Prof James Crabbe

Professor M James C Crabbe MA, BSc, MSc, PhD, DSc, FIBiol, FRSC, FRGS, FRSA, FLS, FIMarEST

James Crabbe is Professor of Biochemistry at the University, a Supernumerary Fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford University, and Visiting Professor at the University of Reading, and at Beijing Normal University at Zhuhai in China.

His research, spanning biomedical and environmental sciences, has resulted in over 135 publications in refereed International journals, 21 books and major book chapters, 14 items of commercial software, and numerous invitations as Plenary speaker at International conferences.  

In 2006 he won the 6th Aviva/Earthwatch International Award for Climate Change Research. Since 2005 he has been an Expert Reviewer for the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), joint winners of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007.

His links with Industry and consultancies have resulted in many successful projects, including prize-winning commercial software in molecular modelling.  He is Editor of the journal Computational Biology and Chemistry, and on the editorial boards of five other journals.

He is a governor of Dunstable College Corporation, Vice-Chairman of the East of England Engineering, Science & Technology Association, Chairman of Trustee Directors of the Charity for Access Ability and Communications Technology (AACT), a member of the College of Experts of the MRC, a member of the Advisory Board of the Coral Reef Research Unit at the University of Essex, and a former member of the Peer Review College of the EPSRC.

He is currently on the Executive Committee of the UK Deans of Science, a member of the Council of University Deans of Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities, has been a member of the Council of the Biochemical Society, was one of the first Academic Auditors with the QAA, and a member of the Research Boards of the EU and of the Big Lottery Fund. He has supervised 16 completed PhD students, and 11 Postdoctoral Fellows, on his own research grants.  

He is a SCUBA dive instructor level 1, and has made several classical recordings, one of which won an award, and has worked in BBC TV and Radio, and on the Science and Art programme of the Wellcome Trust.

Externally funded research projects

2007:   $21,000 from Earthwatch (USA) for coral reef studies related to conservation in Belize; $5,000 from the Oak Foundation for capacity building for sustainable development in Belize.
2006:   $35,000 from Earthwatch (USA) for studies on coral growth rates and recruitment in relation to climatic and environmental effects.
2005:   The Samuel Riker Fellowship Award, for studies on coral growth, recruitment, and climate change, $30,000 from Earthwatch (USA) for studies on coral growth rates and recruitment in relation to climatic and environmental effects.
2004:   $30,000 from Earthwatch (USA) for studies on coral growth rates and recruitment in relation to climatic and environmental effects; £5,000 from the Wellcome Trust for a SciArt project: ‘Seeing clearly – light sculpture and the eye’; £1,534 from Vodafone plc for Communications Technology and Conservation.
2003:   £235,000 (joint) from the Wellcome Trust for three years to study ‘A genomics and proteomics approach to understanding the effect of protein glycation and advanced glycation endproduct (AGE) formation and fermentation by human colonic bacteria and the implications for lower gut health’; $23,000 from Earthwatch (USA) for studies on coral growth rates and recruitment, £550 from the BBSRC for a postgraduate communication skills course.
2002:   £259,228 from the Wellcome Trust (joint) for three years to study ‘Glycation of human serum albumin, haemoglobin and lens crystallins and capsule collagen by methylglyoxal and other a-oxoaldehydes in vivo: site, extent and structural and functional consequences of modification’; £268,755 for a real-time confocal microscope and associated micromanipulator of which BBSRC contributes £139,339, Leica £115,036 and the RETF £14,380, for “Visualisation by confocal microscopy of protein location and interactions within living cells”; £97,730 (joint) from the British Heart Foundation for two years to study quantification of glycated lipoproteins in diabetic subjects; $30,000 from Earthwatch (USA) for studies on coral growth rates and recruitment, £9,085 from the Royal Society for structural studies of MIP; £7,000 from RETF to study protein crystallography.

Contact details

T +44 (0)1582 489 265
F +44 (0)1582 489 212
E james.crabbe@beds.ac.uk