[Shepherd Group] [Publications]
Adrian Shepherd: Summary
Positions: Emeritus Professor of Computational Biology, ISMB and Birkbeck, University of London; Honorary Research Associate, UCL
Research areas: Computational immunology and computational virology (see the Shepherd Group website for more information)
Teaching: I was Director of the MSc Bioinformatics course at Birkbeck from 2006 to 2022, and I am involved in SysMIC and L2D (Learn to Discover) (see this page for more information)
Profile
I arrived at my academic positions at Birkbeck via an unusually circuitous route. With a first degree in History of Art and having spent six years working outside academia (as Information Officer for a welfare rights charity and as a journalist), I started a Masters in Computer Science at UCL in 1991. This included a module on neural computing, from which began a continuing interest in machine learning.
A PhD in Neural Computing at UCL followed, after which I joined Prof. Janet Thornton's group to work on protein structure prediction. After a further spell at UCL working on the CATH database for Prof. Christine Orengo, I joined Birkbeck as a Lecturer in Bioinformatics in 2002. I became a Senior Lecturer in Computational Biology in the Department of Biological Sciences in 2009, a Reader in 2014, and Professor of Computational Biology in 2020.
Since 2006, when I became a founding member of the ImmunoGrid Consortium, a major focus of my research has been immunoinformatics. Currently my research group is working on immune responses to: several viruses that have a major global impact on human health (influenza A, HIV, hepatitis B virus, herpes simplex virus); and protein therapeutics (notably replacement factor VIII used in the treatment of haemophilia A). I also retain an interest in more general computational methods relevant to the field (notably biomedical text mining and data visualisation).
I took early retirement in early 2022, but remain research active.
Away from Birkbeck, I like to spend my time walking in the countryside, taking photos and spending quality time with my family (my wife, Ishani, and our daughter, Rai) — sometimes all of them at the same time!
Adrian Shepherd, updated 25th March 2022
Appointments
- Emeritus Professor of Computational Biology, Department of Biological Sciences, Birkbeck (from Mar 2022)
- Professor of Computational Biology, Department of Biological Sciences, Birkbeck (Oct 2020 to Feb 2022)
- Honorary Research Associate, Research Department of Structural & Molecular Biology, UCL (from May 2008)
- Reader in Computational Biology, Department of Biological Sciences, Birkbeck (Oct 2014 to Sep 2020)
- Senior Lecturer in Computational Biology, Department of Biological Sciences, Birkbeck (Oct 2009 to Sep 2014)
- Lecturer in Bioinformatics, School of Crystallography, Birkbeck (Oct 2002 to Sep 2009)
- Senior Research Fellow with Prof. Christine Orengo (Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, UCL) and Dr Nigel Martin (Computer Science, Birkbeck) (1999-2002)
- Research Fellow with Prof. Janet Thornton (Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, UCL) and Dr Denise Gorse (Computer Science, UCL) (1996-9)
Education
- Professional Certificate in Teaching and Learning in Higher and Professional Education, Institute of Education (2005)
- PhD in Neural Computing, UCL (1995)
- MSc Computer Science, UCL (1992)
- BA (Hons.) History of Art, UEA (1984).