Professor Sir Alan Fersht FRS | Page 3 | Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry

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Our major research programme concerns the folding, stability and activity of proteins. We apply a broad multi-disciplinary approach that combines methods and ideas of molecular biology and physical-organic chemistry. We use techniques including protein engineering, DNA cloning, sequencing and mutagenesis, cell culture, gene and peptide synthesis, spectroscopy, rapid reaction techniques, multi-dimensional NMR (we have a 500, 600, 700 and an 800 MHz spectrometers) and x-ray protein crystallography.

Current major projects include: protein folding, misfolding and disease; drug discovery; and structure-activity relationships of proteins involved in cancer and disease.

Although now emeritus, I am still fully active in research with long term funding, including an MRC Programme Grant.

Publications

Mechanism of initiation of aggregation of p53 revealed by Φ-value analysis

G Wang, AR Fersht

– Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A

(2015)

112,

2437

(doi: 10.1073/pnas.1500243112)

Profile of Martin Karplus, Michael Levitt, and Arieh Warshel, 2013 Nobel Laureates in Chemistry

AR Fersht

– Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

(2013)

110,

19656

(doi: 10.1073/pnas.1320569110)

MDMX contains an autoinhibitory sequence element

M Bista, M Petrovich, AR Fersht

– Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

(2013)

110,

17814

(doi: 10.1073/pnas.1317398110)

Small molecule induced reactivation of mutant p53 in cancer cells

X Liu, R Wilcken, AC Joerger, IS Chuckowree, J Amin, J Spencer, AR Fersht

– Nucleic acids research

(2013)

41,

6034

(doi: 10.1093/nar/gkt305)

Reply to Campos and Munoz: Why phosphate is a bad buffer for guanidinium chloride titrations

AR Fersht, M Petrovich

– Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

(2013)

110,

E1244

(doi: 10.1073/pnas.1303286110)

Denaturation (Proteins)

AR Fersht

(2013)

302

(doi: 10.1016/b978-0-12-374984-0.00393-4)

Don't waste good methods on bad buffers and ambiguous data

F Huang, CM Johnson, M Petrovich, AR Fersht

– Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A

(2013)

110,

E331

(doi: 10.1073/pnas.1217840110)

HEFLibs: Chemical probes for detecting halogen bonding in fragment-based lead discovery

R Wilcken, AC Joerger, AR Fersht, FM Boeckler

– ABSTRACTS OF PAPERS OF THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY

(2013)

245,

(link to publication)

Combining Simulation and Experiment to Map Protein Folding

AL Jonsson, AR Fersht, V Daggett

– COMPREHENSIVE BIOPHYSICS, VOL 3: THE FOLDING OF PROTEINS AND NUCLEIC ACIDS

(2012)

3,

1

(doi: 10.1016/B978-0-12-374920-8.00301-5)

Evaluating Drosophila p53 as a Model System for Studying Cancer Mutations

G Herzog, AC Joerger, MD Shmueli, AR Fersht, E Gazit, D Segal

– The Journal of biological chemistry

(2012)

287,

44330

(doi: 10.1074/jbc.M112.417980)