Alan Goddard

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Professor Alan Goddard

Dr

 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4950-7470

    Personal profile

    Contact Details

    Email: [email protected]

    Phone: +44 121 204 3178

    Biography

    I joined the School of Life & Health Sciences in October 2016 as a Lecturer in Biochemistry, having spent the previous four years as a Senior Lecturer in Biochemistry at the University of Lincoln.  Prior to that I spent almost seven years as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oxford.  I completed both my BSc and PhD at the University of Warwick.

    I am the Training and Industry Lead for the Aston Institute for Membrane Excellence (AIME).

     

    Research Interests

    My research interests focus around membrane proteins and the lipid membranes in which they reside.  I have experience of working with a range of membrane protein systems including receptors such as GPCRs, transporters and biogenesis systems.  I use model lipid membranes to study proteins in their native environments and also to probe the effects of various compounds on the integrity of the membrane itself.  For example, I have investigated the lipid-specific effects of antimicrobials and solvent on biological membranes. We leverage our knowledge to create bioinspired membranes.

    I am keen to collaborate on industrially-focussed projects as well as academic ones.  Please get in touch if you would like to know more.

    Current Lab Members:

    • Debbie Toomeoks - Programme Manager (BIOMEM)
    • Dr Carolina Almeida - UKRI funded PDRA.
    • Dr Dominik Brotherton - UKRI funded PDRA.
    • Dr Luke Broadbent - EU Funded PDRA on BIOMEM.
    • Dr Snook Chaimueangchuen - EU Funded PDRA on BIOMEM.
    • Dr Rachel Butler - UKRI funded PDRA.
    • Miguel Ferreira - BBSRC MIBTP PhD student.
    • Divya Panchal - PhD student with Aquaporin A/S.
    • Nawal Hassan - PhD student with Aquaporin A/S.
    • Olamide Babatunde - BBSRC MIBTP PhD student.

    Lab Alumni:

    • Daniel Wiseman - PhD/GTA.  Now a Lecturer at Aston
    • John Linney - PhD. 
    • Monse Roman Lara - PhD. Now at BBSRC
    • Peer Depping - H2020 MSCA COFUND MemTrain student with Iontas. Now at Iontas.
    • Annaïg Rozo - H2020 MSCA COFUND MemTrain student with uFraction8. Now at Sygnature Discovery.
    • Tom Potter - Placement Student. Now at Aston.
    • Dr Sarah Routledge – MeMBrane. Now in industry.
    • Dr Joyce Bennett - Project Manager (MeMBrane).  Now at HBVNet
    • Dr Megan Cox - KTP associate with Meritics. Now at Meritics.
    • Naomi Wilkinson - Placement student. Now at Aston University.
    • Dr David Hardy - ICURe-funded researcher. Now at Peak Proteins.
    • Ravneet Kaur - Aston GCRF Postdoctoral Researcher. Now at University of Birmingham.
    • Sophia Ijaz - Placement student. Now at Aston University
    • Georgia Stevens - Placement student.  Now at Aston University
    • Dr Peter Sanderson - Postdoctoral Researcher.  Solventogenic stress in bacteria.  Now at University of Lincoln.
    • Samantha Penrice - Postdoctoral Researcher.  Geometric morphometric analysis of GPCR structures.
    • Joanna Bird - MSc student.  Peptide-guided drug delivery.  Now at University of Kent

    I am currently accepting PhD students in the fields of biological membranes, biotechnology and strain engineering.

    Qualifications

    BSc (Hons) Biological Sciences with Molecular Genetics, University of Warwick, 2002.

    PhD Biological Sciences, University of Warwick, 2006.

    PGCE HE, University of Lincoln, 2016.

    Employment

    2016 – date: Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, Reader and Professor in Biotechnology, School of Life and Health Sciences, Aston University.
    2012 – 2016: Senior Lecturer in Biochemistry, School of Life Sciences, University of Lincoln.
    2009 – 2012: PDRA, University of Oxford with Prof. Anthony Watts and Dr Mark Wallace.
    2006 – 2009: PDRA, University of Oxford with Prof. Stuart Ferguson, Prof. David Richardson (UEA) and Dr James Moir (York).

    Membership of Professional Bodies

    • Member of Biochemical Society (Local Ambassador).
    • Member of Microbiology Society.
    • Member of British Biophysical Society.
    • Principal Fellow of Higher Education Academy.

    Professional/editorial offices

    I am a member of the editorial board for Antibiotics. Membranes and Microbiology Research.

