Nicola Burgess-Brown was born in Northern Ireland. After graduating with a degree in biochemistry from the University of Ulster, she moved to SmithKline Beecham where she worked for 1 year before pursuing a PhD in Molecular Microbiology at Nottingham, also sponsored by SB. She then moved to Oxford GlycoSciences, in a team that aimed to identify and validate novel oncology targets for generating therapeutic antibodies. Nicola returned to academia to the University of Oxford to lead a team in Biotechnology within the Structural Genomics Consortium. Over the course of 17 years, working in a highly collaborative environment, her team developed cutting edge technologies and high-throughput (HTP) platforms to express a plethora of very challenging human proteins for structural and functional analyses. From September 2021, she led the Enzymology and Protein Engineering Team at Exact Sciences Innovation in Oxford, producing proteins for cancer diagnostic research. Since January 2024, she rejoined the SGC, working as a consultant (Chief Operating Officer, Protein Sciences) coordinating protein production across the 6 SGC sites and, from April 2025, became a Professorial Research Fellow in Protein Sciences at UCL.
Nicola's research interests include developing novel technologies to express and purify proteins for many applications including drug discovery, cancer diagnostics and vaccine development. She is interested in finding new methods for tackling highly challenging proteins, and at Oxford, developed methodologies for expressing and purifying human integral membrane proteins. She is also keen to work on targets involved in antimicrobial resistance, having studied quorum sensing during her PhD. Throughout her career, she has enjoyed collaborative research which has enabled productive interactions with colleagues in academia and industry partners.
Chi G, Jaślan D, Kudrina V, Böck J, Li H, Pike ACW, Rautenberg S, Krogsaeter E, Bohstedt T, Wang D, McKinley G, Fernandez-Cid A, Mukhopadhyay SMM, Burgess-Brown NA, Keller M, Bracher F, Grimm C, Dürr KL
Structure. 2024-5-23 . .doi: 10.1016/j.str.2024.05.005
PMID: 38815576Chi G, Liang Q, Sridhar A, Cowgill JB, Sader K, Radjainia M, Qian P, Castro-Hartmann P, Venkaya S, Singh NK, McKinley G, Fernandez-Cid A, Mukhopadhyay SMM, Burgess-Brown NA, Delemotte L, Covarrubias M, Dürr KL
Nat Commun. 2022-7-15 . 13(1):4087 .doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-29594-w
PMID: 35840580Nie L, Pascoa TC, Pike ACW, Bushell SR, Quigley A, Ruda GF, Chu A, Cole V, Speedman D, Moreira T, Shrestha L, Mukhopadhyay SMM, Burgess-Brown NA, Love JD, Brennan PE, Carpenter EP
Nat Struct Mol Biol. 2021-6-13 . 28(6):512-520 .doi: 10.1038/s41594-021-00605-6
PMID: 34117479Chi G, Ebenhoch R, Man H, Tang H, Tremblay LE, Reggiano G, Qiu X, Bohstedt T, Liko I, Almeida FG, Garneau AP, Wang D, McKinley G, Moreau CP, Bountra KD, Abrusci P, Mukhopadhyay SMM, Fernandez-Cid A, Slimani S, Lavoie JL, Burgess-Brown NA, Tehan B, DiMaio F, Jazayeri A, Isenring P, Robinson CV, Dürr KL
EMBO J. 2021-5-25 . e107294 .doi: 10.15252/embj.2020107294
PMID: 34031912Ferreira IM, Edwin N Quesñay J, Bastos AC, Rodrigues CT, Vollmar M, Krojer T, Strain-Damerell C, Burgess-Brown NA, von Delft F, Yue WW, Dias SM, Ambrosio AL
Biochimie. 2021-3-18 . .doi: 10.1016/j.biochi.2021.03.009
PMID: 33746066Mahajan P, Ellis K, Mukhopadhyay S, Fernandez-Cid A, Chi G, Man H, Dürr KL, Burgess-Brown NA
Methods Mol Biol. 2020-10-31 . 2199:95-115 .doi: 10.1007/978-1-0716-0892-0_6
PMID: 33125646Strain-Damerell C, Mahajan P, Fernandez-Cid A, Gileadi O, Burgess-Brown NA
Methods Mol Biol. 2020-10-31 . 2199:23-43 .doi: 10.1007/978-1-0716-0892-0_3
PMID: 33125643Mahajan P, Strain-Damerell C, Mukhopadhyay S, Fernandez-Cid A, Gileadi O, Burgess-Brown NA
Methods Mol Biol. 2020-10-31 . 2199:67-94 .doi: 10.1007/978-1-0716-0892-0_5
PMID: 33125645Burgess-Brown NA, Mahajan P, Strain-Damerell C, Fernandez-Cid A, Gileadi O, Gräslund S
Methods Mol Biol. 2020-10-31 . 2199:45-66 .doi: 10.1007/978-1-0716-0892-0_4
PMID: 33125644Rödström KEJ, Kiper AK, Zhang W, Rinné S, Pike ACW, Goldstein M, Conrad LJ, Delbeck M, Hahn MG, Meier H, Platzk M, Quigley A, Speedman D, Shrestha L, Mukhopadhyay SMM, Burgess-Brown NA, Tucker SJ, Müller T, Decher N, Carpenter EP
Nature. 2020-4-29 . .doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2250-8
PMID: 32499642