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USD 150 /hr

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Hire Dr. Richard M.

United Kingdom

USD 150 /hr

Peptide Therapeutics & Protein Aggregation Expert | α-Synuclein | Biophysics | Assay Development

Profile Summary

I am a PhD biochemist specialising in peptide therapeutics, protein aggregation, and neurodegenerative disease, with particular expertise in α-synuclein biology. My work focuses on designing and evaluating peptide-based strategies to modulate protein misfolding and aggregation, combining biophysical characterisation with functional cellular assays. I have extensive experience developing and troubleshooting aggregation assays, fibril and PFF workflows, and translating mechanistic insights into experimentally robust systems. I support biotech companies and academic groups with: - Peptide therapeutic design and optimisation - Protein aggregation and α-synuclein project design - Assay troubleshooting and reproducibility improvement - PFF and fibril workflow development - Biophysical characterisation strategy (SEC, HPLC, MS, CD, TEM) - Scientific writing, data interpretation, and technical review I bring a practical, solution-focused approach, helping teams resolve experimental challenges quickly and move projects forward efficiently.

Subject Matter Expertise

• ★ Biophysics
• ★ Recombinant Protein Expression
• ★ Drug Discovery
• ☆ Biochemistry
• ☆ Biochemical Assays
• ☆ Structural Biology
• ☆ Enzyme Activity Assays
• ☆ Binding Assays
• ☆ Molecular Biology
• ☆ Biomarkers
• ☆ Genetics
• ☆ PCR
• ☆ Molecular Cloning
• ☆ Next Generation Sequencing (NGS)
• ☆ DNA Sequencing
• ☆ Protein Sequencing
• ☆ Genome Sequencing
• ☆ Recombinant DNA
• ☆ Plasmid DNA
• ☆ Cell Biology
• ☆ Cell-Based Assays
• ☆ Membrane Biology
• ☆ Neuroscience
• ☆ Neuroanatomy
• ☆ Developmental Neuroscience
• ☆ Neuropharmacology
• ☆ Molecular Neuroscience
• ☆ Biotechnology & Bioengineering
• ☆ Biomimetics
• ☆ Microscopy
• ☆ Light Microscopy
• ☆ Electron Microscopy
• ☆ Fluorescence Microscopy
• ☆ Biomarker Discovery
• ☆ Cell Culture
• ☆ Primary Cells
• ☆ Large Scale Cell Culture
• ☆ Synthetic Biology
• ☆ Chemical Biology
• ☆ Information Retrieval
• ☆ High Throughput Screening (HTS)
• ☆ Drug Target Identification
• ☆ Hit-to-Lead & Lead Optimization
• ☆ Phenotypic Assays
• ☆ Medicinal Chemistry
• ☆ Drug Design
• ☆ Structure-Activity Relationship (SAR) Studies
• ☆ Drug Development
• ☆ Biologic & Biosimilar Development
• ☆ Preclinical Research
• ☆ Drug Efficacy Testing
• ☆ Bioavailability
• ☆ Drug Delivery Technologies

Services

• Writing
• Research
• Consulting
• Data & AI

Writing Technical Writing, General Proofreading & Editing

Research Meta-Research, Gray Literature Search, Scientific and Technical Research, Systematic Literature Review

Consulting Healthcare Consulting, Scientific and Technical Consulting

Data & AI Image Analysis, Data Visualization, Data Cleaning, Data Processing

Work Experience

Post Doctoral researcher (CoI)

University of Bath

September 2020 - Present

Post-doctoral Researcher

University of Bath

September 2020 - Present

Lecturer - Life Sciences

University of Bath

August 2024 - August 2025

Education

Rational Design and Refinement of an Intracellular Derived Peptide: Deriving Potent Antagonists of Alpha-Synuclein Aggregation

University of Bath

February 2017 - February 2020

PhD (Biology and Biochemistry)

University of Bath

2017 - 2020

Masters of Research

University of Bath

August 2015 - August 2016

MRes Biosciences (Biology and Biochemistry)

