Chris Tate is a membrane protein biochemist who uses structural biology to understand the molecular mechanism of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), the largest family of cell surface receptors in humans. He has contributed to a fundamental understanding of GPCRs through determining structures in different conformational states and bound to ligands of different efficacies. These structures have led to insights into ligand efficacy, G protein and -arrestin coupling, transducer-induced high-affinity agonist binding and biased agonism. In the course of this work, he has developed new tools and methods such as mini-G proteins and conformational thermostabilisation, which have become widely applied in studying GPCRs.
Chris obtained his PhD from the University of Bristol (1989) and joined the LMB (1992) after a postdoctoral position in the Department of Biochemistry, Cambridge. Initially he worked on transporters, but in 2005 he changed to work predominantly on GPCRs. In 2007, Chris was a co-founder of Heptares Therapeutics (now Sosei Heptares), a GPCR drug discovery company, based on his work on conformational thermostabilisation. He was elected a member of EMBO in 2020.
Professional position
- MRC Investigator, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology
Subject groups
- Biochemistry and molecular cell biology
Biochemistry and molecular biology, Biophysics and structural biology
