Profile: Dr. Peter Turner
I started life as a neurobiologist, after completing a B.Sc. in biochemistry at University of Bath I stayed on to do my Ph.D. on the biochemistry of amino acid neurotransmitters in the mammalian brain. My work covered neurotransmitter binding and uptake by synaptosomes and enzyme kinetics. This was followed by a change in direction as I moved on to Trinity College Dublin. There my post doctoral fellowship was on the tryptophan synthase enzyme from Saccharomyces cereviseae with Dr Chris Bailey in the biochemistry department. We studied the kinetics and structure of this multi-functional protein using spectrophotometry, fluorimetry, protein chemistry and radiolabelled substrates. In 1983 I left academia to work in industry in the North East of England. As Senior Biochemist in ICI Biological Products I worked on a number of biotechnology projects based on microbial fermentation. I started work on immobilized enzymes products for effluent treatment (Cyclear™) and for the food industry (glucose isomerase). I moved on via food (Quorn™) to the only truly biodegradable commercial plastic, Biopol™, a polyester produced from a soil bacterium (Alcaligenes eutrophus). I returned to Ireland in 1995 to work in Molecular Ecology driven by curiosity about the pine marten in the Portlaw woods, they left their traces on the forest tracks but we could never see the animal. This led us to apply our background in molecular biology to tracking wildlife. My work now is divided between lab work and ecological fieldwork in order to collect samples for DNA analysis. This has meant developing methods to collect hair samples and to analyse faecal and feeding remains. The analysis of DNA from these samples allows us to track animals such as pine marten and to study their behaviour and demography. The work of the group on pine marten has recently been filmed for the RTE1 programme “Living the wildlife” and was broadcasted in May 2009. Contact: Dr. Peter Turner | |
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Last updated: Friday, May 15, 2009 | |