Professor John E. McGeehan FRSB FRSC

Professor of Engineering Biology

• PhD Virology, 1996, Medical Research Council, University of Glasgow
• BSc (Hons) Microbiology, 1993, University of Glasgow

John started his research career as a Microbiologist, graduating from the University of Glasgow, Scotland, in 1993, followed by a PhD in Virology at the Medical Research Council. He worked at the Universities of York and Portsmouth, followed by a fellowship at the EMBL-Grenoble, France. Here he worked on the development of new instruments that combine X-ray crystallography with spectroscopy to follow enzyme reactions in atomic detail.

He re-joined the University of Portsmouth in 2007 as an RCUK Fellow, was appointed Reader in 2012, and Professor in 2016. John co-founded the Centre for Enzyme Innovation with Prof. Andy Pickford in 2018. As an advocate of interdisciplinary research, John stepped out of academia to take on the role of Secretary General for the World Plastics Association in Monaco in 2022. This resulted in two World Plastics Summits, and the founding of a Gordon Research series in plastics recycling and upcycling with Dr Gregg Beckham. John then moved to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado (now National Laboratory of the Rockies) as a principal scientist and member of the BOTTLE Consortium where he also managed the Separations Science Team.

John joined the University of Birmingham in Summer 2026 as a 125^th Anniversary Chair where he will lead collaborative projects in the growing area of Engineering Biology.

• Biotechnology
• Sustainability
• Global Challenges

New PhD studentship opportunities coming soon:

• Enzyme engineering for plastics recycling
• Protein engineering for critical mineral recovery
• Enzymatic mitigation of PFAS-like molecules
• Sustainable biomanufacturing and bio-separations

Research is focussed across three areas of enzyme engineering:

1. Discovery of enzymes from natural systems

Working with colleagues in the field, we explore microorganisms in unusual or extreme habitats to study and uncover gene networks and protein systems that perform new transformational reactions. Combined with AI-enhanced bioinformatics we mine the large database of sequences in search of proteins that can perform novel chemistries.

2. Laboratory enzyme engineering

We use a medium-throughput robotic approach to the biochemical and structural screening and characterisation of enzymes. Working with colleagues in AI development, we explore rational, directed, and de novo methods to enhance enzyme performance against environmentally and industrially relevant parameters. 

3. Application and industrial translation

We collaborate closely with colleagues from a diverse range of industries, from multinationals to startups and SMEs. Our goal is to work with companies to move innovations from the laboratory bench to real-world scaled applications.

Diverse biotechnology projects based on these principles include research in scale-up solutions for plastic recycling and upcycling, innovations in low energy biomanufacturing, and the selective recovery of critical minerals from multiple waste streams.

Research centres and institutes

• Birmingham Plastics Network 
• Birmingham Institute for Sustainability and Climate Action (BISCA)
• Institute of Microbiology and Infection (IMI)

• Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry
• Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology
• Member of the American Chemistry Society
• Member of the Biochemical Society
• Visiting Professor at University of Portsmouth
• Area Expert Lee Enterprises Consulting
• Member Gerson Lehrman Group Consulting