Professor Richard Pickersgill
Professor of Structural Biology
- Room: G.09, Joseph Priestley building
- Telephone: +44 (0)20 7882 8444
- Email: r.w.pickersgill("at" sign)qmul.ac.uk
Research interests:
Our major research programme addresses the structure and activity of proteins. We combine the ideas and methods of molecular, mechanistic, and structural biology to elucidate the molecular basis of protein activity. Our principal structural method is protein crystallography. We also use DNA cloning and protein over-expression to produce proteins; and directed mutagenesis, spectroscopy and thermodynamic measurements to understand the biological and chemical significance of our structural results.
Current major research themes include: understanding the specificity and mechanism of enzymes; and structural studies of proteins from the human pathogen Shigella flexneri.
In the first research theme we are elucidating structure, mechanism, specificity and evolution in the following enzymes: the remarkable pectin lyase superfamily (the b -helix enzymes and also the type II secretion system that secretes these exo-proteins); the diverse cupin superfamily (germin/oxalate oxidase the superfamily archetype and the related protein ABP1); and selected enzymes from the most complex biosynthetic pathway, that of cobalamin biosynthesis (methyltransferases, chelatases, and cobalt reductase).
In the research second theme we are working to elucidate the molecular basis of Shigella flexneri infection by producing individual proteins and protein effectors in complex with their chaperones and with their cognate human receptors.
Research group
Postgraduate supervision:
Ali, Salya; s.s.ali ("at" sign) qmul.ac.uk;
Gu, Shuang; s.gu ("at" sign) qmul.ac.uk;
Pang, Allan; a.pang ("at" sign) qmul.ac.uk;
Rehman, Saima; Saima.rehman ("at" sign) qmul.ac.uk;
Tashiro-Thatcher, Yumiko; y.tashiro-thatcher ("at" sign) qmul.ac.uk;