Rate My Professor Adam Middleton

Dr Adam Middleton is a Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Otago, Faculty of Biomedical Sciences. Hailing from Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada, he completed his undergraduate and PhD studies in Biochemistry at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, from 2006 to 2012, under the supervision of Professor Peter Davies, researching proteins that prevent plant freezing. Middleton joined the University of Otago as a postdoctoral researcher in Professor Catherine Day's laboratory around 2012 and has progressed to lead his own research group as an Honorary Senior Research Fellow.

Middleton's research centers on protein biochemistry, structural biology, and apoptosis, focusing on the regulation of ubiquitin transfer by E2 enzymes and E3 ligases, ubiquitin chain formation including Lys48-linked chains, and ubiquitin variants that inhibit specific components of the ubiquitin machinery. He utilizes biophysical techniques such as X-ray crystallography and high-throughput methods for analyzing these interactions. In 2020, he was awarded the Sir Charles Hercus Health Research Fellowship by the Health Research Council of New Zealand, valued at $600,000 over four years, to explore the ubiquitin-proteasome system for therapeutics in neurodegenerative diseases including Parkinson's. Key publications include "RNF114, a RING E3 ligase that reads and extends the hybrid ADP-ribose-ubiquitin signal" (EMBO Journal, 2025, with C. L. Day), "Arkadia and Ark2C promote substrate ubiquitylation with multiple E2 enzymes" (Journal of Molecular Biology, 2025), "Structural and biophysical characterisation of ubiquitin variants that inhibit the ubiquitin conjugating enzyme Ube2d2" (FEBS Journal, 2024), and contributions to HRC and Marsden Fund projects. His work elucidates protein degradation mechanisms with implications for disease treatment.