Wednesday 6th- Thursday 7th November 2024​
Careers Panel
Dr Sally Shirran
BSRC mass spectrometry and proteomics facility
University of St Andrews
Sally graduated from Strathclyde University with a undergraduate degree in Forensic and Analytical Chemistry. Sally worked briefly with Scottish Water before becoming a mass spectrometry technician at University of Edinburgh. Sally then went on to complete a part time PhD at University of Edinburgh in native mass spectrometry with Prof Perdita Barran, before moving to University of St Andrews mass spectrometry and proteomics core facility. and has worked here for almost 20 years and currently manage the facility running a core facility service along with research collaborations.
Professor Wyatt Yue
Professor of Structural Biology
Newcastle University
Wyatt is a structural biologist with an MA (Biochemistry) from University of Oxford, and a PhD (Crystallography) from Birkbeck College, University of London. He pursued postdoc research at Institute of Cancer Research with Prof Laurence Pearl FRS in 2003, followed by a stint at the fragment-based drug discovery company Sareum Ltd. In 2008 he joined the Structural Genomics Consortium (SGC), University of Oxford as a Senior Scientist in high throughput protein structure determination. In 2012 he established his own research team at the SGC, and in 2015 was conferred Associate Professorship at the Nuffield Department of Medicine. His team has to date deposited crystal and cryo EM structures of >70 different human metabolic enzymes and complexes in the Protein Data Bank, and aims to translate basic science into design of small molecule therapeutics for rare diseases with unmet need. In 2021, he is awarded the inaugural Harrington UK Rare Disease Scholar. Since July 2021, Wyatt has joined the Biosciences Institute at Newcastle University as Professor of Structural Biology.
Dr Amy Thompson
Post Doctoral Research Associate on VMXi
Diamond Light Source
Amy is a post doctoral researcher currently working on the VMXi beamline at Diamond Light Source to improve multi-crystal methods. Originally from Australia, her PhD research investigated structural changes in flexible crystals and included the development of the pipeline CX-ASAP to help automate data processing. With her PhD requiring extensive use of the MX2 beamline in Melbourne, she developed an enthusiasm for beamline science and crystallographic methods development which lead to her current role acting as a bridge between beamline and the software teams at Diamond. With a jump from small molecule crystallography to macromolecular crystallography, this role has involved taking over development of the software pipeline xia2.multiplex, contributing to the DIALS project, developing in-plate serial crystallography methods and assisting with data processing on-site at various XFELs around the world.
Dr Christian Orr
Beamline Scientist on I23
Diamond Light Source
Christian Orr is a Beamline Scientist at Diamond Light Source, working on beamline I23, where he has held this position for the past three years. Prior to this, he spent three years as a postdoctoral research associate on the same beamline. Christian completed his PhD at the University of Southampton and Hamburg University, supervised by Ivo Tews and Arwen Pearson. His doctoral research focused on the structural study of monoclonal antibodies in cancer immunotherapy, particularly investigating the flexibility of the IgG2 hinge region. In his current role, Christian is involved in methods development for crystallography, with a focus on laser shaping, machine learning. He is also part of the user support team on beamline I23.
Dr Svitlana Korolchuk
Principal Scientist in the Analytical Development dept.
Fujifilm Diosynth
Svitlana has joined group of Jane Endicott and Martin Noble as a Senior Research Assistant in 2011. She was working on projects focusing on structural and functional characterisation of protein complexes containing Cyclin Dependant Kinases 1, 2 and 7. Her contribution to the field includes publications in Nat Com 2015; JMB 2021, Nat Com 2024. She has joined Evotec in protein expression team in 2021 and Fujifilm Diosynth as a Principal Scientist in Downstream Process Development department in 2022. She has been involved in completion of few successful projects which contributed to success of the company. She has moved her role to Analytical Development department in 2024.