Sam Dix PhD

Lead Scientist

Sam has significant experience in protein purification and characterisation. This is along with experience in protein crystallisation and structure determination.

Dr Sam Dix | Peak Proteins

More about Sam

Sam Dix started his journey in science with a biochemistry degree in Sheffield. It was here he first had a taster for structural biology during his undergraduate project. He next undertook an industrial placement at GSK which had him join reagent and assay development before a short stint in their structural biology group.

By this point Sam had well and truly got the structural biology bug and his love of Sheffield had him back for a PhD. During this time Sam worked on the structural characterisation of a number of proteins of unknown function from the human pathogen Burkholderia pseudomallei, including components from the bacterial type VI secretion system. After this, he continued his work as a postdoctoral researcher within the group, which expanded his responsibilities to include scientific writing and supervisory roles for early-stage researchers.

While not in the lab Sam enjoys tinkering with anything technology, in particular data science, deep learning, and home automation, with the dream of his house being like that out of the Jetsons. In reality he is endlessly shouting at Alexa and annoying his partner when the lights won’t work!  Either that or he is deep down the rabbit hole with the latest and greatest developments in bitcoin – stay humble, stack sats!

The structure of a major surface antigen SAG19 from Eimeria tenella unifies the Eimeria SAG family
Communications Biology. 2021 volume 4, Article number: 376
Nur Zazarina Ramly, Samuel R. Dix, Sergey N. Ruzheinikov, Svetlana E. Sedelnikova, Patrick J. Baker, Yock-Ping Chow, Fiona M. Tomley, Damer P. Blake, Kiew-Lian Wan, Sheila Nathan & David W. Rice

Allomorphy as a mechanism of post-translational control of enzyme activity
Nature Communications. 2020 volume 11, Article number: 5538
Henry P. Wood, F. Aaron Cruz-Navarrete, Nicola J. Baxter, Clare R. Trevitt, Angus J. Robertson, Samuel R. Dix, Andrea M. Hounslow, Matthew J. Cliff & Jonathan P. Waltho

The molecular basis of endolytic activity of a multidomain alginate lyase from Defluviitalea phaphyphila, a representative of a new lyase family, PL39
J. Biol. Chem. 2019 294(48) 18077–18091
Shiqi Ji, Samuel R. Dix, Adli A. Aziz, Svetlana E. Sedelnikova, Patrick J. Baker, John B. Rafferty, Per A. Bullough, Svetomir B. Tzokov, Jon Agirre, Fu-Li Li, David W. Rice

Structural insights into the function of type VI secretion system TssA subunits
Nature Communications. 2018 volume 9, Article number: 4765
Samuel R. Dix, Hayley J. Owen, Ruyue Sun, Asma Ahmad, Sravanthi Shastri, Helena L. Spiewak, Daniel J. Mosby, Matthew J. Harris, Sarah L. Batters, Thomas A. Brooker, Svetomir B. Tzokov, Svetlana E. Sedelnikova, Patrick J. Baker, Per A. Bullough, David W. Rice & Mark S. Thomas

TssA from Aeromonas hydrophila: expression, purification and crystallographic studies
Acta Cryst. 2018. F74, 578-582
S. R. Dix, R. Sun, M. J. Harris, S. L. Batters, S. E. Sedelnikova, P. J. Baker, M. S. Thomas and D. W. Rice

Employee Spotlight

Day to day I am involved in a number of different tasks, including purifying proteins for clients, setting up crystallisation trials, or model building as part of structure determination services.

I was a post-doctoral researcher in the crystallography group at the University of Sheffield.

Science. Would love to be off the wall with this one, but I have always loved science, and this was no different at school.

Not necessarily a hero, but I have always had a fascination with Nikola Tesla, who brought us AC electricity, and had a rather mysterious life come the end.

After working in academia for a few years I really wanted to dive into industry, I had previous experience at GSK and life in a large pharmaceutical company and realised I wanted to be able to make a larger impact to the company then just my specific role, this is much easier to achieve in a biotech then large company.

Structure determination and analysis, in particular difficult cases which require some detective work and a bit of luck to solve!

I love anything tech, so I am always tinkering with some new gadget or programme.

Non-skippable ads on youtube!

A perfectly seared medium-rare sirloin steak.

Possibly controversial but remove central banking from the financial system and move to a fully backed, hard money standard. Fix the money, fix the world.

Watching a space launch, it never ceases to amaze me the ingenuity and possibilities that space travel offers.

Pulp fiction/ Favourite song depends on my mood…

I grew up farming so was driving tractors as soon as my feet could reach the peddles!

Protein Science Team