building, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT
Tel: 0113 343 3170; FAX: 0113 343 3167;
email: s.e.radford@leeds.ac.uk

Our support team
Helen McAllister Helen is Prof Radford's PA. She organises the group and keeps everything coordinated. She can be contacted on h.mcallister@leeds.ac.uk 0113 343 7036
Nasir Khan Nasir joined the group in 2010 as our lab manager. He keeps the lab running smoothly and hence is a key member of our research team. He has excellent skills in maintaining and developing our excellent equipment base and also works as the facility manager for the CD facility.

The Amyloid Team
The Amyloid Team - Nov 2023
Ms Chloe Atkins Chloe graduated with an MChem from Leeds in October 2022 an is working on a joint project with Prof Andy Wilson in Chemistry. Her project is to develop small molecule inhibitors of amyloid formation and to explore how sequence changes affect amyloid formation using covalent tethering.
Dr Liam Aubrey Dr Liam Aubrey joined the group in February 2022, funded as part of Prof Radford's Royal Society Research Professorship. His project will focus on understanding how dynamic disorder in amyloid fibrils impacts on biology focussing on α-synuclein and Orb2. Liam brings expertise in amyloid structure and biology having completed his PhD in Sheffield and a postdoctoral position with Wei-Feng Xue at the University of Kent.
Ms Taya Bosson Taya graduated in neuroscience from the University of Leeds in 2022 and joined the group in October funded by the White Rose BBSRC DTP. She is co-supervised by Dr Jessica Kwok in the School of Biomedical Sciences and is looking at the mechanism of transmission of misfolded α-synuclein between neurones in Lewy pathology in Parkinsons Disease. This new collaboration brings neuroscience to our amyloid research team.
Dr Pijush Chakraborty Pijush Chakraborty joined our Wellcome funded team working on protein-protein interactions that determine the early phases of amyloid assembly. He completed a PhD and postdoc in biological NMR at the Max-Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences at University of Gottingen. Combining NMR with single-molecule FRET with other biophysical analyses, his project will focus on amyloid formation of alpha-synuclein and IAPP.
Mr Jack Connor Jack joined the group in October 2022 following a BSc in York and a year's research experience at the University of Oxford in the Parkinson's Unit. Jack is co-supervised by Prof David Brockwell and is using screening and deep mutational scanning to understand sequence/aggregation relationships in amyloid formation.
Ms Katy Dewison Funded by the MRC DiMeN Doctoral Training Programme, Katy joined us in November 2020 to investigate protein mis-folding and its toxic consequences by combining biochemistry with experiments in C. elegans. She obtained her Masters at the University of Edinburgh and has a BSc in Molecular Biology. Jointly supervised with Professor David Brockwell, Katy is working on α-synuclein, amylin and β2-microglobulin amyloidoses.
Dr Richard Digby Richard studied Medicine at Cambridge (St. John's College) from 2009-2018, intercalating with a BA in Neuroscience (2012) and a PhD in Neurophysiology (2017), supervised by Professor Ole Paulsen. He is now an NIHR Clinical Lecturer in Diagnostic Neuropathology at Leeds Teaching Hospitals. In our group he is developing electrophysiological and other approaches to assess the pathological impact of different forms of alpha synuclein aggregates, working in collaboration with Jessica Kwok and Philip Quirke.
Ms Maddie Gilbert Maddie is funded by the MRC DiMeN Doctoral Training Programme and is working in collaboration with Dr Rene Frank on an exciting project using cryo electron tomography to examine the effect of amyloid oligomers on synaptic function.
Dr David Hicks David joined the group in January 2023 funded on Prof Radford's Royal Society Professorial Fellowship. David has extensive experience of neurobiology and cell biology and we are excited to build these skills into the team. His project will focus on the mechanism of aggregate uptake into cells and the influence of aggregate structure on cell toxicity.
Dr Jonathan Machin Jonathan gained an MBiochem in Biochemistry at the University of Oxford in 2019. He was funded as a Wellcome Trust PhD student and joined our OMP team to use cryo-EM, molecular dynamics and functional assays to study the role of lipopolysaccahride in OMP structure, folding and assemby. He was jointly supervised by Sheena Radford, Antreas Kalli and Neil Ranson. He gained his PhD in 2023 and is now working on cryoEM of amyloid funded by The Wellcome Trust. He will next continue to work on OMPs and their interaction with membranes as a Researcher-Coinvestigator on an exciting new MRC programme grant jointly with Profs Radford and Ranson.
Dr Alex Taylor Alex joined the group in August 2022 as part of the amyloid team, having completed his PhD on Aβ assembly at the University of Sheffield. Alex is funded by the Wellcome Trust and will use his expertise in biophysics and kinetic modelling to understand how IAPP assembles into amyloid and intervention in this process using small molecules.
Dr Dev Thacker Dev joined the group in January 2023 to join the Wellcome Trust-funded team working on cryo-EM and mechanistic studies of amyloid formation. Dev completed his PhD with Sarah Linse in Lund, Sweden and brings skills in aggregation kinetics and super resolution imaging to the group.
Dr Martin Walko Martin is currently funded as part of our BBSRC sLOLA team led by Prof Andrew Wilson investigating protein-protein interactions in intrinsically disorder proteins. His chemical skills are key to the groups ability to create new cross-linkers, small molecules and peptides. He previously had joined the group in 2017 funded by EPSRC on a project with Prof Andy Wilson (Chemistry), Prof Alison Ashcroft (mass spec) and Dr Eric Hewitt (cell biology) where he synthesised Aβ40/42 containing amino acids modified by cross linkers to determine the structure and toxicity of Aβ aggregation intermediates.
Dr Martin Wilkinson Martin joined the amyloid team in October 2020 having worked previously in structural biology at Imperial College London. He is funded by the Wellcome Trust with Prof Neil Ranson and his project is focussing on using cryo-EM to determine the structure of amyloid fibrils.

