The Revd Professor Robert Gilbert

Background

After a BSc in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry at the University of Durham, Robert Gilbert researched for a PhD at Leicester University in the Departments of Biochemistry and Microbiology and Immunology. He came to Oxford as a post-doc in the Division of Structural Biology and in 2002 became Tutor in Biochemistry at Magdalen. He has since held in addition a Royal Society University Research Fellowship (2004-2012) and is now Professor of Biophysics and Director of Graduate Studies in the Nuffield Department of Medicine.

His book “Science and the Truthfulness of Beauty” is published by Routledge.

Teaching

Director of studies in Biochemistry, teaching molecular cell biology in the first year and, for the degree Part I: biomolecular structure and function, biophysical and structural techniques, and aspects of cell biology and metabolic integration. Teaching is also provided to students reading Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.

Research Interests

Structural and biophysical methods applied to biomedically-important cellular processes. One focus is the control of miRNA maturation and degradation in the cell, which has relevance for a broad range of cancers, metabolism, inflammation and innate viral immunity. The other main focuses of the lab are membrane pore formation by proteins of the membrane attack complex/perforin and cholesterol-dependent cytolysin family involved in infection, immunity and development; and the regulation of membrane adhesion to other cells at the extracellular matrix.

Selected Publications

• Bano, F, Banerji, S, Ni, T, Green, DE, Cook, KR, Manfield, IW, DeAngelis, PL, Paci, E, Lepsik, M, Gilbert, RJC, Richter, RP, Jackson, DG (2025) Structure and unusual binding mechanism of the hyaluronan receptor LYVE-1 mediating leucocyte entry to lymphatics. Nat. Commun. 16, 2754.
• Yi, G, Ye, M, Carrique, L, El-Sagheer, A, Brown, T, Norbury, CJ, Zhang, P and Gilbert, RJC (2024) Structural basis for activity switching in polymerases determining the fate of let-7 pre-miRNAs. Nat. Struct. Mol. Biol. 31, 1426-1438
• Yu, X, Ni, T, Munson, G, Zhang, P and Gilbert, RJC (2022) Cryo‐EM structures of perforin‐2 in isolation and assembled on a membrane suggest a mechanism for pore formation. EMBO J. 41, e111857