Jess Cross Lab

Latest News

August 2026

We are recruiting for a post doc (PDRA) to join our lab at the University of Bristol. This is a 3-year Wellcome Trust funded position. The project will investigate and engineer adaptor proteins to control microtubule-based intracellular transport. Get in touch if you are interested jessica.cross@bristol.ac.uk

Research Associate/Senior Research Associate in Intracellular Transport and Protein Design

Bring your colander to work day – we had fun watching the solar eclipse!

We enjoyed watching hot air balloons in Bristol at the Balloon Fiesta!

We had a great day of research talks, posters, networking and a very interesting sandpit followed by a BBQ at the University of Bristol Engineering Biology Early Career Researchers Symposium!

Xuetong did an excellent job presenting her poster.

July 2026

Jess had a great trip to India to visit the University of Bristol Mumbai Campus and make new connections in Engineering Biology there

Huge congratulations to Jake who has graduated from the lab with a 1st Class MSci in Chemistry. Jake was selected to speak at his graduation ceremony and is now training as a patent attorney! Well done Jake!

Jess has completed a Post Graduate Certificate in Academic Practice through the University of Bristol CREATE scheme and was delighted to have her portfolio shortlisted as Outstanding at the Bristol Institute for Teaching and Learning Conference.

June 2026

Jess had a great day at the University of Bath with PhD students on the SWBio DTP Careers Conference working on responsible research and innovation.

We had a fantastic time visiting the Novo Nordisk Centre for Protein design in Copenhagen! Lots of exciting science and collaboration!

May 2026

We had a great trip to Edinburgh for the Protein Evolution, Design and Bioinformatics meeting! Brilliant science and ceilidh dancing!

Well done Henry who gave a great poster presentation at the Mechanochemistry of Molecular Motors and Cytoskeletal Filaments meeting in Warwick!

Jess had a good trip to the University of Oxford for the Engineering Biology CDT Summer School.

Jess was delighted to be shortlisted for the Outstanding PhD Supervisor award at the Bristol Teaching Awards Ceremony.

April 2026

Happy Easter! 🐰 The lab has been busy hunting for Easter eggs today!

Congratulations 🎉 to Jake who was awarded the prize for the best talk at the SCI Undergraduate Research Symposium in Warwick

March 2025

A great day brainstorming project ideas at our lab retreat followed by pizza and shuffleboard.

February 2025

Jess is delighted to have been selected for a Springboard Award from the Academy of Medical Sciences!

Welcome to the lab Alice who is an EngBio CDT student joining for an 11-week rotation using protein design to target motor protein regulation.

December 2025

Merry Christmas!

November 2025

Jess has been awarded a 5-year Wellcome Trust Early Career Fellowship to study coiled-coil regulation of motor protein adaptors.

Jess enjoying visiting the Heddle lab and the Centre for Programmable Matter to give a seminar in Durham!

October 2025

PhD positions advertised funded through the MRC GW4 or EPSRC/UoB Scholarships

Applications open for the University Engineering Biology CDT and Technology Enhanced Chemical Synthesis CDT to join the lab!

September 2025

Welcome to Jake who is joining the lab for his 4th year Chemistry MSci project! Jake is designing peptides to bind to kinesin-1 to investigate conformational changes involved in activation.

Welcome to Henry who is joining the lab for a 4-year PhD funded by a scholarship from SWBio! Henry is building minimal motor proteins from the bottom up, learning how proteins can transduce chemical energy to mechanical work so efficiently and designing new switches to allow us to control motor activity in cells.

Welcome to Xuetong, who is joining the lab for a 4-year PhD funded by a scholarship from CSC! Xuetong is investigating how coiled coil domains can mediate conformational switches in motor proteins to understand transport networks inside cells.

August 2025

Lab lunch!

July 2025

Welcome to Kirsten and Aimee, who are joining the lab for summer internships investigating how the oligomeric state of cargo adaptor peptides effects kinesin-1 activity in cells.

November 2024

PhD positions advertised funded through SW Bio or EPSRC/UoB Scholarships

Applications open for the University Engineering Biology CDT to join the lab!

Website launch!