    Teaching Activity

    I teach across the breadth of life sciences at undergraduate and postgraduate but my main focus in within the area of biochemistry.  I also supervise final year project students and provide academic and pastoral care to tutees.  I am very involved in public engagement and outreach – please get in touch if you would like to know more.

    I am module leader for BC5PDV - Professional Development.

    Research Projects/Collaborations

    February 2025-April 2025

    Aston Bridging Fund (£10,000)

    Bridging funds to support Dr Dominik Brotherton between awards.  Optimal cell factories for membrane protein production.

    April 2025-September 2025

    Diamond Light Source (£19,000 equivalent)

    SEC-SAXS for functionalised polymer-lipid-protein nanodiscs for exquisitely selective water filtration devices. PI: Dr Matthew Derry. Co-I with Prof. Paul Topham.

    December 2024

    Wolfson Foundation (£500,000)

    The Wolfson Centre for Membrane Excellence. PI: Prof. Roslyn Bill. Co-I with Prof. Paul Topham.

    October 2025-September 2029

    Aston PhD+ Scholarship with Mondelez (£40,000 Aston contribution; £40,000 industry)

    Selective removal of bitterness compounds during chocolate production. PI. Co-Is Dr Matthew Derry and Dr John Simms.

    October 2025-September 2033

    BBSRC Doctoral Training Landscape Award (£1,700,000 Aston share)

    Midlands Integrative Biosciences Training Partnership (MIBTP2025). PI: Prof. Vardis Ntoukakis (Warwick); Co-I with Kelly Chennery and Dr Erin Gorsich (Warwick), Dr Alice Rothnie (Aston), Prof. Derek Renshaw and Prof. Mark Wheatley (Coventry), Dr Marin Hare (Harper Adams), Dr Stephen Hall (STFC), Prof. Tim Dafforn and Dr Tim Knowles (Birmingham) and Dr Jonathan McDearmid and Prof. Julian Ketley (Leicester).

    August 2024-May 2026

    UKRI Engineering Biology Seed Corn Fund (£100,000)

    Optimal cell factories for membrane protein production. PI: Dr Alexander Darlington (University of Warwick). Co-PI with Prof. Phillip Stansfeld (University of Warwick) and Dr Douglas Browning and Prof. Roslyn Bill (Aston University).

    August 2024-May 2026

    UKRI Engineering Biology Seed Corn Fund (£100,000)

    Engineering of Extracellular Vesicles for Oral Delivery of Nucleic Acid Therapies. PI: Dr Driton Vllasaliu (King’s College London). Co-PI with Dr Maya Thanou (King’s College London), Prof. Snjezana Stolnik-Trenkic and Prof. Cameron Alexander (University of Nottingham).

    July 2024-July 2025

    BBSRC Impact Accelerator Award (£59,000)

    Development of a novel targeted drug delivery system using polymer lipid particles. PI: Dr Alice Rothnie, Co-I with Dr Lisette Sanchez-Aranguren.

    July 2024-July 2025

    BBSRC ALERT 2023 (£1,488,712)

    Cutting-edge Mass Spectrometry for the Midlands Membrane and Bioscience Communities. PI: Dr Ivana Milic, Co-I with Prof. Andrew Devitt, Prof. Roslyn Bill, Prof. Corinne Spickett, Dr Alice Rothnie, Dr Philip Kitchen, Dr Alfred Fernandez-Castane and Mr Jiteen Ahmed.

    September 2024-September 2025

    Horizon Europe MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowship (€236,748.48)

    Hosting Dr. Ushasree Mrudulakumari Vasudevan. A synthetic yeast methanotroph for methane based sustainable biomanufacturing, Co-I: Dr Stephan Noack (Forschungszentrum Jülich).

    April 2024-April 2025

    DSIT Research Ventures Catalyst (£100,000)

    Exquisitely selective bioinspired filtration membranes. PI. Co-Is Dr Matthew Derry and Luke Southan.

    June 2024-May 2026

    UKRI Engineering Biology Mission Award (£1,654,627.18; Aston share £438,816)

    Engineering of Extracellular Vesicles for Oral Delivery of Nucleic Acid Therapies. PI: Dr Driton Vllasaliu (King’s College London). Co-PI with Dr Maya Thanou (King’s College London), Prof. Snjezana Stolnik-Trenkic and Prof. Cameron Alexander (University of Nottingham).

