Professor Naomi Chayen
Structural Biology
The expression ‘crystal clear’ stems from the science of crystallography which determines the detailed atomic structures of materials by exposing crystals to X-rays. The research in our laboratory focuses on crystallising proteins of medical interest for the purpose of drug design. Genes encode thousands of proteins that are the targets of potential drugs and in order to understand how proteins perform their various tasks, we need to know their structure which in turn indicates their function and mechanism of action. The most powerful method for determining protein structures is X-ray crystallography which is totally relyant on the availability of high quality crystals. The current structural genomics/proteomics projects worldwide have set out to determine the structures of over 100,000 proteins but in spite of investing considerable funds and effort, they have had limited success because obtaining crystals is a major bottleneck to progress. Our laboratory is engaged with overcoming this bottleneck by conducting analytical studies of the crystallisation process in order to understand the mechanism of crystal growth. We apply the knowledge gained form these studies to design unique techniques for facilitating the growth of crystals which cannot be obtained by standard methodology. Several of our methods are patented and commercialised.
This is basic research that leads to the eventual design of any medicine therefore it is not directly relevant to a specific clinical speciality but relevant to all.
Further information
http://www.imperial.ac.uk/medicine/people/n.chayen/
Contact Details
Tel: +44 (0)20 7594 3240
