Dr. Alexander JD Snow is a postdoctoral researcher working with Professor Alexander Breeze and Dr. Stephen Muench at the Astbury Biostructure Laboratory, University of Leeds. For the last two years he has focussed on characterising the receptor tyrosine kinase, FGFR3, through cryoEM. Over this time, he has spearheaded method development for the production and characterisation of elusive, difficult-to-express proteins. In his current research, Alex showcases the utility of cell-free expression and copolymer membrane reconstitution to biophysically and structurally characterize a full-length oncogenic variant of FGFR3, which has proven intractable through traditional expression systems.

Alex plans to leverage his work on this oncoprotein as the basis of a fellowship, through which he intends to comprehensively explore and expand the application of cell-free expression for the structural and biophysical characterization of complex and challenging proteins and protein complexes.