Speaker

David Klenerman did his PhD on infrared chemiluminescence under the supervision of Professor Ian William Murison Smith in the Department of Chemistry at Cambridge University. He then did his postdoctoral research with Professor Richard N Zare on high overtone chemistry. Subsequently, Klenerman came back to the UK and worked for 7 years for BP Research in their Laser Spectroscopy Group before returning to Cambridge University, where he is currently a Royal Society GlaxoSmithKline Wellcome professor of molecular medicine. Klenerman’s research is focused on developing and applying biophysical methods to biological and biomedical problems. His work using fluorescence and scanning probe microscopy has provided new insights into protein folding and misfolding. Klenerman has also developed techniques to image individual protein complexes on the surface of living cells to directly follow the processes occurring as the adaptive immune response is triggered. His single-molecule fluorescence methods are also being actively applied to study the molecular basis of neurodegenerative disease. These methods have been used to identify the key molecular events in protein misfolding and the aggregation of amyloid β, tau, and α-synuclein, and to investigate how oligomers of these proteins interact with live neurons and initiate cellular damage.

« Go Back