Peter Nixon
Wolfson Biochemistry Building
Department of Life Sciences
Imperial College London
South Kensington Campus
London. SW7 2AZ, UK
Email: [email protected]
About Peter
Research Focus
My group has long-standing research interests in various areas of chloroplast and cyanobacterial molecular biology. Much of the work is done in collaboration.
Key Projects
Structure and function of the Photosystem II complex: Functional and structural studies of mutants are being used to understand the mechanism of photosynthetic water oxidation catalysed by the photosystem II complex.
Assembly and repair of the photosynthetic apparatus: We are studying the pathways by which photosynthetic complexes are assembled and repaired within the thylakoid membrane. The current focus is on the structure of assembly factors and the mechanism of D1 degradation.
Metabolic engineering of the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii: We are using gene silencing technology to modify cellular metabolism in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii with the aim of improving the yields of useful biofuels such as biohydrogen.
Expression of high-value products in the chloroplast: We are developing vector systems and bioreactors for the high-level production of target molecules in the chloroplasts of higher plants and green algae.