Our next researcher in the #BearonTour series is Anna Peacock, Reader in Bioinorganic Chemistry. Anna’s group works at the interface of inorganic chemistry and peptide design in the School of Chemistry.
Q1 – Tell me about your research
We aim to design miniature artificial metalloproteins capable of function beyond what biology is capable of. A recent development has been finding a new use for copper in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agent design, that could help to create better images which help doctors diagnose patients’ conditions more easily and safely.
Q2 – How do you use BEAR services?
For the computational de novo (from “first-principles”) design of new protein structures and scaffolds. Computational methods are used to design the peptide sequence and structure, and then synthesizing the peptide and introducing the metal ion. We also use the Research Data Store (RDS) for storing our data.
Q3 – What is the best thing about BEAR (apart from me)
Ease of access.
Thanks to Anna for showing us around the lab. Looking forward to visiting the new Chemistry building as soon as we can!
Look out for our next researcher soon!