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 Rotation 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
Dali Dunn
Position: Lab Technician
Background: Dali completed her integrated masters in Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry at the University of Oxford where she spent a year in Clive Wilson’s group studying the mechanisms of protein aggregation in Drosophila secondary cells.
Research Interests: Bacterial cell envelope organisation, arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, fluorescent microscopy (pretty pictures)
Home: Nottingham, UK
Interests outside science: Art (sewing, painting, drawing), wild swimming, walking
Anna Price
Position: Part II (Master’s) student
Background: Undergraduate student reading for MBiochem in molecular and cellular biochemistry at University College, University of Oxford.
Research Interests: Molecular and Microbiology. Particular interest in protein systems of the Gram-negative bacterial cell envelope.
Home: Abergavenny, Wales
Interests outside science: Salsa dancing, bodyboarding, arts and craft (with wine)
Kayla Rowden
Position: Part II (Master’s) student
Background: Kayla is a 4th year Biochemistry student at St Edmund Hall, completing her part II Masters' project in the Isom lab, joint with the Lanyon-Hogg lab. This year, her project involves investigating the potential protein targets of drugs called BacPROTACs.
Research Interests: Investigating the mechanistic basis of how bacteria cause disease, how bacteria develop multidrug resistance, and how we may be able to therapeutically intervene in both of these.
Home: Peterborough, UK
Interests outside science: Crochet, hiking, baking (lemon meringue is an all-time favourite), Netflix
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