Jackson Laboratory
The Jackson Laboratory studies how proteins work and evolve, and uses this knowledge to design proteins with new functions.
The Jackson Laboratory combines structural biology, computational modelling and machine learning with laboratory experiments to understand how changes in protein sequence and structure affect biological activity.
Our research includes fluorescent biosensors that reveal molecular signals in the brain, engineered proteins that support stem cell transplantation, engineering novel biomaterials for cell transplant, medicinal chemistry, structural biology of medically relevant proteins, peptide engineering and design and methods for predicting and improving protein function.
Working with the Hesselson Laboratory, we are developing approaches to design and evolve proteins directly in mammalian cells, with the aim of improving their suitability for medical applications. Our goal is to connect fundamental discoveries in protein science with new tools for biomedical research and the development of future treatments.
Biomedical AI
- Protein engineering and design
- Machine learning for protein science
- Protein evolution and molecular mechanisms
- Synthetic biology and biosensor development
- Protein biomaterials for regenerative medicine
- Computational protein design and protein language models
- Directed evolution
- Structural biology and X-ray crystallography
- Protein biochemistry, enzymology and biophysical characterisation
- Molecular dynamics simulations and analysis of protein function
- Engineering fluorescent biosensors and protein-functionalised hydrogels
Matthews DS et al. (2024). Leveraging ancestral sequence reconstruction for protein representation learning. Nature Machine Intelligence 6, 1542–1555.
Clifton BE, Alcolombri U, Uechi G-I, Jackson CJ and Laurino P (2024). The ultra-high affinity transport proteins of ubiquitous marine bacteria. Nature 634, 721–728.
Meger AT et al. (2024). Rugged fitness landscapes minimize promiscuity in the evolution of transcriptional repressors. Cell Systems 15, 374–387.e6.
Wang Y et al. (2023). Hydrogel oxygen reservoirs increase functional integration of neural stem cell grafts by meeting metabolic demands. Nature Communications 14, 457.
Zhang WH et al. (2018). Monitoring hippocampal glycine with the computationally designed optical sensor GlyFS. Nature Chemical Biology 14, 861–869.
Campbell E et al. (2016). The role of protein dynamics in the evolution of new enzyme function. Nature Chemical Biology 12, 944–950.
