Linda Ball

Education
M.A. Hons. (Oxon) Natural Sciences, Chemistry, University of Oxford, UK
PhD (Cantab) Natural Sciences, Biochemsitry and Biophysics, University of Cambridge, UK

Research areas:
High resolution 3D structure determination and functional investigations of biomolecules and their complexes, wherever possible in near-native solution conditions. Main focus on families of proteins and small molecules of direct medical interest (potentially druggable targets).
• Main biophysical methods: NMR spectroscopy, X-ray, EXAFS, CD, UV, AUC, ITC, Biacore, thermofluor, fluorescence, SPOT array analsyis.
• Main biological/biochemical methods: bio-informatics, plasmid design, overexpression and purification of recombinant proteins, electrophoresis methods, blotting, binding assays, mutational analysis.
• Development and implementation of functional assays for protein families
• Fragment based screening and structure-based optimization of small molecules for modulating protein function using NMR, molecular modelling, SPOT analysis, mutational analysis
• Recent research areas: epigenetics, chromatin dynamics, signalling, apoptosis, biofilms

Languages: English (native), German (business fluent), Italian (basic), French (basic).

Other experience:
Research group leader / Principal Investigator in Molecular Biophysics and Biomolecular NMR,
Project Management, Recruitment and Team Building, Budget Management and Fund-raising, Networking and Collaboration Building, Presentation and Communication
Reviewer for many scientific journals, evaluator of scientific publications for F1000 Biology,
Founder Member of the Protein Modules Consortium (www.proteinmodules.org) and the original Oxford Module Consortium (www.omc.ox.ac.uk).