Simon Brackenridge

After graduating with a BSc in Molecular Biology from the University of Edinburgh, I moved to Oxford to take up a D.Phil under the supervision of Nicholas Proudfoot at the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, studying eukaryotic transcription termination and polyadenylation. Following completion of my thesis, I remained as a post-doctoral researcher in the Proudfoot laboratory for two years, before moving to the Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, studying alternative splicing of an atypical 5' splice site in the human Fibroblast Growth Factor Receptor genes with Gavin Screaton. I then joined the group of Professor Sir Andrew McMichael, initially helping develop a new microarray platform in collaboration with Oxford Gene Technology, before moving on to projects on HLA-C expression, and 3 domain Killer Immunoglobulin-like Receptors (KIRs). For the last few years, my work has focused on the molecular biology of MHC-E, part of a collaboration with Louis Picker (Oregon Health and Science University). In addition to using cellular assays to understand the binding of noncanonical peptides by MHC-E, I am also investigating the host factors required by human and rhesus macaque Cytomegaloviruses for the maintenance of HLA-E expression following disruption of both the peptide processing pathway and classical MHC Class I expression. On a more general level, I also provide molecular biology support for both the McMichael and Borrow groups.