    June 2024-May 2026

    UKRI Engineering Biology Mission Award (£1,761,242; Aston share £1,078,805)

    Optimal cell factories for membrane protein production. PI: Dr Alexander Darlington (University of Warwick). Co-PI with Prof. Phillip Stansfeld (University of Warwick) and Dr Douglas Browning and Prof. Roslyn Bill (Aston University).

    May 2024-November 2024

    British Council Springboard Award (£9,000)

    Bioinspired membranes for selective recovery from wastewater. PI Dr Matthew Derry. Co-PI with Dr Mona Semsarilar (Institut Europeen des Membranes, France).

    August 2024-March 2027

    Research England Expanding Excellence in England (£9,962,812)

    Aston Institute for Membrane Excellence (AIME). Co-PI with Prof. Roslyn Bill, Prof. Paul Topham, Dr Alice Rothnie, Prof. Andrew Devitt, Prof. Corinne Spickett, Dr Matthew Derry and Dr Alfred Fernandez-Castane.

    April 2024-March 2027

    EU Horizon Pathfinder (€3,000,000; Aston share €880,000)

    BIOmimetic selective extraction MEMbranes (BIOMEM). PI. Co-Is Dr Matthew Derry, Prof. Paul Topham, Prof. Roslyn Bill, Dr Alice Rothnie, Prof. Brian Tighe. Collaboration with Aquaporin A/S, Glycom A/S, European Institute of Membranes – University of Montpellier, Tampere University and University of Copenhagen.

    January 2024-December 2026

    EPSRC ECR International Collaboration Grant (£199997.60 + £23,500 in kind)

    Bioinspired Membranes for Water Purification. PI: Dr Matthew Derry. Co-I. With Aquaporin A/S (Denmark) and Dr Mona Semsarilar (Institut Européen des Membranes, Université de Montpellier, France).

    October 2023-January 2024

    HVBNet Follow on Fund (£34,262 + £27,580 in kind)

    Characterising changes in membrane composition during spinosyn production. Co-I: Dr Maria Monserrat Roman Lara, with Corteva Agriscience.

    October 2023-September 2027

    BBSRC MIBTP Studentship (£120,000)

    Cell membrane engineering for biotechnology.  Co-I: Dr Ivana Milic.

    June 2023 - May 2025

    Horizon Europe MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowship (€236,748.48)

    Hosting Dr Longinus Ifeanyi Igbojionu. An integrated approach to ethanol production from rice straw via microwave-assisted deep eutectic solvent pre-treatment and sequential cultivation using Candida tropicalis and Saccharomyces cerevisiae. PI: Dr Alfred Fernandez-Castane, Co-I with Dr Katie Chong.

    April 2023-March 2026

    50/50 PhD Studentship with Aquaporin. (£40,000 + £40,000)

    Membrane protein production for advanced bioinspired membranes for water separation. PI with Co-Is Prof. Paul Topham, Dr Matthew Derry and Prof. Roslyn Bill.

    April 2023-September 2027

    50/50 PhD Studentship with Aquaporin. (£40,000 + £40,000)

    Novel polymers for advanced bioinspired membranes for water separation. PI with Co-Is Prof. Paul Topham, Dr Matthew Derry and Prof. Roslyn Bill.

    October 2023-September 2027

    BBSRC CASE PhD Studentship with F2G Ltd. (£100,000)

    Investigation of antifungal drug targets.  Co-I with Dr Alice Rothnie.

    November 2022-November 2023

    Corteva Agriscience funded PDRA (£160,645.88)

    1-year PDRA position to investigate the effects of confidential bioproducts on cell membranes during fermentation.

    October 2022-September 2023

    BBSRC Impact Accelerator Award & Aston Pump Priming (£30,000 + £30,000)

    Bioinspired membranes as exquisitely selective filters.

    October 2022-March 2026

    College of Engineering and Physical Sciences and Gymshark PhD studentship (£50,000 + £50,000)

    Bioremediation of Elastane within the Textile Industry. Co-PI with Dr Alfred Fernandez-Castane.

    January 2022-December 2023

    KTP with Biocleave Ltd (£143,129 + £70,496 company contribution)

    Expression of membrane proteins in Clostridia. PI with Co-I Prof. Roslyn Bill.

    January 2022-July 2022

    UKRI/FSA Joint Call in Citizen Science for Food (£38,962)

    Exploring the chopping board microbiome. PI with Co-Is Prof. Anthony Hilton, Dr Tony Worthington and Dr Rachel Pateman (University of York).

    October 2021-September 2025

    BBSRC MIBTP CASE Studentship with Refeyn (£120,000)

    Using light to weigh membrane proteins in lipid bilayers.  PI: Prof. Roslyn Bill, Co-I with Dr Alice Rothnie.

