Professor David Lawson
Senior ScientistDavid manages ourĀ Structural Biology platform
Proteins are at the heart of all biological processes and being able to see the fine details of their structures can be extremely informative. Structural Biology techniques enable us to determine how proteins interact with each other and other molecules (e.g. substrates, drugs or DNA), how they undergo conformational changes, and how they are structurally-related to other known proteins.
These observations enhance our understanding of protein function (e.g. in catalysis or gene regulation) and protein evolution, and may assist in the design of novel therapeutic agents that target a particular protein (e.g. in a pathogen), or could inform the rational engineering of an enzyme for a specific purpose.
The Platform uses two main techniques: Protein X-ray Crystallography and cryo-Electron Microscopy. The latter is performed in conjunction with the Bioimaging Platform.