Membrane proteins are crucial drug targets in a wide range of diseases. But, because they’re not naturally abundant, explains Roslyn Bill, a Reader in Molecular Biosciences at Aston University, synthetically generated membrane proteins are what’s needed.

Her research and that of her team (see left) is to find effective and efficient ways to synthesise these synthetic proteins in ‘cell factories’, simple host cells which can be grown on a large scale.

Dr Bill was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Michigan after gaining a First and a PhD at Oxford University, where she also did post-doc work. She was also an Assistant Professor at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden where she was a start-up shareholder in Gotha Yeast Solutions AB before she came to Aston University.

Her research interests are in understanding the molecular features defining successful protein production in yeasts, with an emphasis on membrane proteins such as water and glycerol channels, tetraspanins and G protein-coupled receptors. Many of these membrane proteins are potential drug targets. Her work is funded by EPSRC, BBSRC and the European Commission and she has worked in collaboration with industrial partners throughout her career, as her research is central to progress in the drug discovery pipeline.