Rate My Professor Sheena Radford

Professor Sheena Radford is the Astbury Professor of Biophysics and Royal Society Research Professor in the Faculty of Biological Sciences at the University of Leeds. She obtained her BSc in Biochemistry from the University of Birmingham in 1984 and her PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Cambridge in 1987, supervised by Professor R.N. Perham. After postdoctoral positions and a Royal Society University Research Fellowship at the Oxford Centre for Molecular Sciences, she joined the University of Leeds in 1995 as a Lecturer in the School of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, advancing to Reader in 1998 and Professor in 2000. She was appointed Astbury Professor of Biophysics in 2014 and Royal Society Research Professor in 2021. Radford directed the Astbury Centre for Structural Molecular Biology from 2012 to 2021 and currently leads the Radford Laboratory, supervising PhD students and postdoctoral researchers.

Radford's research investigates protein folding and misfolding mechanisms, focusing on amyloid assembly in diseases including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, type II diabetes, and dialysis-related amyloidosis, outer membrane protein folding in Gram-negative bacteria, and stabilization of biopharmaceuticals against aggregation. Her group integrates biophysical techniques such as NMR, mass spectrometry, cryo-EM, and single-molecule approaches to study conformational dynamics and self-assembly. With over 360 peer-reviewed publications exceeding 39,000 citations, key works include “Instability, unfolding and aggregation of human lysozyme variants underlying amyloid fibrillogenesis” (Nature, 1997), “A new era for understanding amyloid structures and disease” (Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology, 2018), and “Structural evolution of fibril polymorphs during amyloid assembly” (Cell, 2023). Her impact is recognized by awards including the OBE (2020), election as Fellow of the Royal Society (2014), Academy of Medical Sciences Fellow (2010), National Academy of Sciences international member (2024), and Biochemical Society Centenary Award (2025). She serves as Associate Editor of the Journal of Molecular Biology, Trustee of the UK Dementia Research Institute, and has given over 475 invited lectures internationally.