Prof. Richard Bayliss

Profile

Richard Bayliss graduated from the University of Cambridge in 1997 with a 1st class honours degree in Natural Sciences, in which he specialised in biological, organic and theoretical chemistry. He completed his PhD in molecular biology at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge in 2000 and was elected to a Research Fellowship at Trinity College.  He continued his postdoctoral training in the laboratory of Elena Conti at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg, Germany, funded by an EMBO Long Term Fellowship , and in the group of Gabriel Waksman in Birkbeck College, London. He established his independent research group at the Institute of Cancer Research in London in 2006, funded by a Royal Society Research Fellowship and Cancer Research UK. Hemoved to the University of Leicester in 2011, as a Reader in the Department of Biochemistry, and in 2014 was promoted to a Chair and awarded the Frank May Prize.  Prof. Bayliss relocated to the University of Leeds in 2016 to take up his current role as Professor of Molecular Medicine and a member of the Astbury Centre for Structural Molecular Biology. He served as Head of the School of Molecular and Cellular Biology in 2018-2019.

Research interests

Research in the Bayliss lab aims to understand the molecular mechanisms that cause disease and to develop new or improved therapies. We research the protein kinases associated with cancer signalling pathways, the transcription factor Myc, the assembly and function of the spindle assembly, proteostasis and structure-based approaches to drug discovery. We also have interests in synthetic biology, microcephaly and in kinases associated with infectious disease. 

Our work is made possible through the generosity of our colleagues, collaborators and funders (Cancer Research UK, MRC, BBSRC)

Here are some of our recent publications:

Sampson J, Ju HM, Song JY, Fry AM, Bayliss R, Choi J (2022) A Polytherapy Strategy Using Vincristine and ALK Inhibitors to Sensitise EML4-ALK-Positive NSCLC. Cancers (Basel) 14(3):779. https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers14030779

Arter C, Trask L, Ward S, Yeoh S, Bayliss R (2022) Structural features of the protein kinase domain and targeted binding by small-molecule inhibitors. J Biol Chem.298(8):102247. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbc.2022.102247

Batchelor M, Dawber RS, Wilson AJ, Bayliss R. (2022) α-Helix stabilization by co-operative side chain charge-reinforced interactions to phosphoserine in a basic kinase-substrate motif Biochem J 479(5):687-700. https://doi.org/10.1042/BCJ20200128

Sampson J, Richards MW, Choi J, Fry AM, Bayliss R (2021) Phase‐separated foci of EML4‐ALK facilitate signalling and depend upon an active kinase conformation. EMBO Reports 22(12) pii: e53693 https://doi.org/10.15252/embr.202153693

• State of the art electron detection for cyoEM at the Astbury Biostructure Laboratories
• Understanding and targeting oncogenic biomolecular condensates of ALK kinase

Qualifications

• MA (Cambridge)
• PhD (Cambridge)

Current postgraduate researchers

• Liam Maddison