Welcome to the Mason Laboratory

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Jody M. Mason

Professor of Biochemistry

University of Bath

Department of Biology & Biochemistry

Bath, BA2 7AY,

United Kingdom

Email: j.mason@bath.ac.uk

 

 

 

Click here for group information

 

Click here for publications

 

Click here for InsiliCoil - A software platform designed to accelerate coiled coil research by providing high-throughput, user-friendly screening technologies for CC inhibitor design and bioengineering.

 

Click here for our other Protein-protein interaction tools.

 

Click here for information on Cascade: an Alzheimers disease awareness game.

 

My research group focuses on the screening, design, synthesis and characterisation of peptide-based antagonists that can inhibit disease-relevant targets with high affinity and specificity. These do so by inhibiting the protein-protein interactions (PPIs) that targets require for function.

 

While forces driving stability are now well understood, much less is known about specificity. Towards these goals we undertake peptide library screening within the complex environment of the cell. This includes Protein-fragment Complementation Assay (PCA), and Transcription Block Survival (TBS) screening platforms. Both utilise semi-rational library design to select peptide antagonists that can engage with a protein target and ablate function. We have further devised a Competitive and Negative Design Initiative (CANDI) technique to increase target-specificity in the PCA system by expressing potential off-targets or first generation hit sequences during the selection process.

 

Library derived peptides and their characterisation have allowed us to create a number of tools towards prediction of PPI stability and specificity based on primary sequence alone, and to consequently design inhibitory peptides as well as in silico libraries.

 

Our screening approaches have been applied to a broad range of therapeutically relevant systems that include signalling proteins, transcription factors, and amyloidogenic proteins such as β-amyloid and α-synuclein that are implicated in the pathogenesis of Alzheimers and Parkinsons diseases, respectively.

 

The research group use a range of multidisciplinary approaches that include molecular biology, chemical biology, and molecular biophysics. Our research has been funded by BBSRC, MRC, EPSRC, CRUK, The Wellcome Trust, Royal Society, Alzheimer's Society, Parkinson's UK and Alzheimer's Research UK.

 

Editorial Board Memberships:

 

-PLOS ONE

-Future Medicinal Chemistry

 

Committee Membership:

-Alzheimers Research UK Grant Review Board (2017-22).

-BBSRC Core Member for Panel D (2019-2023).

-EPSRC Peer Review College (2016-22).

-Member of the Alzheimers Research UK Network

-Member of BRACE: The Bristol and Bath Alzheimers charity

 Recent Major Funding:

-01/2026. ARUK Pilot Project Grant

-08/2025. ARUK Major Project Grant

-07/2024. IUK Transforming Cancer Therapeutics Grant

-07/2024. EPSRC Accelerating the Medicines Revolution Project Grant

-12/2023. BBSRC Project Grant

-01/2023. MRC World Class Labs Award.

-12/2020. MRC Project Grant

-12/2018. CRUK Pioneer Award

-10/2018. BBSRC Project Grant

-10/2018. Alzheimers Research UK Major Project Grant

-10/2018. Alzheimers Society PhD Studentship

-01/2017. BRACE PhD Studentship

-01/2016. Biochemical Society Scientific Outreach Grant

-09/2014. EPSRC Overseas Travel Grant

-10/2012. BBSRC Industrial CASE Studentship (with Isogenica)

-06/2012. Wellcome Trust People Award (With Fayju)

-08/2011 Eppendorf Young Investigator Award (Runner up)

-06/2011. Royal Society Research Grant (with N Kad)

-10/2010. Parkinsons UK PhD Studentship (with N Kad)

-09/2010. Cancer Research UK Career Establishment Award

-05/2010. Wellcome Trust Project Grant

-01/2010. Research into Ageing New Investigator Award

-09/2008. Alzheimers Research Trust Pilot Project

-03/2008. Royal Society Research Grant

-11/2007. Royal Society Conference Grant

 

Information for Applicants:

 

We support applications for external or personal postdoctoral fellowships (e.g. EMBO, HFSP, Marie Curie or government funded) as well as applications from students who would like to undertake a PhD. Please contact Jody Mason for informal discussions.