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.
Superti-Furga G, Lackner D, Wiedmer T, Ingles-Prieto A, Barbosa B, Girardi E, Goldmann U, Gürtl B, Klavins K, Klimek C, Lindinger S, Liñeiro-Retes E, Müller AC, Onstein S, Redinger G, Reil D, Sedlyarov V, Wolf G, Crawford M, Everley R, Hepworth D, Liu S, Noell S, Piotrowski M, Stanton R, Zhang H, Corallino S, Faedo A, Insidioso M, Maresca G, Redaelli L, Sassone F, Scarabottolo L, Stucchi M, Tarroni P, Tremolada S, Batoulis H, Becker A, Bender E, Chang YN, Ehrmann A, Müller-Fahrnow A, Pütter V, Zindel D, Hamilton B, Lenter M, Santacruz D, Viollet C, Whitehurst C, Johnsson K, Leippe P, Baumgarten B, Chang L, Ibig Y, Pfeifer M, Reinhardt J, Schönbett J, Selzer P, Seuwen K, Bettembourg C, Biton B, Czech J, de Foucauld H, Didier M, Licher T, Mikol V, Pommereau A, Puech F, Yaligara V, Edwards A, Bongers BJ, Heitman LH, IJzerman AP, Sijben HJ, van Westen GJP, Grixti J, Kell DB, Mughal F, Swainston N, Wright-Muelas M, Bohstedt T, Burgess-Brown N, Carpenter L, Dürr K, Hansen J, Scacioc A, Banci G, Colas C, Digles D, Ecker G, Füzi B, Gamsjäger V, Grandits M, Martini R, Troger F, Altermatt P, Doucerain C, Dürrenberger F, Manolova V, Steck AL, Sundström H, Wilhelm M, Steppan CM
Nat Rev Drug Discov. 2020-4-7 . .doi: 10.1038/d41573-020-00056-6
PMID: 32265506Bushell SR, Pike ACW, Falzone ME, Rorsman NJG, Ta CM, Corey RA, Newport TD, Christianson JC, Scofano LF, Shintre CA, Tessitore A, Chu A, Wang Q, Shrestha L, Mukhopadhyay SMM, Love JD, Burgess-Brown NA, Sitsapesan R, Stansfeld PJ, Huiskonen JT, Tammaro P, Accardi A, Carpenter EP
Nat Commun. 2019-9-2 . 10(1):3956 .doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-11753-1
PMID: 31477691Strain-Damerell C, Burgess-Brown NA
Methods Mol. Biol.. 2019-7-4 . 2025:281-296 .doi: 10.1007/978-1-4939-9624-7_13
PMID: 31267458Dong YY, Wang H, Pike ACW, Cochrane SA, Hamedzadeh S, Wyszyński FJ, Bushell SR, Royer SF, Widdick DA, Sajid A, Boshoff HI, Park Y, Lucas R, Liu WM, Lee SS, Machida T, Minall L, Mehmood S, Belaya K, Liu WW, Chu A, Shrestha L, Mukhopadhyay SMM, Strain-Damerell C, Chalk R, Burgess-Brown NA, Bibb MJ, Barry Iii CE, Robinson CV, Beeson D, Davis BG, Carpenter EP
Cell. 2018-11-1 . 175(4):1045-1058.e16 .doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2018.10.037
PMID: 30388443Bradley AR, Echalier A, Fairhead M, Strain-Damerell C, Brennan P, Bullock AN, Burgess-Brown NA, Carpenter EP, Gileadi O, Marsden BD, Lee WH, Yue W, Bountra C, von Delft F
Essays Biochem.. 2017-11-8 . 61(5):495-503 .doi: 10.1042/EBC20170051
PMID: 29118096Tumber A, Nuzzi A, Hookway ES, Hatch SB, Velupillai S, Johansson C, Kawamura A, Savitsky P, Yapp C, Szykowska A, Wu N, Bountra C, Strain-Damerell C, Burgess-Brown NA, Ruda GF, Fedorov O, Munro S, England KS, Nowak RP, Schofield CJ, La Thangue NB, Pawlyn C, Davies F, Morgan G, Athanasou N, Müller S, Oppermann U, Brennan PE
Cell Chem Biol. 2017-2-27 . .doi: 10.1016/j.chembiol.2017.02.006
PMID: 28262558Grieben M, Pike AC, Shintre CA, Venturi E, El-Ajouz S, Tessitore A, Shrestha L, Mukhopadhyay S, Mahajan P, Chalk R, Burgess-Brown NA, Sitsapesan R, Huiskonen JT, Carpenter EP
Nat. Struct. Mol. Biol.. 2016-12-19 . .doi: 10.1038/nsmb.3343
PMID: 27991905Johansson C, Velupillai S, Tumber A, Szykowska A, Hookway ES, Nowak RP, Strain-Damerell C, Gileadi C, Philpott M, Burgess-Brown N, Wu N, Kopec J, Nuzzi A, Steuber H, Egner U, Badock V, Munro S, LaThangue NB, Westaway S, Brown J, Athanasou N, Prinjha R, Brennan PE, Oppermann U
Nat. Chem. Biol.. 2016-5-23 . .doi: 10.1038/nchembio.2087
PMID: 27214403Bavetsias V, Lanigan RM, Ruda GF, Atrash B, McLaughlin MG, Tumber A, Mok NY, Le Bihan YV, Dempster S, Boxall KJ, Jeganathan F, Hatch SB, Savitsky P, Velupillai S, Krojer T, England KS, Sejberg J, Thai C, Donovan A, Pal A, Scozzafava G, Bennett JM, Kawamura A, Johansson C, Szykowska A, Gileadi C, Burgess-Brown NA, von Delft F, Oppermann U, Walters Z, Shipley J, Raynaud FI, Westaway SM, Prinjha RK, Fedorov O, Burke R, Schofield CJ, Westwood IM, Bountra C, Müller S, van Montfort RL, Brennan PE, Blagg J
J. Med. Chem.. 2016-1-7 . .doi: 10.1021/acs.jmedchem.5b01635
PMID: 26741168Montgomery AB, Kopec J, Shrestha L, Thezenas ML, Burgess-Brown NA, Fischer R, Yue WW, Venables PJ
Ann. Rheum. Dis.. 2015-7-24 . .doi: 10.1136/annrheumdis-2015-207656
PMID: 26209657