Dr Neal Williams

Neal obtained his PhD at the University of Sydney, in the cancer research laboratory of Prof. Richard Christopherson, working on protein structure/function relationships in mammalian dihydroorotase, an enzyme involved in nucleotide biosynthesis.  He then did postdoctoral work as a CJ Martin Fellow with Prof. Judith Klinman, Chemistry Dept. UC Berkeley, on the auto-biogenesis mechanism of topa-quinone, the tyrosine residue-derived cofactor of the copper amine oxidases.  Completion of his Fellowship, and subsequent work with Prof. Nick Dixon, Research School of Chemistry ANU, involved research on aspects of bacterial DNA synthesis, and the development of an in vitro protein synthesis system.  In addition, he worked on methods to assist NMR protein structure determination, including an intein-based E. coli expression vector able to produce cyclized recombinant proteins (joined from the C- to N-termini).  Neal was also the inaugural Sir Zelman Cowen Fellow in Molecular Biology at the Sydney University Bosch Institute, and worked at Monash University with Prof. Rossjohn on various aspects of structural immunology, and solved the the X-ray structures of Jak1 and Lyn kinases with various inhibitors.