Giles Hassall BSc

Senior Protein Scientist

With over 30 years experience in the pharmaceutical industry, Giles Hassall has expertise in construct design, cell culture, protein purification and analysis.

Giles Hassall BSc | Peak Proteins

More about Giles

Giles has considerable experience working with proteins, having spent much of his career in the pharmaceutical industry. In his more abstract musings he would have you believe he is a real action man, and could easily have made it as a professional mountain-biker, surfer, and snowboarder (all rolled into one!), whilst at the same time travelling the World on his motorcycle! Back in the real World however, an early interest in Biology led to him studying Biochemistry at university, before entering the fast-paced and challenging world of drug discovery.

Early in his career Giles spent 2 years at Rhone-Poulenc Rorer, before moving to Astrazeneca, where he stayed for 22 years. This was followed by a short spell in academia, working at the University of Manchester, before joining Peak Proteins. He has worked on a wide variety of drug discovery programs, supplying proteins for assay screens and structural study campaigns, and throughout his career he has always been happiest when in the lab, and very much enjoys the practical nature of his role. Over the years Giles has contemplated alternative practical careers, such as bicycle mechanic, and blacksmith, and yet after many years in the field he still remains a committed protein scientist – always up for a challenge!

Apart from a teenage son, Giles doesn’t have any pets. However he does own a good number of bicycles, and has been known to bring one or two into the house when the weather turns cold! He takes the view, “If you are good to them, they’ll be good to you!” …and applies that philosophy to his proteins too!

Structures of the Human Poly (ADP-Ribose) Glycohydrolase Catalytic Domain Confirm Catalytic Mechanism and Explain Inhibition by ADP-HPD Derivatives
PLoS One. 2012; 7(12): e50889
JA Tucker, N Bennett, C Brassington, ST. Durant, G Hassall, G Holdgate, M McAlister, JW Nissink, C Truman and M Watson

Design and synthesis of novel lactate dehydrogenase A inhibitors by fragment-based lead generation.
J Med Chem. 2012 Apr 12;55(7):3285-306. doi: 10.1021/jm201734r. Epub 2012 Mar 26.
Ward RA, Brassington C, Breeze AL, Caputo A, Critchlow S, Davies G, Goodwin L, Hassall G, Greenwood R, Holdgate GA, Mrosek M, Norman RA, Pearson S, Tart J, Tucker JA, Vogtherr M, Whittaker D, Wingfield J, Winter J, Hudson K.

Employee Spotlight

I am a protein scientist. My primary role at Peak Proteins involves delivering high quality proteins to our clients for their varied research uses. My first steps in the lab, as a fresh-faced graduate, saw me working with phosphodiesterase proteins, on an asthma research program, and I’ve not looked back since! Over many years in research, working with many protein classes, I’ve learnt that each protein needs to be treated as a unique individual, and deserves due respect as such. There is no one size fits all approach! I get immense satisfaction from delivering a protein that is fit for purpose, and I’m not ashamed to admit that after running possibly thousands of SDS-PAGE gels, I still feel great anticipation in waiting for my latest gel to stain, to enable me to see if my efforts have been rewarded. Cut me and I bleed proteins!

I had a brief spell in the Wellcome Centre at the University of Manchester, providing proteins for a grant funded research project on Osteoporosis, experiencing an academia based environment. Young and vibrant is how I would describe it! Before that I spent over 22 years working for Astrazeneca (Started life as ICI Pharmaceuticals). I had so many great years there, working on varied drug discovery projects, inspired by many talented scientists, and made many great friends as a result. A few of whom now work for Peak Proteins too. So, it wasn’t like starting a new job at Peak Proteins, it was like coming home!

I guess it was Biology. Understanding how the human body works. It always amazed me, how a wonderfully put-together bunch of atoms we are! I also enjoyed Art, but with limited talent, it was hard to see how I could possibly make a career out of it!

She isn’t exactly a scientist, more a spokesperson for scientists. Climate Scientists in fact. She is only seventeen years of age, and yet has done more than anyone to present the facts, clearly and concisely, (to a World refusing to wake up to the dangers of runaway climate change), about the future facing this planet and its inhabitants if we choose to do nothing about global warming. Her name is Greta Thunberg. She often faces World leaders, looks them in the eye, and tells them that they can choose to ignore her, but they can’t ignore the science! Scientist and/or hero? Definitely fearless, and definitely a hero!

