Career Path and Research History

During my PhD at Massey University, in New Zealand, I worked in the group of Andrew Sutherland-Smith. I collaborated with Otago medical school, combining clinical work with bone disorder patients and the genetics of the families (from the collaborators), and biochemistry, cell biology and structural biology (from my work). In 2009, after my PhD, I moved to the UK, to Birkbeck, within the group of Christine Slingsby. Here, I used both crystallography and cryo-electron microscopy (CryoEM) methods, to determine the structures of small heat shock proteins. I processed heterogeneous cryoEM datasets using 2D image classification, and performed 3D reconstructions using the IMAGIC-5 software, in a collaboration with Elena Orlova. Following this, I moved to the group of Paula da Fonseca, in the MRC-LMB in Cambridge. Here my aim was to solve the structure of the 26S proteasome by CryoEM. I used the Thermo-Fisher Titan Krios microscope, to collect high-resolution data sets then used advanced image processing methods using the RELION software, in collaboration with Sjors Scheres' group, I was able to solve a number of biologically relevant conformations of the 26S proteasome, with the highest reaching a uniform 4.1A resolution. Following this, I worked as an annotator at the Protein Data Bank in Europe (PDBe.org). In 2018 I moved to University of Wolverhampton to take a post as a biochemistry lecturer.


Research Collaborators

Dr. Christos Savva, Leicester Institute of Structural and Chemical Biology, University of Leicester

Dr. Marta Carroni, SciLifeLab (a joint institute between Stockholm University, Karolinska Institutet, KTH Royal Institute of Technology and Uppsala University)