John Briggs and his group demonstrated that cryo-electron tomography can be used to determine high-resolution structures of protein complexes 'in situ', and also developed methods for correlative light and electron microscopy. By applying electron microscopy, they have made important contributions to understanding how enveloped viruses are assembled, including by resolving the 3D structures, within virus particles, of the immature and mature HIV-1 capsids and the matrix protein layers of HIV-1 and influenza A.
John and his group also study the different protein coats that form vesicles for trafficking of components between different compartments within cells. Their work on COPI-coated vesicles provided the first detailed structures of membrane-assembled trafficking vesicles.
John Briggs received a DPhil in structural biology from the University of Oxford. He was a group leader and senior scientist at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory and a programme leader at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology. He became director at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in 2021.
Professional position
- Director, Department of Cell and Virus Structure, Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, Max Planck Society
