Recent news
2026 - congraultions to Non for passing his viva
2025 - Congratulations to Jack for passing his viva
2024 - I'm now a PROFESSOR!
2024 - It's been another good year or two for publications with great papers in Cell Reports, iScience, Scientific Reports, Blood Advances, Biomolecules, Biomaterials Science, Nanoscale, Sensors and Diagnostics, and JBC!
2024 - We had a brilliant time in Austria at the Affinity proteomics conference - well done to Anna, Jack, Brian and Lucy who made it fun. Especially well done to Lucy who won a Poster prize!
2023 - Congratulations to Amy for passing her viva in January
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Prof. Darren Tomlinson
Welcome to the Tomlinson lab at the University of Leeds. Our research group is interested in using a novel molecular recognition tool, called an Adhiron (previous known as an Affimer), to study protein function. An Adhiron is a scaffold protein that constrains two randomised loops for molecular recognition. They can be used as alternative reagents to antibodies for applications like diagnostics and used to probe the surface of target proteins to identify key domains involved in protein function. Our laboratory provides a service for screening against many types of molecules but our focus is using the Adhiron scaffold to understand protein function at the molecular level.
MY RESEARCH GROUP
Anna is a PDRA who recently passed her PhD. She is screening against a number of different bacterial targets to develop UTI diagnostics on an EPSRC grant, and uses numerous techniques including phage display, protein expression, molecular biology, and immuno-detection methods.
Thembi is an experienced PDRA funded by the BBSRC to develop Adhirons to disrupt SOS isoform protein-protein interactions. She has experience in a range of techniques including crystallography, cell based assays, phage display and protein biochemistry.
Paul is an experienced PDRA funded by the University of Leeds as the Head of School PDRA. His research is focussed on developing Adhirons for super-resolution microscopy techniques and is using them do deliver proteins intracellularly. He has experience in a range of techniques including imaging, cell based assays, molecular biology and protein biochemistry.
Amy is doing a PhD using Adhirons in drug discovery with Syngenta. Her research is focused on isolating Adhirons that bind and modulate protein interactions associated with pests in agriculture. Amy using phage display, protein biochemistry and numerous biochemical and structural assay in her studies.
Sitthinon just passed his viva (2025). His research focused on developing in vivo tools for studying PAK1 function. Sitthinon uses a range of molecular, cellular and structural biology techniques.
Brian started his PhD in 2023. His research is focused on isolated Adhiron reagents against against allosteric sites on Aurora A. He is funded by the BBSRC and is using phage display, protein biochemistry, structural biology and cell biology in his studies.
Lucy started her PhD in 2023. Her research is focused on characterising the Adhiron reagents that block Ras nanoclustering and developing small molecule inhibitors. She is using a range of techniques including phage display, biochemical assays, and structural biology in her studies.
Lewis has been an important member of our group for a long time. He is know working with Thembi on a BBSRC grant studying SOS1/SOS2 using Adhirons.
George is doing a MRes looking at isolating and charactersing Adhirons reagents that bind to the intrinsically disordered regions on Aurora A. He's using protein biochemistry techniques including ELISA, pull down and DSC.
Christian and Lewis are members of the successful BioScreening Technology Group providing a screening service for isolating Adhiron reagents. Christian is the manager of the group.
