Dr Michael Webster

Biography

I am a Group Leader and UKRI Future Leaders Fellow at the John Innes Centre. Research in my group focuses on understanding how photosynthetic proteins are produced in chloroplasts and cyanobacteria by characterising the structure and function of the gene expression machinery. We combine cryo-EM, biochemistry, biophysics, bioinformatics and proteomic methods to understand protein function and principles of gene expression control. Our recent work includes structural models of the chloroplast transcription machinery, the ribosomes of cyanobacteria and plant chloropalsts, and translation initiation complexes of E. coli. I completed my PhD at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, and then joined the IGBMC in Strasbourg as a postdoctoral EMBO Fellow. I started my research group at the John Innes Centre in 2021.