The Radford Research Group

Group Leader - Prof. Sheena E. Radford, FMedSci FRSC
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.

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

Current Group Members

Eva Petrik Eva has just completed the final year of our Wellcome Trust 4-year PhD programme, having joined the scheme from Hungary in 2006. She is investigating the mechanism of light chain amyloidosis using the incorporation of non-natural amino acids to unpick the mechanism of amyloid formation.
Lucy Woods Lucy is a graduate in Chemistry from the University of Leeds. She is currently funded by the BBSRC and is in the final year of her PhD where she is working on a project to develop mass spectrometry methods to investigate protein-protein interactions in amyloidosis. She is jointly supervised with Prof Alison Ashcroft.
Dr Karine Deville Karine completed her PhD as part of our Wellcome Trust 4-year PhD programme in 2010. Jointly supervised by Steve Baldwin, and in collaboration with Ian Collinson (Bristol), she is now working as a BBSRC-funded postdoc using single-molecule methods to examine dynamics during SecYEG function in membrane protein translocation.
Dr Clare Pashley Clare was a BBSRC-funded DTG student who joined the group in 2007 from the University of York. For her PhD she used NMR and other methods to elucidate the structural properties of unfolded proteins. She is now working as a postdoc in the group, funded by the Wellcome Trust, where she is using NMR methods to elucidate the molecular mechanisms of protein misfolding and aggregation.
Aneika Leney Funded on a BBSRC CASE award (jointly with Dr Alison Ashcroft) with Waters Corporation. Aneika's project concerns pilus formation mechanisms in pathogenic E.coli. She joined the group in 2008 having graduated in Biochemistry from the University of York.
Dr Bethny Morrissey Bethney joined the group in 2009 on a project in collaboration with Alison Ashcroft and Gabriel Waksman (Birkbeck College, London) that focusses on the use of mass spectrometry to decipher the mechanism of pilus formation. Bethney completed her PhD in the University of Sydney, Australia and is funded by the BBSRC.
Alessandro Sicorello Alessandro came to Leeds from Florence in 2008 to join the Wellcome 4-year PhD scheme. He is using NMR and other methods to elucidate how ataxin 3 self-assembles into amyloid.
Christopher Wilson Chris joined the group in 2009 funded by BBSRC. Working in Dr David Brockwell's group (co-supervised by Prof Radford) he is investigating how force is used to unfold proteins, including those that are aggregation prone.
Lindsay McMorran Lindsay joined the group in 2009, having completed her BA in Chemistry in Cambridge, Lindsay joined the group to investigate the mechanism of membrane protein folding. She is jointly supervised with Dr David Brockwell.
Dr Maya Pandya Maya joined us in 2010 funded by the Wellcome Trust. She is working on a project to investigate the role of glycosamino glycans in modulating the structural mechanism of amyloid assembly of A-beta and amylin. The project is joint with solid-state NMR studies in David Middleton's laboratory at the University of Liverpool.
Dr Oliver Farrance Oliver graduated with a PhD in Physics from the University of Sheffield. Funded as part of a large BBSRC-funded LoLa award with Prof Colin Kleanthous (York), Oliver joined the group in 2009 where he is using force spectroscopy to determine how colicins intoxicate cells. He is jointly supervised with Dr David Brockwell.
Dr Tania Sheynis Tania came to Leeds in 2010 visiting from Ben-Gurion University, Israel. She is studying amyloid fibril-lipid interactions, having brought her expertise in lipid biophysics from her research with Raz Jelinek. She was awarded a Marie Curie Fellowship in 2011 to continue her work on fibril-lipid interactions.
Dr Claire Sarell Clare joined the group in 2010 having completed her PhD in London. She brings expertise in Abeta polymerisation to the group. She is working on a joint project with Prof Peter Stockley funded by the MRC on a porject which is developing the use of RNA aptamers in amyloid diagnostics and therapeutics.
Toral Jakhria Toral came to Leeds in 2010 after graduating from Birmingham University. Funded by BBSRC, she is undertaking a PhD on the cell biology of amyloid disease in collaboration with Dr Eric Hewitt.
Theo Karamanos Theo is a student on the Wellcome Trust 4-year PhD programme. He joined in 2009 and works on the use of NMR to understand the molecular mechanism of amyloid disease in collaboration with Prof Steve Homans.
Janet Taylor Janet is a BBSRC CASE student partly funded by Avacta. She started in 2010 and works on new ways of stabilising proteins of therapeutic and industrial interest against aggregation.
Nasir Khan Nasir joined the group in 2010 as our lab manager and research technician. He keeps the lab running smoothly and hence is a key member of our research team.
Dr Charlie Scarff Charlie joined the group in 2011 having completed a PhD and postdoc in biological mass spectrometry at the University of Warwick. She is continuing to use state-of-the-art MS methods to characterise amyloid assembly mechanisms. She is funded by BBSRC and jointly supervised with Prof Alison Ashcroft.
Dr Sophie Goodchild Sophie is funded as part of our Wellcoem Trust programme grant on the molecular mechanisms of amyloidoses. She is co-supervised by Dr Eric Hewitt and Prof Steve Homans and is investigating the biochemistry and biophysics of amyloid lipid interactions. She completed her PhD at the Macquarie University, Australia in 2011.
Rachel Mahood Rachel is in the first year of her PhD, funded by BBSRC and co-supervised by Prof Peter Stockley. She completed her BSc in Biochemistry in Leeds in 2011. She is developing the use of RNA aptamers as diagnostic reagents in amyloidosis.
Kevin Tipping Kevin is currently in the second year of our Wellcome Trust 4-year PhD programme. He is co-supervised by Dr Eric Hewitt and is working on the mechanisms by which amyloid fibrils are toxic to cells.
Lydia Young Lydia is also using non-covalent mass spectrometric methods to investigate the mechanisms of amyloid formation. She is funded on a BBSRC CASE award with Waters and is jointly supervised with Prof Alison Ashcroft. She graduated with a BSc in Biochemistry from Leeds in 2011.

Associated with the Group

Dr David Brockwell David is a lecturer in the Faculty of Biological Sciences and a member of the Astbury Centre. More information can be found at http://www.fbs.leeds.ac.uk/staff/Brockwell_DJ/

Past Group Members - where are they now?

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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.