Edward D. Sturrock

Professor, Division of Chemical and Systems Biology, Department of Integrative Biomedical Sciences, University of Cape Town (UCT); Member, Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine (IDM); Fellow of Royal Society of South Africa; Fellow of UCT; Member of ASSAf.

Ed Sturrock received his PhD in 1994 on the synthesis and metabolism of a stable isotope of bilirubin. He went on to do a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School where he started his research on angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE), a protein that plays a key role in blood pressure regulation. In 2003 he was awarded a Wellcome Trust International Senior Research Fellowship for his work on ACE.

Research interests:

Structure-function aspects of ACE; design and synthesis of novel domain-selective ACE inhibitors; the processing of the membrane-anchored proteins. Ed has published over 120 peer-reviewed papers and five patents, and has trained more than 40 students at PhD and MSc levels. He currently holds an NRF B1 rating. Together with colleagues in the Unites States (US) and United Kingdom (UK), he founded a spin-off company AngioDesign (UK) Ltd.

Key areas of expertise:

Protein biochemistry, protease inhibitor design, enzyme structure-function relationships, ectodomain shedding of angiotensin-converting enzyme.