Dr Brian Jackson

Profile

I completed my undergraduate degree in 2004, and PhD in 2007, both at the University of East Anglia. I joined the Univeristy of Leeds in 2008 as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the virology laboratory of Prof Adrian Whitehouse working on the oncogenic virus KSHV.

In 2012 I was awarded a Wellcome Trust ISSF Junior Independent Research Fellowship investigating mechanisms of genome instability in cancer development.

I moved into Research Facilities management in 2015 when I took over running of the Bioimaging and Flow Cytometry Facilities, before I established the Protein Production Facility, which opened in 2017, that I now manage.

Research interests

I gained substantial experience in recombinant DNA and protein technology throughout my PhD and postdoctoral positions, including the expression of archaeal, bacterial, mammalian and viral proteins. I am Manager of the Leeds Protein Production Facility (PPF), which is a core research facility within the Faculty of Biological Sciences, opened in May 2017, and dedicated to producing high quality recombinant proteins for structural, cellular and biochemical studies. The PPF provides a gateway to the other cutting edge research facilities within FBS, and potential users of the Facility from within the University of Leeds and external academic and industrial partners should contact me for more information, or visit the Facility webpage.

The PPF offers the following three main service areas:

• E. coli expression and purification
• Insect cell expression and purification (using Sf9 cells)
• Mammalian cell expression and purification (using 293F or CHO cells)

In addition to the above service areas, we can perform custom work at any point of the purification process from cloning to AKTA use.

Through collaborations across the University I am involved through the PPF in research into human diseases (e.g. heart disease, cancer, neuro-degeneration), antibiotic discovery, human development, plant biology, and virology.

Qualifications

• NEBOSH National General Certificate in Occupational Health and Safety, 2022
• PhD Molecular Microbiology, University of East Anglia, 2007
• BSc (Hons) Molecular and Cellular Biology, University of East Anglia, 2004

Student education

I teach on a number of undergraduate and Masters modules in areas such as Molecular Biology, Human Disease, Biopharmaceuticals and Cell Biology.