Dave is the Founder and Director of the Division of Structural Biology (STRUBI) and Oxford Centre for EM imaging of Infectious Particles (OPIC) and Life Sciences’ Director at the Diamond Light Source. His work ranges across virus-receptor interactions, basic puzzles of virus assembly and studying virus evolution. He has made numerous contributions to the understanding of the structure of viruses, structural vaccinology and anti-viral drug discovery.
Over the last year, he has led a huge collaborative effort between Diamond, Rosalind Franklin Institute and the University of Oxford studying the structures of SARS-Cov-2 protein structures, and particularly the interaction of the virus’ Spike receptor protein with patient-derived antibodies. This knowledge is being used in anti-COVID19 drug development and tracking and evaluating the significance of new variants. All this work draws heavily on national and international collaborations with academic and industrial partners. Dave has also helped to develop and establish the high-throughput anti-COVID19 antibody screening platform in NDM, which is used by the Office of National Statistics to screen the UK population.