Joe Thrush
Joe did his PhD at the Rosalind Franklin Institute and King’s College London investigating the mechanism of Nipah Virus-Host Cell Membrane fusion using electron microscopy imaging techniques. He now investigates nanobodies against MERS and Influenza viral glycoproteins as a postdoctoral research associate.
He graduated with an integrated masters in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge, with his final year project focusing on the aggregation of proteins responsible for Parkinson’s Disease. He then worked for 6 months at the Rosalind Franklin Institute in the nanobody discovery team. He decided that he wanted to embark on a PhD here as he enjoyed it so much.
Nanobodies Discovery Platform
Nanobodies are single domain antibodies derived from the unique heavy chain only immunoglobulins of camels, llamas, and alpacas.
Disease X
The World Health Organisation lists Disease X (the name for a currently unknown pathogen that could cause a future epidemic) as a very serious threat to human health. To prepare for Disease X, we are building a pipeline to rapidly identify, and test nanobodies, for detecting and potentially treating future viral diseases