I wanted to be part of something where I could make a difference. Despite many good memories of Astrazeneca, I was a tiny cog in huge machine. Often I felt that my input went almost unnoticed. Mark Abbott was my team leader for a few years at Astrazeneca, so I know him well, and have a personal experience of him as a colleague, and friend. I have great respect for his abilities and excellence as a scientist. I wanted to be part of something worthwhile, and contribute to building a company to be proud of, so when Mark asked me to come and work for him I jumped at the chance. At Peak Proteins I am a bigger cog in a smaller machine, and that allows me to make a difference, to see how my input and delivery positively impacts the business. That in itself gives me much more fulfilment in my scientific role, and much greater job satisfaction from working here. So many jobs fail on that level. It is a pleasure to work at Peak Proteins.

I love being in the lab, full stop! I couldn’t be sat a desk all day long. I would find that soul destroying! I am very much a practical person, and so I love the practical nature of my job. Also, there is a health benefit to being on my feet all day in the lab, as it stops me drinking too much tea and coffee!

I like to keep myself fit and active, so I do plenty of exercise. Biking and running mostly. I love mountain biking though. Can’t beat a day spent in the hills on my bike. If it is followed by good food and good beer, in good company, then it is a perfect day! I am fantasy/sci-fi fan too, so I enjoy a good book in that genre (but it has to have real pages!). I also have a ‘geeky’ hobby (to feed my artistic side), which is modelling and painting miniature figures (again fantasy/sci-fi). It’s very therapeutic and helps pass the time when it’s raining outdoors.

Greed! If we were modest in our desires, lived simply and took care of what we have, took pleasure in the simple things life has to offer, weren’t victims of rampant consumerism, and most importantly put love of our fellow beings ahead of the love of money, then maybe there would be enough to go around, and more contentment in the World.

I am diabetic, so every plate of food is often reduced to a number of units of insulin! I’m not a fussy eater though and enjoy most foods (apart from raw celery and avocado!). On reflection, I would choose a comfort food, and that would be fish and chips, with mushy peas (have to be mushy!).

End reliance on fossil fuels to address an alarmingly warming planet – As my hero once said, there is no Planet B!

Riding my bike – hard to believe that something that is mechanically so simple can give its rider so many physical and mental health benefits, it’s simply a joy! Gets the muscles pumping, fills the lungs with oxygen, feeds life-giving blood to every part of the body, and heightens the senses, making you more aware that you are alive! You have to experience it to really understand it. How that wind feels on your skin, how your eyes open wider taking in everything as you fly along, hearing the sounds of life around you more acutely. It gives such feelings of exhilaration and joy, such that if the authorities knew how much, it would surely be a banned substance! Like all exercise, riding your bike causes release of endorphins, acting on your opiate receptors and making you feel relaxed and at ease. Simply at one with the world around you. There’s nothing better!

Tough one! So many good films, and good songs, usually dependent on my mood. My knee-jerk answer I think would always be Point Break. The original 1991 release (not the rubbish re-make), starring Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze. I surf (badly), so maybe that is what drew me to it originally, but it is a great thriller full of action, and extreme sports imagery, filled with dudes we’ve all wished we could be at some point in our lives, as they are living the dream (although they do rob banks to fuel their surfing addiction, but apart from that..!). I really like how the characters of Johnny Utah and Bodhi (Reeves and Swayze) interact and build an appreciation and mutual respect for each other, despite having different backgrounds and outlooks on life and the law. They are both so cool too, you can’t help but like them! Gary Busey has a great supporting role too. This is a film I never tire of watching so that is why it has to be my favourite.

As a favourite song, I love anything with guitars. I love some loud and angry rock anthems, and some tender songs about love and loss, but really too many tunes to choose one. In 1974 (I was 8 years old) Waterloo was the winning song at Eurovision, by Swedish band, Abba. They are known the World over, as are their songs. Pick whichever song you like, they all bring a smile to my face!

I was nearly recruited onto a pirate ship in the Caribbean! When I was nearly 16 is was staying in Barbados with my mum, who was living and working over there at the time. The owner of the ‘Jolly Roger’, a pirate galleon themed ship that ran booze cruises for tourists along the coast, offered me a job crewing on the ship. You needed to know more about making rum punches than how to splice the mainsail, but strangely he thought I would fit in! I was up for it, but unfortunately, my mum insisted I return to the UK to sit my ‘O’ levels. Where would I be now if I had taken him up on his offer? Probably not a protein scientist!

Protein Science Team