Research Interests

My research interests lie in elucidating the mechanistic functional details of transmembrane and membrane-associated proteins, that do important jobs in the cell, both in health and disease. To date I have predominantly focused on membrane transporter proteins of the ABC superfamily (ATP Binding Cassette), and proteins involved in cellular trafficking, but recently I have expanded this to include secondary active transporters, ion channels and GPCRs (G-protein coupled receptors). By fully understanding exactly how a protein works, we can begin to understand how it goes wrong in disease states and how we might be able to target it therapeutically. To carry out this work I am really keen to develop new methods and techniques that enable us to answer important questions about the target protein, and as such have played a major role in developing the SMALP (styrene maleic acid lipid particle) technology for membrane protein extraction, purification, structural and functional characterization. This approach is now taking off around the world and has led to numerous new collaborations both within academia and industry.