Charlotte Mary Deane (born 1975) is an English Professor of Structural Bioinformatics and the former Head of the Department of Statistics at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

. Deane was appointed as Executive Chair of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) on 16 November 2023.

Early life and education

Charlotte Deane was born in May 1975. She completed her undergraduate education at

University College, Oxford University College, formally The Master and Fellows of the College of the Great Hall of the University commonly called University College in the University of Oxford and colloquially referred to as "Univ", is a Colleges of the University of Oxf ...

studying chemistry, obtaining a 2.1 degree and completing her final year project in Graham Richards' group. She then went to the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

to study structural bioinformatics supervised by

Tom Blundell Sir Thomas Leon Blundell, (born 7 July 1942) is a British biochemist, structural biologist, and science administrator. He was a member of the team of Dorothy Hodgkin that solved in 1969 the first structure of a protein hormone, insulin. Blun ...

. In 2000 she published her thesis entitled "Protein structure prediction: amino acid propensities and comparative modelling".

Career and research

Deane moved to UCLA where she stayed for two years supervised by

David Eisenberg David S. Eisenberg (born 15 March 1939) is an American biochemist and Biophysics, biophysicist best known for his contributions to structural biology and computational molecular biology. He has been a professor at the University of California, ...

as a

Wellcome Trust The Wellcome Trust is a charitable foundation focused on health research based in London, United Kingdom. It was established in 1936 with legacies from the pharmaceutical magnate Henry Wellcome (founder of Burroughs Wellcome, one of the predec ...

Research Fellow, before moving back to Oxford. Her research is focused on the prediction of protein structures, particularly

antibodies An antibody (Ab) or immunoglobulin (Ig) is a large, Y-shaped protein belonging to the immunoglobulin superfamily which is used by the immune system to identify and neutralize antigens such as bacteria and viruses, including those that caus ...

. Her research group
Oxford Protein Informatics Group (OPIG)
created a database of antibody structures called SABDab and a server for prediction of antibody structures called SAbPred. In addition, Deane's research is focused on immunoinformatics,

biological network A biological network is a method of representing systems as complex sets of binary interactions or relations between various biological entities. In general, networks or graphs are used to capture relationships between entities or objects. A typ ...

s and

small molecule In molecular biology and pharmacology, a small molecule or micromolecule is a low molecular weight (≤ 1000 daltons) organic compound that may regulate a biological process, with a size on the order of 1 nm. Many drugs are small molecules; ...

Honours and awards

In 2007 and 2008, Deane was awarded an Oxford Teaching Award. In 2002 she was elected as fellow of Kellogg College and University Lecturer. In 2010 she was elected as Professor of Structural Bioinformatics and in October 2015 she was appointed Head of the Department of Statistics at the University of Oxford. She is the first female Head of department since the department was created in 1988. In 2014, Deane became Associate Head of the Mathematical Physical and Life Sciences (MPLS) division and the Deputy Head of the Division in 2018. Deane became a fellow of St Anne's College in 2015. In September 2019, Deane was appointed Deputy Executive Chair of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). As of January 2022, Deane joined Exscientia as Chief Scientist of Biologics AI. She was appointed

Member of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(MBE) in the

2022 Birthday Honours The 2022 Queen's Birthday Honours are appointments by some of the 15 Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to Orders and decorations of the Commonwealth realms, various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those ...

for services to Covid-19 research.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Deane, Charlotte Living people Biostatisticians Alumni of University College, Oxford 1975 births Fellows of St Anne's College, Oxford Members of the Order of the British Empire