George Heath

University of Leeds, UK

Dr. George Heath is a University Academic Fellow at the University of Leeds in the School of Physics and Astronomy and School of Biomedical Sciences. His PhD work with Prof Stephen Evans and Dr Simon Connell investigated a range of lipid membrane and protein systems using atomic force microscopy (AFM) including actin assembly at membranes, protein diffusion and lipid phase behaviour. He remained in Leeds to perform postdoctoral research, moving across to the School of Biomedical Sciences to work with Prof Lars Jeuken designing bottom up approaches to mimic multi-layered membrane protein systems to understand the biological processes and exploit their properties for biotechnology applications. He then completed a second postdoctoral position in New York working with Prof Simon Scheuring at Weill Cornell Medicine of Cornell University. Here he developed and applied new high-speed AFM methods to study membrane proteins before returning to Leeds in 2019 to start an independent position as University Academic Fellow. His current research focuses on further developing high-speed AFM techniques to study the structural dynamics of complex single biomolecules on the sub nanometre scale to increase our understanding of diseases and improve medicine.