Wall , Gerard J.

Research Interests

• Production of recombinant proteins (including membrane proteins and glycoproteins) in E. coli, P. pastoris and cell-free systems; optimisation of production of therapeutic and biotechnologically important proteins through the use of, e.g., metabolic and protein engineering, co-production of molecular chaperones
• Antibody-directed tumour therapy: use of molecular evolution and modelling/directed mutagenesis techniques to generate novel variants of mammalian enzymes in E. coli for use in ADEPT; production in E. coli, P. pastoris and cell-free systems
• Study of protein folding and chaperones in extremophilic microorganisms
• Immunosensor development: production and engineering (affinity maturation, increasing stability) of antibody fragments in E. coli for use in immunosensors; investigation of novel supports for protein immobilisation
• Functional biomaterials: use of phage and peptide libraries to direct biodegradable nanoshells to specific cell types for targeted gene delivery

Link to Current Research Group

 

Professional Qualifications and Appointments

Jan 2008 Department of Microbiology, NUI Galway
1996-2007 Assistant Lecturer ('96-'00), Lecturer ('00-'07), Senior Lecturer ('07), Molecular Biology / Immunology, University of Limerick, Ireland
1994-1996 Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Zurich, Switzerland Mentor: Andreas Plückthun
1990-1994 PhD (Molecular Immunology), University of Aberdeen, Scotland. Supervisor: William J. Harris
1986-1990 BSc (1st Hons, Microbiology), NUI Galway

Link to selected Publications