Dr Jack Roberts

Biography

Dr Jack Roberts is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Antibody Discovery and Immunology at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM), where he works across antibody discovery, protein engineering, and translational assay development for infectious disease research. He studied Biochemistry at the University of Wolverhampton before completing an MRes in Structural Biology at the University of Liverpool under the supervision of Professor Lu-Yun Lian, and later a Ph.D. in Molecular Medicine at the University of Leeds under the supervision of Professor Darren Tomlinson and Professor Colin Johnson.

His doctoral research, aligned with the SPIDR programme, used engineered Adhiron binders to investigate novel mechanisms for modulating Aurora Kinase A. Through a combination of structural, biochemical, and cell-based approaches, this work identified and validated a cryptic allosteric pocket, establishing a new strategy for selective kinase targeting. His thesis was awarded the Mike McPherson Memorial Prize for best Ph.D. thesis research in Biotechnology and Molecular Biology.

Alongside his current post at LSTM, he holds a Visiting Researcher position at the University of Leeds, where he continues translational follow-up from this work, including collaboration with the Institute for Protein Design at the University of Washington to develop de novo-designed macrocyclic peptides targeting Aurora kinase.

His broader expertise spans antibody and binder engineering, phage and yeast display, recombinant protein production, structural and biophysical characterisation, and functional assay development, supported by previous industrial experience in GMP biologics manufacturing at Ipsen BioPharma.

Research interests

Dr Jack Roberts’ research interests focus on the discovery and engineering of antibodies, synthetic binders, and other designed protein reagents for both mechanistic and translational applications. He is particularly interested in how binding proteins can be developed not simply to recognise targets, but to interrogate function, stabilise defined molecular states, and reveal new opportunities for intervention in challenging biological systems. His work is driven by the view that engineered binders can serve as powerful tools for both understanding biology and opening routes toward therapeutic innovation.

A central theme of his research is the development of integrated discovery pipelines that combine display technologies, recombinant protein production, structural and biophysical analysis, and functional screening. He is interested in approaches that move beyond hit identification alone, instead generating binders that can be characterised in sufficient depth to understand their mechanism, specificity, and practical utility. This includes particular interest in antibody and alternative scaffold engineering, structure-guided optimisation, and assay frameworks that connect molecular binding to biological function.

He is also developing a strong interest in the use of computational and AI-enabled protein design as part of experimentally grounded biologics discovery. In particular, he is interested in how generative design tools, structure prediction methods, and sequence design algorithms can be combined with wet-lab screening to create more efficient, rational, and iterative workflows.

More broadly, his research is shaped by an interest in improving access to biologics and advanced molecular technologies in low- and middle-income countries. He is interested in discovery strategies that couple innovation with practical tractability, including consideration of cost, manufacturability, robustness, and scalability, so that advances in protein engineering can be translated more equitably to settings where infectious disease burden is often greatest.