RSC awards Dr Briony Yorke with Harrison-Meldola Early Career Prize for Chemistry

A major chemistry prize has recognised a Leeds scientist’s research, which reveals how proteins change in real time.

Dr Briony Yorke, from the School of Chemistry and Astbury Centre for Structural Molecular Biology, has been named winner of the Royal Society of Chemistry’s (RSC’s) Harrison-Meldola Early Career Prize for Chemistry, recognising her work developing time-resolved crystallography methods that have transformed how molecular processes and protein dynamics can be observed.

Proteins act as the molecular machinery of cells, driving processes from energy conversion to signalling. Yet many of the most significant stages in their function occur in fleeting intermediate states that are difficult to capture with conventional structural biology techniques, limiting scientists’ understanding of how biological systems operate and adapt.

Dr Yorke’s research addresses this challenge by developing experimental approaches that reveal these rapid changes as they occur. She tackles this challenge by developing experimental approaches to capture these processes in real time.

She said: “Using time-resolved crystallography, my work combines ultrafast X-ray measurements with light-triggered reactions to take a series of structural snapshots of a protein as it changes over time. These snapshots can be assembled into ‘molecular movies’ that reveal how biological function emerges from structural motion.”

On receiving the prize, she said: “I am delighted and honoured to receive this prize. It is a privilege to have my research recognised and I am very grateful to the colleagues, collaborators, and students who have contributed to it.

“This award is also a reflection of the supportive and collaborative research environments at the University of Leeds and international X-ray facilities that have made this work possible.”

Read the full press release on the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences.