Sheena Radford facts for kids

Sheena Elizabeth Radford is a British biophysicist, and Astbury Professor of Biophysics and a Royal Society Research Professor in the Astbury Centre for Structural Molecular Biology, School of Molecular and Cellular Biology at the University of Leeds. Radford is the Associate Editor of the Journal of Molecular Biology.

Education

Radford received her BSc in Biochemistry at the University of Birmingham in 1984, and her PhD in Biochemistry at the University of Cambridge in 1987. Radford completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Oxford.

Career and research

Radford was a postdoc and Royal Society University Research Fellow at the University of Oxford, then worked as a Lecturer in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Leeds in 1995, progressing to Reader in 1998 and Professor in 2000. She became the deputy director of the Astbury Centre for Structural Molecular Biology in 2009 then Director in 2012 - 2021. Radford's research investigates protein folding, protein aggregation and amyloid disease. Her multi-disciplinary research focuses include such disciplines as biochemistry, chemistry and medicine.

One major research focus is the role of protein misfolding in the onset of amyloidogenic diseases, including dialysis-related amyloidosis, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Type II diabetes. This has been done with the use of native mass spectrometry, NMR and single molecule methods to characterize intermediates of protein folding and in amyloid formation. A second research focus is on the folding of outer membrane proteins of Gram-negative organisms. Understanding the mechanics of how these proteins fold will help derive new antibiotics. A third arm looks at how the shelf life of pharmaceutical drugs could be extended.

Awards and honours

• 1996, Biochemical Society Colworth Medal
• 2003, Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry
• 2005, Royal Society of Chemistry Astra-Zeneca prize in Proteins and Peptides
• 2007, Elected member of EMBO
• 2009, Ron Hites Award from the American Society for Mass Spectrometry (joint with Professor Alison Ashcroft)
• 2010, Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences
• 2013, Protein Society Carl Brändén Award
• 2014, Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS)
• 2014, Honorary member of the British Biophysical Society
• 2015, Rita and John Cornforth Award of the Royal Society of Chemistry (joint with Professor Alison Ashcroft)
• 2018, Fellow of the Biophysical Society
• 2020, Member of Academia Europaea
• 2020, Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE)
• 2021, Royal Society Professorship
• 2021, Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology
• 2022, Doctorate honoris causa from the University of Liège
• 2024, International Member of the National Academy of Sciences, USA
• 2025, Biochemistry Society Centenary Award

Radford was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedSci) in 2010 and a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2014.

Radford is a member of Faculty of 1000.

Radford was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2020 Birthday Honours for services to molecular biology research.