Dr Aneika Leney PhD

PhD (2013) University of Leeds

BSc (2008) in Biochemistry with a Year in Industry, University of York

Aneika Leney graduated from the University of York in 2008. During her degree, she undertook an industrial placement at GlaxoSmithKline which fueled her interest to pursue a career in Mass Spectrometry. For her PhD, she joined the Astbury Centre at the University Leeds whereby she was supervised by Professors Sheena Radford and Alison Aschroft on projects that utilised mass spectrometry to study protein structure and function.

Following her scientific interests, Aneika moved to Canada and joined the Alberta Glycomics Centre. Her post-doctoral research there involved the development of novel methodology to monitor protein-ligand interactions. Subsequent to this, she moved to a world-leading laboratory at Utrecht University in the Netherlands, whereby she performed outstanding proteomics research under the supervision of Professor Albert Heck. Her work focussing on protein post-translational modifications and how these alter protein function.

At the University of Birmingham, Aneika leads her own research group focusing on protein structure and function. Her group utilises state-of-the-art mass spectrometry techniques to analyse proteins and protein complexes. Her research aimed at tackling the biological question of how proteins communicate and switch between their active and inactive states. Aneika’s research also explores how protein modifications can be used in biotechnological applications such as in food colouring, protein visualisation and for harvesting light energy for use in solar panels.

Aneika teaches predominantly of the Biochemistry course to all year groups. Aneika enjoys leading a variety of biochemical projects for undergraduate and masters’ students.

Research projects in the Leney Lab focus in two areas:

1) The use of mass spectrometry to monitor post-translational modifications involved in health and disease

2) The characterization and identification of post-translation modification in large biological complexes for use in biotechnological applications 

Please also refer to:

www.findaphd.com page here

Please contact Aneika Leney regarding the latest projects on offer. We welcome students with a strong biochemistry background/with mass spectrometry experience.

Research Theme within School of Biosciences: Cells and Molecules and Plant Science.

Researcher identifier number: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2066-4950

Structural biology-based Mass Spectrometry

The Leney lab is interested in utilising state-of-the-art mass spectrometers to analyse proteins and protein complexes. Our research focuses on protein post-translational modifications and how they modulate protein function. Protein modifications can be detrimental to human health, for example hyper-phosphorylated proteins can be found in Alzheimer’s disease patients. However, protein modifications can also have interesting biotechnological applications, such as in dyes for use in the food and cosmetics industry. 

Our research combines both development of novel techniques to analyse protein post-translational modifications and their application to solve complex biological problems.

More information: https://www.leney-mass-spectrometry.com/