Employment Roles for Christopher Southan

 

This page provides locations, role descriptions, managers, collaborators and funding. The achievements for each position are highlighted in a separate document.  Recent managers included on my formal Referees list (available on request) are marked with * and many collaborators are also co-authors.  Many managers and collaborators are also in my LinkedIN network with those who have kindly provided open recommendations marked with #.  

 

 

May 2008 – July 2009: ELIXIR Database Survey Co-ordinator, EMBL Outstation, European Bioinformatics Institute, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton.

 

  • Working for the ELIXIR project manager, Andrew Lyall* (who was also a previous manager at OGS) on a 15-month ELIXIR funded position
  • Regular reviews on the progress and analysis of the survey with Janet Thornton* (EBI Director) and Graham Cameron* (Assistant Director) as well as providing slides for their presentations
  • Main roles were drafting, piloting, distributing, reminding, result collection, dealing with queries and preparing analysis reports for the ELIXIR database provider survey
  • Collaborators for survey design included Rodrigo Lopez and Peter Stoer
  • Aquired expertise in SurveyMonkey.com tools for questionare development and result analysis
  • Inputs and interactions with other ELIXIR workpackage leaders including Mark Forster for WP10, Susanna-Assunta Sansone and Amos Bairoch# for WP7, and Nicolas Le Novère for WP13.3

 

 

Jan 2006 – Nov 2007: Internal Secondment to Global Compound Science, DECS Lead Generation, Computational Chemistry, Mölndal

 

  • Invited for the secondment by Jin Li*#, reporting initially to Niklas Blomberg* and later Sorel Muresan*#
  • Collaborators included Peter Várkonyi, Ola Engkvist, Paul Xie,  Timothy Lovell and Debora Banville
  • Main role of utility exploration and impact assessment for chemical structure databases of relationships between targets, compounds and assay data, both in-house, commercial (e.g.GVKBIO) and public (e.g. PubChem)
  • Gene name and sequence identifier mapping for target portfolios
  • Bioinformatics support and advice for a variety of computational chemistry projects

 

March 2004 – Dec 2005: Principal Scientist, Target Development & Bioinformatics, Department of Molecular Pharmacology AstraZeneca R&, Mölndal, Sweden. 

 

  • Recruited by Morten Søgaard and Sebastian Schneckener# in 2004 but later reporting to Per-Erik Strömstedt*.  
  • Collaborators included Phillipe Cronet,  John Clapham#, Tom Defay and Hugh Salter
  • Team leader for Departmental bioinformatics support
  • Member of Bioinformatics Strategy Steering Group and Target Development & Bioinformatics Section Management Team
  • Appointed Special Professor in Proteomics at University of Nottingham

 

Dec 2001 to Feb 2004:  Proteome Discovery Bioinformatician, Oxford GlycoSciences 

 

  • Reporting to Christian Rohlff*, Director of Proteome Discovery.  
  • Collaborators included Andrew Lyall*, Athula Herath*# and Jonathan Sheldon
  • Working on the Protein Atlas of the Human Genome Project 
  • Quality checking and detailed assessment of protein identifications
  • Data mining for splice variants, SNPs and novel proteins
  • Continuous review of human gene number
  • Liaison with Pioneer/Dupont for annotation of unknown proteins, database selection and cross-species matching of mass-spec data
  • Representation of OGS by presentations at international meetings.

 

Jan 2001 to Dec 2001:  Head of Computational Biology, Gemini Genomics Ltd, 162 Science Park, Milton Rd, Cambridge, CB4 OGH, UK 

 

  • Reporting to Steven Butcher*#, Head of Science UK.
  • Collaborators included Patrick Klyne, Gail Adam and Aruna Bansal
  • Computational biology aspects of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) for genetic association studies
  • Analysis of candidate disease genes from internal projects and external collaborations.
  • Liaison with business development for external collaborations

 

Jan 1996-Dec 2000: Senior Investigator, Bioinformatics Target Discovery, SmithKline Beecham Pharmaceuticals, New Frontiers Science Park, Third Avenue,  Harlow, Essex. CM19 5AW

 

  • Internally recruited by Peter Goodfellow into the Target Discovery section in Dec 1996 reporting initially to Lee Beeley* and later Malcom Duckworth
  • Collaborators included Michael Barnes#, Klaus Schneider, Mark Hurl, Michael Brown#, Christine Debouck and Jonathan Terret
  • Identification and sequence analysis of drug targets from EST and genomic sequences using internal UNIX-based and web resources.
  • Large-scale patent filing of novel genes
  • Managing a database mining project for novel proteases
  • Supporting the Cardiovascular therapeutic area for target discovery
  • Analysing proteomic data from novel proteins. 

