Richon Blake
Richon Blake
PhD Student
Thesis Title: Creating an artificial metalloenzyme for site-specific protein modification
Primary Theme: Next Generation Chemistry
Secondary Theme: Structural Biology
Franklin Supervisors: Professor Ben Davis, Associate Professor Shabaz Mohammed & Dr Liang Wu
University: University of Edinburgh
University Supervisor: Dr Amanda Jarvis
Developing methods to integrate transition metal-mediated catalysis with biomolecules, using protein scaffolds as a ligand for metal catalysed new-to-nature reactions. These approaches aim to enable site-specific labeling and modification of proteins, offering new tools for precise protein engineering and functionalization in biological systems.
Richon attended Imperial College London where he graduated with a bachelors in Biochemistry. During his final year, Richon embarked in a research project looking into screening inhibitors against MsbA, an essential transporter for the viability of gram-negative bacteria, which gave a closer insight into structural biology. Richon is looking forward to exploring the different themes in the Franklin, and seeing how they can be used to make a ground-breaking change.