    October 2021-September 2025

    BBSRC MIBTP Studentship (£120,000)

    Biotechnology at the cell membrane.  Co-I: Prof. Roslyn Bill.

    April 2021-March 2022

    British Council UK/Australia Season 2021-22 COP26 Grant (£24,614.50)

    Biotechnological Knowledge Transfer in a Pandemic-affected World.  PI with Co-Is Prof. Roslyn Bill, Dr Sara Kyne (Monash University, Australia) and Dr Long Dang (University of Danang, Vietnam).

    October 2020 – September 2024

    BBSRC MIBTP CASE Studentship with NanoFCM (£120,000)

    Extracellular Vesicles – defining the functional surface of extracellular vesicles.  PI – Prof. Andrew Devitt, Co-I with Dr Dimitri Aubert (NanoFCM).

    September 2020 – October 2020

    BBSRC High Value Biorenewables NIBB Business Interaction Voucher with Corteva Agriscience (£10,000 + £10,000 in kind)

    Characterising toxicity at the cell membrane during spinosyn biosynthesis.

    January 2020 – October 2020

    UKRI Citizen Science Exploration Grant (£19,765)

    Crowd Sourcing SuperYeast.  PI with Co-Is: Prof. Roslyn Bill, Dr Rachel Pateman (York).

    January 2020 – September 2020

    Midlands Innovation MICRA Post Scientific Proof of Concept Development Grant (£24,883)

    Commercialisation of membrane protein production.  Co-PI: Prof. Roslyn Bill, Mr Luke Southan.

    August 2019 – January 2020

    Innovate UK Midlands ICURe (£35,000)

    Commercialisation of membrane protein production.  Co-PI: Prof. Roslyn Bill, Dr Alice Rothnie, Dr David Hardy and Mr Luke Southan.

    March 2019 – March 2020

    BBSRC 18ALERT (£637,476)

    A mass spectrometry centre for the analysis of glycerolipids, glycerophospholipids and sphingolipids, and their lipid oxidation products. PI: Prof. Andy Pitt, Co-I with Prof. Roslyn Bill, Prof. Corinne Spickett and Prof. Andrew Devitt with Waters Ltd.

    May 2019 - April 2024

    H2020-MSCA-COFUND (€1,952,640; EU contribution €976,320)

    MemTrain - Cell Membrane Training to Advance Industrial Processes.  PI with Co-Is Prof. Roslyn Bill, Prof. David Poyner, Prof. Corinne Spickett. Prof. Andy Pitt, Prof. Brian Tighe and Dr Alice Rothnie.

    January 2019 - June 2021

    KTP with Meritics Ltd. (£126,670 + £62,389 company contribution)

    Characterisation of biological nanoparticles.  Co-PI with Dr Alice Rothnie.

    October 2018 - September 2021

    CONACyT PhD Studentship with Maria Monserrat Roman Lara (£59,083) + Aston University International Scholarship (£21,000)

    Improved Clostridia strains for production of high-value chemicals.

    April 2018

    BBSRC Follow on Fund Pathfinder (£10,733)

    Setting up a core facility for the production and purification of recombinant membrane proteins as a service to research institutions and industry.  PI: Prof. Roslyn Bill; Co-I with Prof. David Poyner and Dr Alice Rothnie.

    March 2018 - March 2019

    Royal Society Research Grant (£14,636)

    Characterising protective lipid changes in solventogenic Clostridia.

    February 2018

    Aston University CLIPP (£500)

    Development of online practical resources.  Co-I with Dr Joanne Gough.

    December 2017

    Aston University Joint Research Group Fund (£3,500)

    Membrane distribution of adiponectin receptors in the presence of oxysterols.  Co-I with PI- Dr Irundika and Co-I Dr James Brown.

    October 2017 -February 2018

    IB Catalyst Seeding Award – BioProNet (£24,968)

    Improved microfluidic devices for downstream bioprocess separation of sub-micron targets with uFraction8 Ltd.

    April 2018 -October 2021

    ERA-NET Cofund on Biotechnologies - ERA CoBioTech (PI €2,400,000; Aston share £790,993 BBSRC-funded)

    MeMBrane - MEmbrane Modulation for BiopRocess enhANcEment. Five academic (Aston, York, Groningen, Julich, IATA-CISC) and two industrial (Lallemand and Pakmaya) partners.

    External positions

    External Examiner, Liverpool John Moores University

    2017 → 2021

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