University of Bath

2015 - 2016

BSc (Hons) Biochemistry

University of Bristol

August 2003 - May 2006

BSc (Hons) Biochemistry (Biochemistry)

University of Bristol

2003 - 2006

Certifications

• n/a

  n/a

  January 2026 - January 2026

Publications

JOURNAL ARTICLE

Richard M. Meade, Scott G. Allen, Amy J. Lopez, Christopher Williams, Iona Thomas-Wright, Rachel Heon-Roberts, Mara Carey-Wood, T. M. Simon Tang, Julia E. Sero, Vicky L. Hunt, et al. (2025). Stabilizing a Native Fold of Alpha-Synuclein with Short Helix-Constrained Peptides . JACS Au.

Scott G. Allen, Richard M. Meade, Lucy L. White Stenner, Jody M. Mason (2023). Peptide-based approaches to directly target alpha-synuclein in Parkinson’s disease . Molecular Neurodegeneration.

Richard M. Meade, Scott G. Allen, Christopher Williams, T.M. Simon Tang, Matthew P. Crump, Jody M. Mason (2023). An N-terminal alpha-synuclein fragment binds lipid vesicles to modulate lipid-induced aggregation . Cell Reports Physical Science.

Kathryn J. C. Watt, Richard M. Meade, Tony D. James, Jody M. Mason (2023). Development of a hydroxyflavone-labelled 4554W peptide probe for monitoring αS aggregation . Scientific Reports.

Kathryn J.C. Watt, Richard M. Meade, Robert J. Williams, Jody M. Mason (2022). Anionic lipid vesicles have differential effects on the aggregation of early onset-associated α-synuclein missense mutants . Journal of Biological Chemistry.

Richard Meade(2022). Library-Derived Peptide Aggregation Modulators of Parkinson’s Disease Early-Onset α-Synuclein Variants . ACS Chemical Neuroscience. 13. (12). Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Localization.LocalizedHtmlString 1790--1804. American Chemical Society ({ACS})

Richard Meade(2021). A Thermodynamic Model for Interpreting Tryptophan Excitation-Energy-Dependent Fluorescence Spectra Provides Insight Into Protein Conformational Sampling and Stability . Frontiers in Molecular Biosciences. 8. Frontiers Media {SA}

Richard Meade(2021). A Downsized and Optimised Intracellular Library-Derived Peptide Prevents Alpha-Synuclein Primary Nucleation and Toxicity Without Impacting Upon Lipid Binding . Journal of Molecular Biology. 433. (24). Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Localization.LocalizedHtmlString 167323. Elsevier {BV}

Richard Meade(2020). The Library Derived 4554W Peptide Inhibits Primary Nucleation of α-Synuclein . Journal of Molecular Biology. 432. (24). Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Localization.LocalizedHtmlString 166706. Elsevier {BV}

Richard Meade(2020). A series of helical α-synuclein fibril polymorphs are populated in the presence of lipid vesicles . npj Parkinson's Disease. 6. (1). Springer Science and Business Media {LLC}

Richard Meade(2020). Insights Into Peptide Inhibition of Alpha-Synuclein Aggregation . Frontiers in Neuroscience. 14. Frontiers Media {SA}

Richard Meade(2019). Alpha-synuclein structure and Parkinson’s disease – lessons and emerging principles . Molecular Neurodegeneration. 14. (1). Springer Science and Business Media {LLC}

Richard Meade(2019). Alpha-synuclein structure and Parkinson’s disease – lessons and emerging principles . Molecular Neurodegeneration. 14. (1). Springer Science and Business Media {LLC}

Richard Meade(2019). Excitation-Energy-Dependent Molecular Beacon Detects Early Stage Neurotoxic Aβ Aggregates in the Presence of Cortical Neurons . ACS Chemical Neuroscience. 10. (3). Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Localization.LocalizedHtmlString 1240--1250. American Chemical Society ({ACS})