Dr James Ross
- Position: EPSRC Synthetic Biology Research Fellow
- Areas of expertise: Synthetic structural biology; Molecular biology; Protein design; Molecular dynamics
- Email: J.F.Ross@leeds.ac.uk
- Location: 7.107 Astbury Building
Profile
I am a multidisciplinary synthetic biologist with a unique and broad skill set rooted in molecular biology and including structural biology, chemical biology, biophysics and computational molecular design, with a focus on protein engineering. I completed a BSc in Molecular biology with industry at the University of Liverpool and a PhD in Structural molecular biology at the University of Leeds. I spent a few years in postdoctoral positions with Dek Woolfson (University of Bristol), Mark Howarth (University of Oxford) and with Emanuele Paci and Bruce Turnbull (University of Leeds). I am currently an EPSRC synthetic biology research fellow. I am keen on forming links with industrial partners, having received funding from Pfizer and GSK, I act as a scientific advisor to a Knowledge Transfer Partnership with Freeline Therapeutics and I am a scientific advisor for LiliumX.
Research interests
My main research focus is the redesign of cholera toxin B-subunit (CTB) and other homologues such as LTB and Shiga toxin. My goal is to redesign proteins of these kinds into tools for use in biotechnology and healthcare by exploiting there function of initiating endocytosis and trafficking molecules into cells.
I have further experience and interest in general protein design, structural resolution (computationally) of disordered/partially ordered proteins, protein-protein interface design, symmetry based interactions and manipulating viral geometry.
<h4>Research projects</h4> <p>Some research projects I'm currently working on, or have worked on, will be listed below. Our list of all <a href="https://biologicalsciences.leeds.ac.uk/dir/research-projects">research projects</a> allows you to view and search the full list of projects in the faculty.</p>