LAB MEMBERS




EAMONN READING - PI
Eamonn obtained his MSci in Chemistry from the University of Bristol, where he performed research with Dr Wuge Briscoe and Dr Gareth Owen. He then went on to obtain a DPhil at the University of Oxford within the laboratory of Professor Dame Carol Robinson in 2015.
Eamonn joined King's College London as a postdoctoral researcher in Professor Paula Booth’s group in 2015 and was awarded a BBSRC Future Leader (now called Discovery) Fellow between 2016-19. In 2019, Eamonn became a Lecturer in Chemical Biology, starting his independent research group, and Senior Lecturer in 2022.
Eamonn is now a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow (2019-27) and Associate Professor in Molecular Biosciences at the University of Southampton.
He is an appointed committee member of the RSC Analytical Biosciences Group and the BBSRC Pool of Experts (2019-24), and has sat on BBSRC Committee D and E research panels.
DIETMAR HAMMERSCHMID - POST-DOC
Dietmar pursued his undergraduate studies in nutritional science and chemistry at the University of Vienna. After that, he continued with a master degree in biochemistry, for which he joined the mass spectrometry group of Prof. Andreas Rizzi as a thesis student in 2014.
In 2015, he moved to the University of Antwerp where he became a PhD student in the lab's of Prof. Frank Sobott and Prof. Sylvia Dewilde. His PhD focus was mainly on the characterization of membrane proteins by native mass spectrometry. Besides that, he investigated the role of cold atmospheric plasma as a novel structural mass spectrometry tool for hydroxyl radical footprinting of proteins. He finished his PhD at the University of Antwerp in October 2019.
Dietmar joined the Reading lab in 2019 as a UKRI-funded postdoctoral researcher.
BEN LEWIS - PHD STUDENT
Ben achieved an undergraduate degree in Biochemistry from the University of East Anglia in 2018. His final year research project was spent in the John Innes Centre testing novel compounds against DNA Gyrase for antibiotic potential, under Professor Tony Maxwell.
Ben's main research interest has always been protein chemistry, with applications to global health concerns such as antimicrobial resistance (AMR).
Ben joined the Reading lab in 2019 on a King's College London Studentship.
RYAN LAWRENCE - PHD STUDENT
Ryan achieved an undergraduate degree in Biochemistry from UCL in 2021. His final year research project, under Prof Ivan Gout, focused on the antioxidant function of Coenzyme A in regulating the metastasis suppressor protein NME1.
Ryan's main research interests lie within Biochemistry, its many applications, and implication in translational and interdisciplinary research.
Ryan joined the Reading group in 2021 as a BBSRC LIDo iCASE student with UCB BioPharma. His project will explore the dynamics of membrane protein multidrug resistance pumps using hydrogen/deuterium exchange mass spectrometry and Cryo-EM.

POLINA HEATLEY - PHD STUDENT
Polina achieved her MSci in Chemistry with Biomedicine from King’s College London in 2022. She completed her final year research project within the Reading lab, using a phage display platform for the directed evolution of a protein tag.
Following her undergraduate degree, Polina worked as a medical and scientific reviewer within the pharmaceutical industry, which sparked her interest in antibiotic resistance.
Polina joined the Reading group in 2023 on a University of Southampton studentship. Her project will focus on membrane protein efflux pump dynamics in biofilm formation and multidrug resistance.

PREVIOUS MEMBERS
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Valeria Calvaresi - Postdoc, 2022-23 / Next steps: Postdoc within Dr Weston Struwe's group at the University of Oxford
Chloe Bailey - PhD, 2021-23 / Next steps: PhD within Dr Antoni Borysik's group at King's College London
Laila Shah - MSci Student, 2020-21 / Next steps: PhD within Prof Justin Benesch's group at the University of Oxford
Tim Gemeinhardt - Erasmus+ Student, 2019-20 / Next steps: PhD within Prof Nicole Francis’ group at the Montreal Clinical Research Institute
Tabasom Haghighi - Summer Student, 2018 / Next steps: PhD within Prof. Molly Stevens group at Imperial College London