John Briggs BA, MSci, DPhil, PhD

John Briggs is currently working as a Director at Max Plank Institute of Biotechnology. He had completed his education at the University of Oxford. He is Specialized in Cell and Development Biology. Dr. Briggs uses and develops state-of-the-art techniques in electron microscopy to understand viral and vesicle coat assembly and function. In particular, the Briggs group has been one of the pioneers of a technique called cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET), which allows visualization of biological specimens at near-atomic resolution. He has also combined this and related electron microscopy techniques with fluorescence microscopy – this powerful combination allows for the identification of rare and dynamic cellular events, and then the imaging of these events at high resolution. Dr. Briggs was the first to achieve pseudo-atomic resolution for visualization of a biological structure using cryo-ET, – the capsid domains of HIV. This remarkable achievement revealed the network of protein interactions that govern the assembly of HIV particles and provides new insights into viral function. Dr. Briggs is at the forefront of structural biology, leading the search for higher-resolution visualizations of cellular processes directly within their native environments. By turning these techniques into important biological questions like the structure of HIV, his work stands to have a broad impact on our understanding of the biology of cells and viruses.