In this role I helped to establish the Centre for Landscape Regeneration (https://www.clr.conservation.cam.ac.uk/) , a £10M Natural Environment Research Council-funded (https://www.ukri.org/councils/nerc/) project from its Changing the Environment research theme (https://www.ukri.org/what-we-do/browse-our-areas-of-investment-and-support/changing-the-environment/). The CLR seeks to provide knowledge and tools to regenerate the British countryside using cost-effective nature-based solutions that harness the power of ecosystems. In so doing, broad societal benefits, including biodiversity recovery, climate mitigation and adaptation, could be provided. The CLR is co-led by Professors David Coomes and Emily Shuckburgh OBE (with whom I had worked when the original funding proposal was being developed and submitted in 2021), and the CLR grew in the two years that I was employed to include over twenty ECRs and PhD students across 14 University Departments and 30 co-investigators from Cambridge, the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, the National Institute for Agricultural Botany and the RSPB.

From 2003 when I first moved to Newcastle, structural biology is now a University strength. There are ~44 active users of the facility, and we recently were awarded £0.9M to update and upgrade the X-ray crystallography facility. I have been awarded (as main or joint applicant) >£16M in research funds from UK and EU sources since 2000 and have published >110 peer-reviewed scientific articles.Other than establishing and growing the NSBL, my own group have been busy producing high quality research papers, some of which also have press releases to disseminate our successes to a wider audience. For instance, with colleagues in Imperial College, we determined the structure of the ‘stressosome’ a giant assembly of proteins that determines how some bacteria respond to changes in their environment. The press release is here: http://tinyurl.com/ICL-stressosome and the associated research paper is here: http://science.sciencemag.org/content/322/5898/92.In a follow-up to some work on a protein called SinR, we determined how this protein recognises specific DNA elements, and this knowledge may allow future control systems to address the healthcare and societal problems caused by biofilms, the prevalent means by which bacteria survive in the real world. The works is summarised here: http://tinyurl.com/SinR-JBC and the corresponding research paper, highlighted by the journal as the best in category for that year can be found here: http://www.jbc.org/content/288/15/10766. A final example of the research activities of the group is summarised here: http://tinyurl.com/DLS-EzrA. In this study, the structure and biochemical properties of a protein, EzrA, that aids to co-ordinate the growth and division of bacterial cells was determined, and the importance of EzrA to bacterial physiology could result in targeting this protein in future efforts to combat antibiotic resistance. The scientific paper can be found here: https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms6421.

ENGAGEMENTIt’s important to reach out and communicate with the general public and not just to publish articles for other scientists. My team use a large-scale facility, called a synchrotron, which generates X-rays for our experiments. The UK synchrotron, called Diamond, is situated in Didcot, Oxfordshire and my group are regular users and occasionally receive a name-check by the Director of Diamond at prestigious international meetings: https://www.diamond.ac.uk/Home/News/LatestNews/13_02_09a.html. With Diamond staff, we were the only UK group representing structural biology (and the only Newcastle University representatives) at the 350th anniversary celebrations of the Royal Society, the most prestigious learned body in the UK. Part of the celebrations included a festival of science at the Royal Festival Hall in London and some photographs of me talking to the public can be found: http://sbl.ncl.ac.uk/images/RoyalSoc/53.jpg, http://sbl.ncl.ac.uk/images/RoyalSoc/59.jpg and http://sbl.ncl.ac.uk/images/RoyalSoc/77.jpg.My lab has also worked with some of our major equipment suppliers to produce lab-notes, such as: https://www.ttplabtech.com/media/uploads/files/labcrystal_07_TTPLabtech-brochure_web.pdf. In this particular example, I highlighted how important maintaining good relationships are vital for our work (and no, I don’t receive payment from TTP Labtech, they are simply brilliant!).Finally, sometimes the local media also pick up on the lab’s success stories, such as this article that describes how the UK Medical Research Council has funded a major programme of work designed to combat superbugs and antimicrobial resistance: https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/health/newcastle-university-scientists-leading-battle-9312146. You’ll need to watch this space for updates on this story!

