Dr Samuel Furse

Lipids make up a key part of all biological systems. They have fundamental roles in both the structure and supply of energy in biological systems. In the widest sense, the term ‘lipid’ refers to several, distinct areas of metabolism, including sterols and species comprising fatty acid residues. However, lipid metabolism and biophysics are some of the most complicated and least well understood in Science. I am interested in understanding the role of lipid metabolism in the health and disease of biological systems. This includes both collection of data (low, medium and high throughput lipidomics) and also analysis of those data to test hypotheses about how lipid metabolism is controlled. This includes leading a collaboration that is developing a novel network analysis tool called Lipid Traffic Analysis. LTA is designed for understanding the control of metabolism using lipidomics and metabolomics data. In bees, key questions about how bees manage their lipid metabolism obtain as they do in mammals, but more important to global sustainability through pollination is the role of nutrition in the longevity of bees. Answering questions about which nutrients are essential for bees is the principal aim of my work at Kew.

• Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Cambridge, 2017-2020
• Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Bergen, 2015-2017
• Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Utrecht, 2013-2015
• Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Nottingham, 2011-13
• PGCE Secondary Science, Imperial College, 2011
• Research Assistant, Imperial College, 2010
• PhD, Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Imperial College, 2011
• MRes, Protein and Membrane Chemical Biology, Imperial College, 2006
• Scientist, EvotecOAI, 2004-05
• MChem, Medicinal Chemistry, UCL 2004