Professor Alex Bullock
Professor of Structural and Chemical Biology, Centre for Medicines Discovery
Professor Alex Bullock’s research career spans p53 folding, protein interface design, hypoxia signalling and structural genomics. His career in medicines discovery was influenced by his receipt of a bone marrow transplant as a teenager.
About
Professor Alex Bullock received his degree and PhD from the University of Cambridge, where he trained with Sir Alan Fersht, investigating how cancer-associated mutations disrupt p53 folding. He was subsequently awarded a Wellcome Fellowship, held first with David Baker at the University of Washington, Seattle, where he demonstrated how Rosetta software can be applied to protein interface design, and later with Sir Peter Ratcliffe at the University of Oxford, where his work focused on VHL proteomics and the oxygen-dependence of the hypoxia signalling factor FIH.
Professor Bullock joined the Structural Genomics Consortium (SGC) at its launch in 2004, initially working as a team leader with Stefan Knapp, before establishing his own research group in 2008. His interest in medicines discovery was sparked by receiving a bone marrow transplant for relapsed leukaemia as a teenager, as well as time spent in the Royal Free and St Bartholomew’s hospitals.
Expertise
• Fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva (FOP), an extremely rare genetic disorder that causes muscles, tendons, and ligaments to turn to bone
• BTB-Kelch family ubiquitin ligases
• ACVR1 protein kinase and BMP signalling
• Targeted protein degradation and drug discovery
Selected publications
- Structural mimicry of UM171 and neomorphic cancer mutants co-opts E3 ligase KBTBD4 for HDAC1/2 recruitment (2025)
- BTB domain mutations perturbing KCTD15 oligomerisation cause a distinctive frontonasal dysplasia syndrome (2024)
- Structural and biochemical characterization establishes a detailed understanding of KEAP1-CUL3 complex assembly (2023)
- Disease-associated KBTBD4 mutations in medulloblastoma elicit neomorphic ubiquitylation activity to promote CoREST degradation (2022)
- Protocol paper: a multi-center, double-blinded, randomized, 6-month, placebo-controlled study followed by 12-month open label extension to evaluate the safety and efficacy of Saracatinib in Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressiva (STOPFOP) (2022)
- Saracatinib is an efficacious clinical candidate for fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva (2021)
- Targeted protein degradation: expanding the toolbox (2019)
- ACVR1 mutations in DIPG: lessons learned from FOP (2014)
Media experience
Professor Alex Bullock has experience working in film, television and radio:
- 2019: featured in the film documentary Tin Soldiers (Blink Pictures) about fibrodyplasia ossificans progressiva (FOP) with an interview and filming around the Old Road Science Campus and labs. The film aimed to find the predicted 3,000 undiagnosed cases of FOP across the world and won awards at numerous international film festivals. It is now used by FOP patient groups worldwide.
- 2015: television interview about his FOP research on the Discovery Channel Network TLC programme Body Bizarre.
- 2012: interviewed live on ITV's This Morning programme alongside a FOP patient who was featured in the Channel 4 documentary The Human Mannequin.
- 2010: live radio interview about FOP on the BBC Oxford primetime Bill Heine Show.