Prof Nick Le Brun

Biography

After a BSc in Chemistry (1990) and a PhD in bioinorganic chemistry (1994) at UEA, I was an EMBO Fellow at Lund University, Sweden before being appointed to the faculty at UEA in 1999. I am currently professor of Biological Chemistry and Deputy Head of the School of Chemistry, Pharmacy and Pharmacology.

I have worked in metalloprotein biochemistry for ~30 years and in 2018 received the Joseph Chatt Award from the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) in recognition of my work on bacterial iron-sulfur (Fe-S) cluster regulators, including sensors of O₂, nitrosative stress, iron and redox balance. In addition, I have studied a range of metallo-systems, including metal uptake and release mechanisms in iron storage and copper trafficking proteins.

From 2014-2022, I was Chair of the RSC’s Inorganic Biochemistry Discussion Group (IBDG), which promotes the interests of the bioinorganic chemistry community in the UK. I have served as an editor for Microbiology (2012-20), J Inorg Biol Chem (2014-17) and J Inorg Biochem (2022-), and on UK and French national grant panels.