The OMP Team
The OMP Team - Nov 2023
Dr Dan Birtles Dan joined our group in August 2024. He joined us after completing his PhD at the University of Maryland, USA and brings experience in membrane protein structure-function having worked on the molecular mechanism of the SARS-CoV-2 fusion domain. He joins Jon Machin funded by a MRC programme grant with Neil Ranson to investigate how the bacterial outer membrane is built.
Ms Isabelle Boon Isabelle joined the lab in October 2021 with a degree in Biochemistry from the University of Leeds. She will be funded by the White Rose BBSRC DTP to work with Profs Radford and Brockwell on the mechanism of OMP folding, particularly on de novo design of trans membrane barrels and their targeting to the outer membrane
Dr Joel Crossley Joel joined us in March 2022 as a postdoc focusing on developing single-molecule fluorescence methodology to investigate the molecular mechanisms which drive protein transport in the ubiquitous Sec translocon. He was funded by BBSRC and worked with Prof David Brockwell, Prof Roman Tuma (University of South Bohemia, Czech Republic) and Prof Ian Collinson (University of Bristol). He is now an independent research fellow in our lab.
Dr Katherine Fenn Katherine joined the OMP team in September 2021 as a postdoc working with Profs Sheena Radford and Neil Ranson funded by the MRC to work on cryo-EM studies of BAM-catalysed outer membrane protein folding. She came to us having completed her PhD from Queen Mary London on membrane proteins involved in pathogenesis and their host-cell interactions. She is now funded as a Researcher-Coinvestigator on a new BBSRC grant with Neil Ranson using cryoEM and other biophysical methods to investigate how OMPs are folded into the bacterial outer membrane.
Dr Annie Herbert Annie joined the group in spring 2024 having done her PhD in Leeds on anti-microbial resistance. She is funded by BBSRC to combine biophysical, biochemical and microbiological experiments to determine how SurA binds its OMP clients and deliver them to BAM for folding. Her project is jointly supervised with Dr Anton Calabrese and Dr Anastasia Zhuravleva.
Ms Vicky Higgins Vicky joined the OMP team in 2024 working as a research assistant. She helps the team by making mutants and producing proteins with her project focussing on protein-protein interactions that determine how OMPs are delivered to, and fold into, the outer membrane of Gram negative pathogens. She is funded a BBSRC grant with Prof Neil Ranson.
Dr Jonathan Machin Jonathan gained an MBiochem in Biochemistry at the University of Oxford in 2019. He was funded as a Wellcome Trust PhD student and joined our OMP team to use cryo-EM, molecular dynamics and functional assays to study the role of lipopolysaccahride in OMP structure, folding and assemby. He was jointly supervised by Sheena Radford, Antreas Kalli and Neil Ranson. He gained his PhD in 2023 and is now working on cryoEM of amyloid funded by The Wellcome Trust. He will next continue to work on OMPs and their interaction with membranes as a Researcher-Coinvestigator on an exciting new MRC programme grant jointly with Profs Radford and Ranson.

The Biologics Team
The Biologics Team - Nov 2023
Mr Miles Deans Miles studied at the University of Oxford, gaining his degree in 2020, before joining us to work on protein aggregation mechanisms with Prof David Brockwell. He brings us skills in bioinformatics and computational biology and will be combining experimental and computational methods to aid the prediction of protein aggregation especially of relevance to biopharma. He is funded by a BBSRC iCASE studentship with AstraZeneca.
Mr Conor McKay Conor joined the lab in October 2021, having obtained a BSc at Sheffield in Biomedical Sciences and an MSc in Experimental Pharmacology and Therapeutics Prediction at UCL. He is funded by a BBSRC CTP with AstraZeneca and is working under the joint supervision of Profs Radford and Brockwell on directed evolution and deep mutational analysis to better understand the rules guiding protein aggregation of amyloidogenic proteins and other proteins of biopharmaceutical interest. His work will combine experimental and prediction studies.
Dr Leon Willis Leon joined the 'Biologics' team in 2014 when he commenced his EPSRC-funded PhD supervised jointly with David Brockwell and Nik Kapur. Leon currently holds an EPSRC doctoral Fellowship and is co-funded by AstraZeneca and UCB. He is continuing his fundamental studies of how and why flow causes proteins to aggregate.

Choose the era that you are interested in:

(people who started in the group between)

We would like to thank the following organisations for the funds to support our research:
BBSRC, MRC, EPSRC, The Royal Society, The Wellcome Trust, and The University of Leeds.

“ Of experiments intended to illustrate a preconceived truth and convince people of its validity: a most venomous thing in the making of sciences; for whoever has fixed on his cause, before he has Experimented, can hardly avoid fitting his Experiment to his cause, rather than the cause to the truth of the Experiment itself. ”

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