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

Ultraslow oligomerization equilibria of p53 and its implications
E Natan, D Hirschberg, N Morgner, CV Robinson, AR Fersht
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A
(2009)
106
Effects of stability on the biological function of p53
KH Khoo, S Mayer, AR Fersht
Journal of Biological Chemistry
(2009)
284
Adaptive evolution of p53 thermodynamic stability.
KH Khoo, A Andreeva, AR Fersht
Journal of Molecular Biology
(2009)
393
The accessory subunit of mitochondrial DNA polymerase γ determines the DNA content of mitochondrial nucleoids in human cultured cells
M Di Re, H Sembongi, J He, A Reyes, T Yasukawa, P Martinsson, LJ Bailey, S Goffart, JD Boyd-Kirkup, TS Wong, AR Fersht, JN Spelbrink, IJ Holt
Nucleic Acids Research
(2009)
37
Interaction between the transactivation domain of p53 and PC4 exemplifies acidic activation domains as single-stranded DNA mimics.
S Rajagopalan, A Andreeva, DP Teufel, SM Freund, AR Fersht
J Biol Chem
(2009)
284
Stabilising the DNA-binding domain of p53 by rational design of its hydrophobic core.
KH Khoo, AC Joerger, SMV Freund, AR Fersht
Protein Eng Des Sel
(2009)
22
The Folding Mechanism of BBL: Plasticity of Transition-State Structure Observed within an Ultrafast Folding Protein Family
H Neuweiler, TD Sharpe, TJ Rutherford, CM Johnson, MD Allen, N Ferguson, AR Fersht
Journal of Molecular Biology
(2009)
390
PRIMA-1 Reactivates Mutant p53 by Covalent Binding to the Core Domain
JMR Lambert, P Gorzov, DB Veprintsev, M Söderqvist, D Segerbäck, J Bergman, AR Fersht, P Hainaut, KG Wiman, VJN Bykov
Cancer cell
(2009)
15
Regulation by phosphorylation of the relative affinities of the N-terminal transactivation domains of p53 for p300 domains and Mdm2
DP Teufel, M Bycroft, AR Fersht
Oncogene
(2009)
28
Downhill versus Barrier-Limited Folding of BBL 1: Energetic and Structural Perturbation Effects upon Protonation of a Histidine of Unusually Low pKa
E Arbely, TJ Rutherford, TD Sharpe, N Ferguson, AR Fersht
Journal of Molecular Biology
(2009)
387