Professor Alan Berry

We have a wide range of interests in synthetic biology and its applications in generating novel proteins and enzymes using rational design and directed evolution. Our work spans biochemistry and chemistry with an emphasis on the enzymes that make and break carbon-carbon bonds, particularly aldolases, terpene synthases and polyketide synthases. We have used the modern methods of protein engineering and directed evolution to alter the specificity of enzyme reactions, the stability of enzymes and their stereochemistry, and structural techniques such as X-ray crystallography, cryo-electron microscopy and NMR spectroscopy with enzyme kinetics and advanced reaction modelling to characterise the resulting enzymes.