Ali Ebrahim

  • Postdoctoral Research Associate, Keedy Lab, Structural Biology Initiative

Ali is a BSc (Hons) Biology and MPhil Biochemistry graduate of the University of Portsmouth, UK. His MPhil focused on the characterisation of cellulases involved in the production of second-generation biofuels, igniting an interest into the field of X-ray crystallography. He earned his PhD from the University of Essex, UK, in early 2020, under the co-supervision of Dr. Mike Hough from the University of Essex and Dr. Robin Owen from Diamond Light Source, UK. His research focused on the development of serial crystallography data collection and processing methods for both synchrotrons and X-ray free-electron lasers, used to analyse and exploit the effects of radiation damage in metalloproteins. Ali joined the Keedy lab as a postdoc in the spring of 2020 (though the pandemic had something to say about that…). He aims to bring his experience in crystallographic multi-dataset processing and analysis to the ASRC, in order to further unlock understanding within the field of phosphatase ligand binding, activity, and allostery.

Publications

A Ebrahim*, BT Riley*, D Kumaran, B Andi, MR Fuchs, S McSweeney, DA Keedy (* contributed equally). “The temperature-dependent conformational ensemble of SARS-CoV-2 main protease (Mpro).” Accepted to IUCrJ (2022). Also available as a bioRxiv preprint (2021)