Rebecca Male
- Email: plfv0972@leeds.ac.uk
- Thesis title: Hitting the target: Creating tractable target proteins without losing function for the biopharmaceutical sector.
- Supervisors: Professor David Brockwell, Professor Sheena Radford
Profile
From 2019-2023 I completed my undergraduate degree in Biology with a Year in Industry at the Unversity of York with 1st Class Hons. During my Year in Industry, I worked as a Structural Biology Undergraduate Student at Evotec working to purify proteins important in the drug development process. In the final year of my degree, I undertook a final project in Prof Gavin Thomas’ lab looking into characterising a novel Cluster C SBP termed ‘XppA’ taking the project from construct design to biophysical analysis of purified protein.
Now, as a postgraduate researcher, I work with Prof David Brockwell and Prof Sheena Radford to use an assay that can select mutant sequences of a protein of interest for reduced aggregation propensity while maintaining affinity for cognate ligands. We intend to work with our collarborators at UCB to improve the tractability of challenging drug targets to aid in the drug development process.
Research interests
- Using an assay that builds upon the pre-established tri-partite beta lactamase assay (TPBLA) from our lab with an added affinity component to directedly evolve proteins for both aggregation resistance and affinity for cognate ligands.
- Investigating the relationship between aggregation resistance and affinity and the sequence changes involved in the trade-off between these two factors.
- Biophysical characterisation of evolved variants.
Qualifications
- Bsc Biology with a Year in Industry