Peter J. NIXON
Peter Nixon is Professor of Biochemistry at Imperial College London. His research interests lie in the general area of natural photosynthesis with focus on understanding the biogenesis of the thylakoid membrane and how the photosynthetic complexes are assembled and repaired, especially the oxygen-evolving photosystem II (PSII) complex. Research highlights include identification of the key amino-acid residues involved in ligating PSII cofactors, identification and structural analysis of the FtsH protease complex involved in PSII repair, isolation of PSII assembly complexes and structural analysis of PSII assembly factors. In the past few years, Peter and colleagues have focused on enhancing the light reactions of oxygenic photosynthesis by re-engineering the ATP synthase and by introducing far-red chlorophylls into the photosynthetic apparatus to increase the amount of photosynthetically active radiation available to drive photosynthesis. As part of this effort, his research group has isolated and characterized a modified form of photosystem two that is involved in the synthesis of chlorophyll f, which will be the subject of the presentation. In addition, Peter has research interests in chloroplast and cyanobacterial synthetic biology with the aim to develop more sustainable light-driven production platforms.
Abstracts this author is presenting: