Matt Higgins appointed as the first EP Abraham Professor of Structural Biology in the Department of Biochemistry

Professor Matt Higgins

This is a new Chair position that has been endowed with generous support from the Edward Penley Abraham Research Fund and the EPA Cephalosporin Fund. As the inaugural EP Abraham Professor of Structural Biology within the Department, Matt will provide strategic leadership and support growth in the area of applying new structural biology approaches towards addressing important unanswered questions in biology and disease. 
 
Matt’s research focuses on using a wide range of cutting-edge structural and molecular biology approaches to understand how parasites interact with their human hosts. In the context of this work, Matt has made fundamentally important discoveries in understating the basic molecular mechanisms employed by parasites to infect their human hosts and revealed how they trick the immune system to evade detection. Matt’s group is now using these important insights as a basis to improve and develop therapeutic agents, including vaccines and monoclonal antibodies, to treat human diseases including African sleeping sickness and Malaria. The importance of Matt’s contributions in this area was recently highlighted by his award of the C. A. Wright Medal from the British Society for Parasitology in recognition of his ‘outstanding contribution to the discipline of parasitology’. Further information is available on the Higgins Lab research group website.
 
In the context of his new position at the EP Abraham Professor of Structural Biology, Matt will continue to direct that Wellcome Structural Biology D.Phil programme and will oversee the academic leadership of the Cryo-EM Facility. 

Chris Manning
24^th January 2023