Dr John Danial
Senior Research Fellow
Biography
I obtained my DPhil in Physical and Theoretical Chemistry from the University of Oxford as a Weidenfeld–Louis Dreyfus Scholar under the supervision of Professor Mark I. Wallace (now Professor of Chemistry at King’s College London). I then joined the group of Professor Ana Garcia-Saez (now Director at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysics) at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems and the Interfaculty Institute of Biochemistry at the University of Tübingen as a Max Planck Society–funded postdoctoral research fellow.
Following this, I moved to the University of Cambridge as a postdoctoral research associate funded by EISAI and the UK Dementia Research Institute (UK DRI), working with Professor Sir David Klenerman FRS (Royal Society Research Professor) at the Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry and the UK DRI. During this period, I was also a College Research Associate at King’s College, Cambridge, and a Bye Fellow at Homerton College, Cambridge.
I am currently an MRC Career Development Fellow and a proleptic Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Experimental Biophotonics
Research areas
Biology and disease are heterogenous. Same proteins can adopt different conformational structures leading to different diseases. However, It is currently impossible to visualise protein structures in human samples with existing methods.
My lab develops new instrumentation, assays, and software to probe and image protein structure with light. Our eventual aim is to democratise these technologies and use them to study and diagnose fatal neurodegenerative diseases.
PhD supervision
- Keer Feng
- Ava Kelly
Selected publications
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Open access
Co-aggregation with apolipoprotein E modulates the function of amyloid-β in Alzheimer's disease
Xia, Z., Prescott, E. E., Urbanek, A., Wareing, H. E., King, M. C., Olerinyova, A., Dakin, H., Leah, T., Barnes, K. A., Matuszyk, M. M., Dimou, E., Hidari, E., Zhang, Y. P., Lam, J. Y. L., Danial, J. S. H., Strickland, M. R., Jiang, H., Thornton, P., Crowther, D. C. & Ohtonen, S. & 11 others, , 1 Jun 2024, In: Nature Communications. 15, 1, 18 p., 4695.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Open access
Gasdermin D cysteine residues synergistically control its palmitoylation-mediated membrane targeting and assembly
Margheritis, E., Kappelhoff, S., Danial, J., Gehle, N., Kohl, W., Kurre, R., González Montoro, A. & Cosentino, K., 1 Oct 2024, In: EMBO Journal. 43, 19, p. 4274-4297 24 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Open access
Selective suppression of oligodendrocyte-derived amyloid beta rescues neuronal dysfunction in Alzheimer’s disease
Rajani, R. M., Ellingford, R., Hellmuth, M., Harris, S. S., Taso, O. S., Graykowski, D., Lam, F. K. W., Arber, C., Fertan, E., Danial, J. S. H., Swire, M., Lloyd, M., Giovannucci, T. A., Bourdenx, M., Klenerman, D., Vassar, R., Wray, S., Sala Frigerio, C., Busche, M. A. & Simons, M. (Editor), 23 Jul 2024, (E-pub ahead of print) In: PLoS Biology. 22, 7, 30 p., e3002727.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review