 

Oct 1987- Dec 1995:  Senior Investigator, Enymology and Protein Chemistry, SmithKline Beecham Pharmaceuticals, the Frythe, Welwyn, Hertforshire, UK 

 

  • Reporting chronologically to Larry Kruse, Paul England, Keith Suckling, Bob Ife and Richard A. Smith
  • Collaborators included David Tew, Tim Wells, Andy Pope, Colin Macphee, Isro Gloger, and Patrick Camillari
  • Managing a team of three working on viral protease screening and structural characterisation of proteins.
  • Mass-mapping and protein sequencing for identification of proteins blotted from 2D gels 
  • Micro-scale enzyme and peptide purifications
  • Investigation of mechanism-based enzyme inhibitors
  • Internal collaborations for protein chemistry
  • Co-supervision of Ph.D. students.

 

Jan 1986 - Sep 1987: Manger, Cancer Research Campaign UK Protein Sequencing Facility, Molecular Toxicology Group, Department of Biochemistry, University College and Middlesex School of Medicine, London W1P 7PN and Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, School of Pharmacy, University of London, London WC1 1AX

 

  • Initially appointed as a Research Assistant, funded by the CRC,  with Alastair Aitken at the School of Pharmacy.
  • Later promoted to Manager of the relocated UK facility within Brian Ketterer's Molecular Toxicology Group.
  • Collaborators included Brian Coles, David Meyer, Sally Pemble and John Taylor
  • Operating a gas-phase sequencer for cloning of cancer related proteins provided by CRC grant-holders. 
  • HPLC preparation of proteins and peptides 
  • Supervision of a Technician for peptide mapping by HPLC.
  • Advising users of the facility for protein purification 

 

 

Jan 1984 - Dec 1985 Coagulation Research Section, Department of Haematology, Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School, Hammersmith, London W6 8RP.

 

  • Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, funded by the Wellcome Trust with David Lane
  • Collaborators included Elizabeth Thompson and Helen Ireland
  • Characterisation of genetically abnormal fibrinogens and structural investigations of fibrinolysis.
  • HPLC separations of fibrinogen fragments and fibrinopeptides  from blood plasma and platelet cell lysates
  • Manual sequencing of peptides
  • Supervision of a Research Technician for characterisation of abnormal fibrinogens

 

May 1979 - Dec 1983: Department of Protein Chemistry, Max-Plank Institute for Biochemistry, Martinsried, Munich D-8033, Germany.

 

  • Research Assistant,  funded by the DRG (German Research Association)  reporting to Agnes Henschen
  • Collaborators included  Fritz Lottspeich,  Maria Kehl and John Lucas
  • Protein chemical analysis of genetically abnormal fibrinogens.
  • Position converted to a Ph.D studentship in 1981, supervised by the late Bernt Linzen from the Biology Faculty of the Ludwig-Maximillian University of Munich
  • Supervision of Research Technicians and project students

 

Nov 1976 - May 1979: Wittmann Division, Max-Plank Institute for Molecular Genetics, Berlin 33, Germany.

 

  • Research Technician for Adolfo Ruiz-Carillio and later Brigitte Wittmann-Liebold.
  • Collaborators included Jeffrey Allen and Rowan Chang
  • Purification of normal and cross-linked ribosomal peptides,
  • Thin-layer and column chromatography for peptide mapping
  • Amino acid analysis and manual sequencing of peptides.

 

Feb 1976 - Nov 1976:  Division of Communicable Diseases, M.R.C. Clinical Research Centre, Northwick Park Hospital, Harrow, Middlesex HA1 3UJ.

 

  • Technical Assistant to Brenda Thomas.
  • Cell and egg yolk culture of Chlamydia organisms.
  • Growth and passage of eukaryotic cell lines.
  • Infectivity assays in coverslip cell cultures.