RESEARCHThe last ~15 years has seen structural biology grow as a discipline and there are now 7 core academic groups within the NSBL and several other collaborating groups around Newcastle. There are more than 40 active users of the NSBL.In addition to growing the NSBL, I held a key role in the Newcastle University UoA5 REF2014 submission, including initial gathering, analysis and preparation of individuals’ data, and the drafting and finalising of the documents that described our research, environment and impact. Amongst UK Universities, our return was top-ranked in research quality, and joint fourth overall.In addition, I am a member of the ICaMB Research Strategy Group (2012-2014; 2015-), senior staff charged with, among other duties, guiding our future research focus. I have also deputised for the ICaMB Director at several University-level meetings.TEACHINGI have contributed to both the curriculum and the delivery of biochemistry since moving to Newcastle. I was the Deputy Curriculum Committee Chair of the Biochemistry and Genetics degree programs (2013-2015) and in 2014 led an overhaul of the content of both degrees. The changes were introduced in the 2016/2017 academic year, and it was extremely gratifying to receive 100% in the National Student Satisfaction scores that year.I am the module leader for BGM3064 ‘Applied Biochemistry’, and thus responsible for the delivery and assessment of one third of the compulsory 3rd year biochemistry curriculum. Within this module we have developed a board game to help students understand how the biotechnology sector works and the decision making processes that help guide drug discovery and development.HEALTH AND SAFETYIn addition to teaching and research activities, I have also played important committee roles across the University, including:Chair of the University Radiation Protection Committee (2009-2015) and ordinary member (2004-2009 and 2015-).Member of the University Safety Committee (2009-2015).

All of my PhD students have submitted on-time and have successfully defended their thesis. Several of my ex-staff members have gone on to establish their own independent research groups. Dr Olivier Delumeau (2003-2006) is a research engineer at INRA, Jouy-en-Josas, France, and is interested in protein phosphorylation and protein:protein interactions in B. subtilis. http://tinyurl.com/Olivier-DELUMEAUDr James Murray (2003-2005) is a senior lecturer at Imperial College and studies photosynthetic systems in cyanobacteria. https://www.imperial.ac.uk/people/j.w.murrayDr Paul Race (2003-2009) is a Reader in Bristol University, and is interested in using microbial polyketide synthases and other non-ribosomal peptide pathways to produce novel bio-active compounds. http://www.bris.ac.uk/biochemistry/people/paul-r-race/about.htmlDr Jon Marles-Wright (2005-2012) is a senior lecturer at Newcastle University, and seeks to exploit bacterial micro-compartments in biotechnology. http://www.marles-wright-lab.org/Dr Maureen Quin (2005-2010) is a Research Assistant Professor at the University of Minnesota, and focuses on creating new supramolecular complexes as scaffolds for nanobiotechnology and biocatalysis. https://cbs.umn.edu/contacts/maureen-quin

After the end of my Wellcome Trust Research Career Development Fellowship, I became a Reader at Newcastle University. This is the UK academic position one below that of Professor.

After a couple of visits to Newcastle to meet people in the nascent Institute for Cell and Molecular Biosciences (ICaMB), and a formal interview just before Christmas 2002, I had secured my first permanent academic appointment. I relocated to Newcastle from Oxford in the spring of 2003 and set to the task of recruiting and procuring capital equipment and designing and overseeing a laboratory refurbishment. By December 2003 we had a brand new lab and the Newcastle University Structural Biology Lab (NSBL) was born.

The successful time spent in Tony’s group in York really helped me to gain confidence on my road to academic independence, funded by the award of a personal Wellcome Trust Research Development Fellowship that I decided to hold in Oxford. Not only was I back in the same city where this career path had started, but in the same office, sat at the same desk. I had only been back in Oxford for 21 months when one day I came across an advert for a position in Newcastle University to establish a new structural biology lab….

I had enjoyed my 18 months in the York crystallography lab as PhD student, and was delighted to be able to return as a post-doctoral researcher in Tony Wilkinson’s group studying how a model bacterium differentiates into two cell types, a process called sporulation, a rather unusual phenomenon restricted to only certain species. My two favourite papers from this time were on proteins that regulate sporulation by binding to specific DNA elements on the bacterial chromosome, one to initiate and one to inhibit this developmental programme, and these papers can be found here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022283698921635 and here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022283699932618. The latter project in particular attracted quite a lot of attention and I received my first invite to talk at a ‘big’ conference, the 10th International Conference on Bacilli (1999) in beautiful Baveno, Lago Maggiore https://www.lagomaggioreguide.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/baveno.jpg.