Georgia Isom
Position: Group leader, MRC career development fellow
Background: Georgia did her PhD in microbiology at the University of Birmingham, studying the E. coli MCE lipid transporters using bacterial genetics and infection models. Georgia then moved to NYU Langone School of Medicine to pursue a postdoc, where she further studied the MCE lipid transporters using structural biology and biochemistry. She is now working on her own independent research and is currently setting up her own research group at the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, University of Oxford.
Research interests: Anything to do with the bacterial cell envelope and antimicrobial resistance
Home: Warwickshire, UK
Interests outside science: Walking, film & TV (especially fantasy), dance, Nintendo, all chocolate (except Snickers and Hershey’s)
Robbie Clark
Position: DPhil student (Primary supervisor: Syma Khalid, Second supervisor: Georgia Isom)
Background: Robbie completed his undergraduate and Master's degrees in Natural Sciences at the University of Cambridge. During his Masters, Robbie worked on bacterial multidrug efflux pumps in Ben Luisi's lab, using cryo-EM, cryo-ET, and molecular dynamics simulations. Robbie is in Syma Khalid's lab and is co-supervised by Georgia. He uses MD sims and other computational approaches to study and predict protein and lipid dynamics, and currently focuses on lipid transporters LplT and YhdP, and uncovering their conformation landscapes.
Research interests: Protein structural dynamics, structure prediction, protein design
Home: London, UK
Interests outside science: Hiking, reading, running, music
Ben Cooper
Position: Postdoctoral researcher
Background: Ben undertook his PhD at the University of Birmingham during which he utilised structural, biophysical and molecular biology techniques to investigate the structure and function of the E. coli Paraquat inducible Pathway.
Research interests: All things assembly and regulation of the bacterial cell envelope, with a propensity towards structural studies (particularly Cryo-EM).
Home: Shropshire, UK
Interests outside science: Cycling, walking, botany (plant collection getting slightly out of hand), documentaries, waiting for trains…
Clare De’Ath
Position: DPhil Student
Background: Clare completed her Undergraduate BSc (Hons) in Biology at the University of Bath. This included a placement year at the Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL) and European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) as part of the Life Sciences group specialising in structural biology to underpin mechanisms of human transthyretin amyloidogenesis. She is currently working in the Isom lab as a DPhil Wellcome Cellular Structural Biology student, studying outer membrane biogenesis in E. coli.
Research interests: Antimicrobial resistance and the bacterial cell envelope; structural biology techniques (particularly the use of single particle Cryo-EM for the study of membrane proteins)
Home: Hertfordshire, UK
Interests outside science: Hiking, Singing (especially musical theatre, a cappella and busking with a guitar), Dance, Travelling
Matthew Hankins
Position: Postdoctoral researcher
Background: Matthew did his DPhil at the University of Oxford on the Wellcome Trust OXION programme, working on the structural and functional characterisation of bacterial inner membrane lipid transporters in Maike Bublitz’s lab, and on the human TMEM16 family of scramblases in the Integral Membrane Protein group at the Centre for Medicines Discovery.
Research Interests: Everything related to lipid transport and its role in antimicrobial resistance, especially structural studies of membrane proteins by Cryo-EM.
Home: Berkshire, UK
Interests outside science: Music and films, (badly) playing saxophone, cuddling dogs
Tarini Kadambi
Position: Part II (Master’s) Student
Background: Tarini is currently studying Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry at the University of Oxford. As part of her final master’s year in the programme, she is conducting a joint project between the Isom and Lanyon-Hogg lab to harness targeted protein degradation to address antimicrobial resistance.
Research Interests: Understanding the mechanisms of antimicrobial resistance and developing novel strategies to overcome resistance.
Home: Singapore
Interests outside science: Painting, watching film/TV, and drinking coffee.
Ella Keetch
Position: Research Placement Undergraduate
Background: I am currently undertaking an Integrated Masters in Biomedical Sciences at the University of Bath, where I have studied a wide array of modules relating to the fields of physiology, neuroscience, pharmacology, medicine, and microbiology.
Research Interests: Investigating protein-protein interactions in the AsmA protein family
Home: Oxfordshire, England
Interests outside science: Concerts, Reading, Yoga, Travel
Harry Lee
Position: DPhil Student
Background: Harry obtained his MSci in Biochemistry from the University of Bristol. During the final year of his degree, and briefly after its completion, he worked as a member of Adam Grieve’s lab. Here, he combined cell-based assays with confocal microscopy to investigate how mammalian rhomboid proteases can be spatially regulated in neurons. Harry is now working in the Isom lab, as part of the DPhil Molecular Cell Biology in Health and Disease programme, where he is researching proteins involved in outer membrane biogenesis in E. coli.
Research Interests: Elucidating the function, mechanisms, and regulation of poorly understood membrane proteins, including identifying ways in which these can be altered to tackle disease.
Home: Wiltshire, UK
Interests Outside Science: Basketball, video games & board games, Formula 1, films & TV
Suzanne Letham
Position: Postdoctoral researcher
Background: Suzi undertook her DPhil at the University of Oxford on the Wellcome Trust Cellular Structural Biology programme, with some time spent at the MRC LMB, Cambridge. During her DPhil, Suzi utilised cryo-EM, cryo-ET and microbiology techniques to study a Pseudomonas-infecting bacteriophage. Now she is a postdoctoral researcher in the Isom lab, studying bacterial lipid transport using biochemistry, molecular biology and structural biology.
Research Interests: Antimicrobial resistance, bacterial membrane assembly and lipid transport.
Home: Airdrie, Scotland
Interests Outside Science: Going to music gigs, art, plants, hiking and gaming!
Bella Musto
Position: Part II (Master’s) Student
Background: Undergraduate 4th year student, studying Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry at St Anne’s College. Currently working on a lipid transporter in Gram negative bacteria.
Research interests: Biogenesis of the bacterial cell envelope and protein-protein interactions.
Home: Wiltshire, UK
Interests outside science: Walking, gym-ing, cooking, crocheting. And spending time with my cats!
Emilia Taylor
Position: DPhil Student
Background: Emilia earned her BSc Honours in Medicinal Chemistry at The University of Leeds before becoming a member of Professor Ed Tate's group at Imperial College London. She specialised in addressing antimicrobial resistance using small molecule inhibitors of bacterial DNA repair and SOS pathways. After completing her master's degree, Emilia entered the AstraZeneca R&D graduate programme in Sweden, which involved three 8-month R&D rotations across the organisation. Currently, she is a joint DPhil student in the Isom and Lanyon-Hogg lab as part of the Wellcome Chemistry in Cells program, studying targeted protein degradation in bacteria.
Research interests: Exploring novel and high throughput approaches to address antimicrobial resistance using heterobifunctional molecules
Home: Oslo, Norway
Interests outside science: Reading, playing chess and polo
Qiaoyu Tian
Position: DPhil Student
Background: BSc Medical Biosciences at Imperial College London, MSc(Res) in Biochemisty at University of Oxford
Home: Shenyang, China
Research Interests: I am interested in biological functions of protein machineries at the Gram-negative bacterial cell envelope.
Interests outside science: Photography, hiking