Naismith is cited for his stunning structural and chemical dissection of the many proteins involved in natural product recognition, synthesis and export. Naismith was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2014. His research has been funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), the Medical Research Council (MRC), the Wellcome Trust and the European Union. the biosynthesis of unusual natural products.viral replication, we are purifying and crystallising a heterodimer crucial to replication of viruses in vivo,.pathogenic bacteria glycan assembly, we have cloned and crystallised a number of the enzymes involved in key steps of glycan synthesis in pathogenic bacteria.physical basis of protein carbohydrate interactions.The application of protein structure determination by X-ray crystallography coupled to molecular biology and biochemistry to probe biological mechanisms and to target specific disease pathways. He was appointed a lecturer at the University of St Andrews in 1995, Reader in 1999 and a Professor in 2001. Career and research įollowing his PhD, Naismith did postdoctoral research at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center as a NATO Fellow in the laboratory of Stephen Sprang.
In 2016 he was awarded a Doctor of Science (DSc) by the University of St Andrews. He won a Carnegie Scholarship to work under the supervision of Bill Hunter, John Helliwell and David Garner at the University of Manchester where he received his PhD in 1992 for research into the chemical structure of Concanavalin A and Zinc aldolase. He went on to study at the University of Edinburgh where he received a first class Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry in 1989. Naismith was educated at Hamilton Grammar School.