Research output per year
Research output per year
Professor
United Kingdom
Accepting PhD Students
I lead AIME, a collaborative, multi-disciplinary team of principal investigators, who work on membrane proteins and lipids at Aston. Membrane proteins play pivotal roles in all cellular functions including the transport of nutrients, the export of toxins and cell-cell interactions. They are also ubiquitous: ~30% of all proteins in all cells are membrane proteins. Consequently they are already key drug targets, with the majority of prescription pharmaceuticals on the market being targeted to this class of protein. Unfortunately, however, they are neither naturally abundant nor stable, which means that in the vast majority of cases extracting them from natural sources is not a viable option in order to study their structures, functions and biochemistry.
A main theme of my research activity is developing yeast as a “cell factory” to synthesize recombinant membrane proteins in sufficient quantity and of appropriate quality for further study. My team's approach is to move away from “trial and error” and to rationalize recombinant protein production by understanding the host cell response to it. We aim to increase the volumetric yield, increase the yield “per cell” and understand the molecular mechanisms involved.
I work on a range of membrane proteins. However, my main focus is understanding the regulation of the aquaporin water channel proteins. Aquaporins form one of the protein families we produce in our yeast cell factories and are of interest as novel drug targets. We first showed that AQP1 is regulated by extracellular water availability (Biochemistry. 2010, 49:821-3). This work was featured on the front cover of its issue, and as part of the 50th birthday cover. These early findings culminated in our 2020 publication in Cell (2020, 181, 784-799) where we show that subcellular localization of AQP4 can be targetted to treat brain and spinal cord swelling. We also work on tetraspanins, especially CD81, as well as a range of GPCRs.
I acknowledge the European Research Council, the European Commission, Research England, BBSRC, EPSRC, Innovate UK, AstraZeneca Ltd, Alpha Biologics Ltd, Applikon Biotechnology, Johnson & Johnson, Glycoform Ltd, GSK Ltd, and Polytherics Ltd for their support. I have co-ordinated three Framework Programme 6 projects: European Membrane Protein Consortium(E-MeP), E-MeP-Lab and OptiCryst. My reserach team was a partner of the Framework Programme 7 EDICT project. I am a current ERC Advanced Grantee.
See my profile on ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Roslyn_Bill and ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1331-0852
Follow me on Twitter (X): @RoslynBill
DPhil; Wellcome Trust Prize Student, University of Oxford, Bio-Organic Chemistry, 1995.
BA (Hons) 1st Class; University of Oxford, Chemistry, 1990; MA 1993.
2023 ERC Advanced Grantee
2019 Aston University Chancellor’s Medal for Outstanding Contribution
2019 Federation of European Biochemical Societies (FEBS) National Lecturer
2017 Awarded Aston University 50th Anniversary Chair Medal
2013 Elected to Fellowship of the Royal Society of Chemistry (CChem FRSC)
2013 Elected to Senior Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA)
2012 Elected to Fellowship of the Royal Society of Biology (FRSB)
2000- Member, Biochemical Society
1996-1998 Fulbright Award
1994 Elected to Membership of the Royal Society of Chemistry (CChem MRSC)
1991-1994 Wellcome Trust Prize Studentship
1986-1990 Numerous annual undergraduate prizes, including University Scholarship (St Hilda’s College, 1986-1990) and the Turbutt Prize for Practical Organic Chemistry
Research Councils
Journals
Learned Societies
I am the coordinator of the final year module, BC6ACM, Advanced Cell Membranes
Member of the Biosciences Research Group; Cellular and Molecular Biomedicine
Director - Aston Membrane Proteins and Lipids
email: [email protected]
telephone: +44 121 204 4274
fax: +44 121 204 4175
Chair, BBSRC Research Committee E
Full Panel Member, REF2021 Sub-Panel 8, REF2021 sub-panel 8
Executive Editor, BBA-Biomembranes
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to journal › Review article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Hawkins, O. P. (Creator), Jahromi, C. P. T. (Creator), Gulamhussein, A. (Creator), Nestorow, S. A. (Creator), Rothnie, A. (Creator), Bill, R. (Creator), Goddard, A. (Creator), Simms, J. (Creator), Bahra, T. (Creator), Shelton, C. (Creator), Owusu-mensah, Q. K. (Creator), Mohiddin, N. (Creator), O'rourke, H. (Creator), Ajmal, M. (Creator), Byrnes, K. (Creator), Khan, M. (Creator), Nahar, N. N. (Creator), Lim, A. (Creator), Harris, C. (Creator), Healy, H. (Creator), Hasan, S. W. (Creator), Ahmed, A. (Creator), Jones, L. (Creator), Vaitsopoulou, A. (Creator), Akram, A. (Creator), Williams, C. M. (Creator), Binding, J. (Creator), Thandi, R. K. (Creator), Joby, A. (Creator), Guest, A. (Creator), Mohammed, Z. (Creator), Rasool, F. (Creator), Cavanagh, L. (Creator), Kang, S. (Creator), Asparuhov, B. (Creator), Jestin, A. (Creator) & Dafforn, T. R. (Creator), Aston Data Explorer, 29 Jun 2021
DOI: 10.17036/researchdata.aston.ac.uk.00000507
Dataset
Ayub, H. (Creator), Clare, M. (Creator), Milic, I. (Creator), Chmel, N. P. (Creator), Böning, H. (Creator), Devitt, A. (Creator), Krey, T. (Creator), Bill, R. (Creator) & Rothnie, A. (Creator), Aston Data Explorer, 19 Dec 2019
DOI: 10.17036/researchdata.aston.ac.uk.00000454, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0005273620302625
Dataset
Hardy, D. (Creator), Bill, R. (Creator), Rothnie, A. (Creator) & Jawhari, A. (Creator), Aston Data Explorer, 11 Jul 2019
DOI: 10.17036/researchdata.aston.ac.uk.00000432, https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2472555219867074
Dataset
Low, F. (Creator), Shabir, K. (Creator), Brown, J. (Creator), Bill, R. (Creator) & Rothnie, A. (Creator), Aston Data Explorer, 7 Oct 2020
DOI: 10.17036/researchdata.aston.ac.uk.00000483
Dataset
Hardy, D. (Creator), Bill, R. (Creator), Jawhari, A. (Creator) & Rothnie, A. (Creator), Aston Data Explorer, 10 Jul 2019
DOI: 10.17036/researchdata.aston.ac.uk.00000431, https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2472555219867070
Dataset
Bill, R. (Editorial board member)
Activity: Peer-review and editorial work types › Editorial activity
Bill, R. (Examiner)
Activity: Examination types › Examination
Bill, R. (Guest editor)
Activity: Peer-review and editorial work types › Editorial activity
Bill, R. (Editorial board member)
Activity: Peer-review and editorial work types › Editorial activity
Bill, R. (Guest editor)
Activity: Peer-review and editorial work types › Editorial activity