Garry Taylor

Garry Taylor joined Court in August 2022 as a new lay member. He graduated in physics in 1975 (Queen Mary London), obtained a PhD in biophysics in 1978 (Kings College London) and was a postdoctoral fellow at Birkbeck College London with Professor Sir Tom Blundell FRS from 1978-1982, and then with Sir (later Lord) David Phillips FRS in Oxford from 1982-1989. He took up a lectureship in biochemistry at the University of Bath in 1989 and was promoted to a personal chair in Molecular Biophysics in 1998. In 1999 he moved to the University of St Andrews.

At St Andrews he was the first Director of a new interdisciplinary research Centre for Biomolecular Sciences, a position he held for ten years. He was Head of the School of Biological Sciences from 2011 to 2014, and in 2014 took up a five-year position as Master of the United College and Deputy Principal. For the first nine months of 2016 he was also Acting Principal and Vice Chancellor. As Master he line-managed the 19 academic schools, chaired promotion panels, chaired the space and asset management committee, was an executive member of Court and was chair of the project board for the new £15m Laidlaw Music Centre which opened in 2021. He retired from St Andrews in 2020 but maintains an Emeritus position.

His research focused on the structural biology of proteins in two main areas: first, proteins involved in bacterial and viral pathogenesis, and second, a structural understanding of how proteins can exist and function at the temperature extremes of life. The research involved international collaborations with chemists, biochemists and virologists, most notably with St Jude Children's Hospital, Memphis. He had a particular interest in a superfamily of enzymes known as sialidases or neuraminidases that remove a carbohydrate molecule (sialic acid) from the surface cells, and his group determined the 3-D structures of these, and other enzymes, from bacteria, viruses, parasites and fungi.

A university of St Andrews spinout company, Pneumagen Ltd., was created in 2016 based on the findings of his research group. Pneumagen is carrying out the clinical development of Neumifil, an engineered, multivalent carbohydrate-binding protein administered as a nasal spray, with potential to provide pan-viral protection against a variety of respiratory viruses such as influenza viruses, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), adenoviruses and coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-2. Garry is a non-executive Director of Pneumagen, provides consultancy, and is chair of its Scientific Advisory Board.