Research
Four themes, each with a structure you can rotate: drag to turn, scroll to zoom.
01
Allostery and oxygen transport
How haemoglobin changes shape to pick up oxygen in the lungs and release it in tissues.
Haemoglobin is the textbook example of allostery: when one subunit binds oxygen, the others change shape too. We study variants that cause disease and design molecules that shift the balance.
- High-resolution structures of variants
- Time-resolved crystallography
- Drug-like allosteric modulators
02
Viral enzymes as drug targets
Structures of viral proteases bound to inhibitors, to guide new antivirals.
We solve structures of viral proteases with fragments and drug candidates, and share them openly so that anyone can design better medicines.
03
AI-predicted structures
Testing and extending AlphaFold models — especially the floppy parts it cannot predict.
Prediction has changed our field. We combine AlphaFold models with NMR and cryo-EM to study disordered regions, like those of the tumour suppressor p53 (blue: confident; orange: disordered).
04
Fluorescent proteins as sensors
Engineering glowing proteins that light up when cells signal.
Starting from green fluorescent protein, we design sensors that change colour when calcium, voltage or a drug arrives, and solve their structures to see why they work.
Interactive · made with React Three Fiber
Watch a chain fold
Small proteins fold in millionths of a second. Here a chain of 58 amino acids, coloured from one end to the other, folds into a bundle of three helices, lets go, and folds again.
Drag to turn it. This animation was written for this page by Labsite’s assistant.
Live from the Protein Data Bank and AlphaFold
Structures you can explore
Every structure on this site is the real thing, loaded from the public databases. Turn it, zoom in, and follow the link to its entry.
Four chains, each holding a haem group (sticks) that carries one oxygen molecule.
Ten NMR models played in turn: the protein’s natural flexibility, frame by frame.
The Dickerson–Drew dodecamer, the first crystal structure of a full turn of B-DNA.
Coloured by AlphaFold’s confidence: dark blue is predicted with confidence; orange marks the floppy, disordered regions.