Jon Sayers Email & Phone Number

COVID19 update. Currently producing large amounts of Nucleocapsid for potential deployment in diagnostics development. The day job is as a professor at the University of Sheffield School of Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, primarily exploring molecular mechanisms of flap endonucleases and their inhibitors. Now applying that knowledge to developing new antimicrobial agents for neglected tropical diseases, malaria and gonorrhoea (founded DeFENition Ltd, a spin-out in 2016) as well as collaborating with Binx Health on enzymes used in point-of-care diagnostics. I trained as a chemist, B.Sc. (1983) and obtained my Ph.D. (1986) in bio-active nucleotide synthesis (DNA fragments). Five years as a postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Experimental Medicine in Germany (1986-1991) with Professor Fritz Eckstein allowed me to develop skills in genetic engineering and molecular enzymology. Held a lectureship in Biochemistry (Univ. of Wales) 1991-1994 followed. Moved to take up a lectureship in Medicine & Pharmacology at Sheffield University Medical UK in 1995. Former Head of Academic Unit of Immunology and Infectious Diseases and deputy H.o.D. Experienced in protein engineering, heterologous gene expression, protein purification and assay development, site directed mutagenesis, bioinformatics and structure-function relationships. Set up rational drug design company (Asterion Ltd) in 2000 with colleagues in Sheffield- Long acting hormone technology with platform technology for extending circulating half life of small proteins. Set up DeFENition Ltd, a university spin-out in 2016, to develop new antimicrobial agents. Specialties: 5'-3' exonucleases (also known as flap endonuclease, FENs and 5' nucleases). First to clone and characterise recombinant T5 exonuclease as used in Gibson cloning and numerous ligase-free cloning technologies. Applied structural biology and enzymology. Recombinant DNA, nucleases assays and characterization, expression and purification of difficult proteins. Large-scale production of COVID19 antigens for diagnostics and research. Expression of toxic gene products. Assay development. Technology development (named inventor on eight granted US patents). Structure-based drug design to develop new antimicrobials.

Listed skills include Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, Protein Purification, Biotechnology, and 29 others.