Jake Smith
Jake is a DPhil student on the Wellcome Trust Cellular Structural Biology programme at the University of Oxford. Here at the Franklin, Jake’s work involves developing the methods to perform structural biology investigations in increasingly complex systems. In particular, he is focussed on understanding the mechanism that controls structural plasticity of the axon initial segment within brain tissue.
At undergraduate, he obtained an MChem (Hons) in Chemistry from the University of York, developing a keen interest in structural virology. Under the supervision of Professor Fred Antson, he undertook research projects characterising proteins in several human and bacterial viruses.
Large Volume Tomography
High resolution large volume tomography with electron microscopy has the potential to transform our understanding of life, by linking the atomic and molecular structure of protein complexes in their biological context – the cell.
Structural Neurobiology
Developing cutting edge techniques to image structures in the brain on the molecular scale so we can identify early structural changes leading to disease onset.