Professor Dr. Jason Micklefield

Biography

Jason Micklefield is a chemical biologist and Professor in the Department of Chemistry at Imperial College London. His research focuses on the discovery, characterization, and engineering of biosynthetic pathways for new bioactive natural products, particularly antibiotics. He investigates the discovery, structure, mechanism, and engineering of enzymes for synthetic applications and the integration of enzymes in chemocatalysis to create telescoping routes for pharmaceuticals and valuable products. Micklefield earned his Ph.D. at the University of Cambridge in 1993, working with Professor Sir Alan Battersby on the total synthesis of haem d1 and coenzyme bacteria. Following this, he was awarded a NATO fellowship to work on enzyme mechanisms in the biosynthesis under Professor Heinz G. Floss at the University of Washington, Seattle, USA. In 1995, he began as a Lecturer in Organic Chemistry at Birkbeck College, University of London, before moving to Manchester in 1998, where he was promoted to Professor of Chemical Biology at the University of Manchester in 2008, leading a research group at the Manchester Institute of Biotechnology (MIB). He has served as a visiting professor at East China University of Science and Technology (ECUST) in Shanghai and has held leadership roles including co-director of the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Integrated Catalysis (iCAT) and Director of the BBSRC Natural Product Discovery Bioengineering Network (NPRONET). Micklefield has received numerous accolades, including the RSC Interdisciplinary Prize and the Bader Award. In 2024, he transitioned to Imperial College London, continuing his research at the Molecular Science Research Hub (MSRH).

Research Interests

Experience

Awards