FELS Inaugural Lecture with Professor Ivo Tews Event
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- Time:
- 3:30pm
- Date:
- 2025-04-10 15:30:00
- Venue:
- University of Southampton, Centenary Building (100), University Road, Southampton, SO17 1BJ
Event details
This was our first Faculty of Environmental and Life Sciences Inaugural Lecture in a series that celebrates the careers of our newly appointed Professors. At our first event on Thursday 10th April 2025, Professor Ivo Tews from the School of Biological Sciences and Professor Joanna Nield from the School of Geography and Environmental Science presented their research.
Watch the lecture video
Professor Ivo Tews - Protein crystallography, a journey into time and space
See  Professor Joanna Nield's lecture here
Watch all the Inaugural Lecture videos from 2025
Professor Ivo Tews
Protein crystallography, a journey into time and space
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Structural Biology is a technique that allows us to understand how biomolecules perform essential functions in life from the translation of genes into proteins to the inner workings of the immune system. These processes often involve intricate molecular machines with several individual components. Ivo’s work uses X-ray based techniques to visualise the involved biomolecules and their interaction. The work uses X-ray scattering approaches of biomolecules in solution to understand how biomolecules move as well as crystals made from proteins to understand their atomic structure.
Ivo’s talk illustrates fundamental processes, such as the acquisition of nutrients by marine bacteria, the synthesis of vitamins by plants or the use of antibodies as cancer medication. Ivo’s work describes the dynamics of the molecular structures over time to understand how biomolecules work.
Biography
Ivo Tews is Professor in Structural Biology and actively involved in methods development for macro-molecular crystallography, working together with the Diamond Light Source (Harwell), the UK-XFEL hub, and the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) in France.
He presently chairs the Collaborative Computing Project No. 4 (CCP4) in software development with more than 20,000 academic and over 160 industrial licensees worldwide.
At Southampton, he built the facility for Macromolecular Crystallisation in Biology, and works together with colleagues in the National Biofilms Innovation Centre, in Oceanography, the National Crystallography Service in Chemistry, and with Medicine, with particularly strong links to the Centre for Cancer Immunology.