Recep Adiyaman

Curriculum Vitae

Recep Adiyaman, PhD

Structural Bioinformatics Scientist | Protein Structure, MD Refinement, Drug Design

Reading, UK

Pioneering the shift from static snapshots to dynamic ensembles. Integrating AI with Molecular Dynamics to model mutants, de novo designs, and drug resistance.

ReFOLD3: top refinement server in CASP14; best-in-class MD restraint workflows. ReFOLD4: lifted model quality beyond AlphaFold2 using QA-guided recycling. FunFOLD5: top-10 affinity prediction; top-2 self-ranking ligand interaction method.

Experience

Collaborative Researcher (Part-Time)

InstaDeep — London, UK

2023 – Present
  • Built structural immunology pipeline with BioNTech to accelerate cancer vaccine target discovery.
  • Bridged experimental readouts and computational prediction for faster candidate prioritisation.

Research Fellow

McGuffin Lab, University of Reading — Reading, UK

2020 – Present
  • Lead developer for IntFOLD/MultiFOLD refinement; integrated MD recycling to exceed AlphaFold2 accuracy.
  • Created FunFOLD5 for ligand interactions; blind + template docking outperform AlphaFold3 in targeted tasks.
  • Advanced ensemble prediction, QA, ligand site, disorder, and PPI pipelines for deployable tools.

PhD Researcher

University of Reading — Reading, UK

2016 – 2020
  • Developed ReFOLD2/3 MD restraint strategies; top-10 in CASP13 refinement, improving structure and ligand-site fidelity.
  • Published MD-based refinement and quality estimation work; co-led benchmarking of refinement protocols.

Teaching Assistant

University of Reading — Reading, UK

2016 – 2020
  • Delivered bioinformatics practicals (BLAST, PDB/CATH, PyMOL) to ~150 students per cohort.

Skills

Protein / MD

MD refinement pipelines (restraints, ensembles) Structure prediction (Boltz-2, Chai-2, AlphaFold2, ReFOLD, IntFOLD/MultiFOLD) Ligand interactions (AlphaFold ligand workflows, Vina, gnina, SwissDock, DiffDock, Rosetta) QA and docking evaluation (ModFOLD/quality estimation)

Data / ML

Python, R, shell for analysis and automation scikit-learn, TensorFlow, PyTorch for structural ML tasks Feature engineering for quality/affinity scoring Reproducible benchmarking and experiment tracking

Collaboration

AWS and HPC (MMM Hub Young Server-UCL) Code review, documentation, mentoring Teaching bioinformatics toolchains (BLAST, HHpred, PyMOL, Chimera)

Education

PhD, Biological Sciences

University of Reading — Reading, UK

2017 – 2021

MD-based refinement of predicted 3D protein models with restraint strategies; developed ReFOLD2/3 (CASP13 top-ranked). Supervisor: Prof. Liam McGuffin.

MSc, Bioengineering

Yildiz Technical University — Istanbul, Turkey

2012 – 2014

GPA 3.86/4.00. In silico optimisation of zinc-binding proteins for biosensors (Supervisors: Gundog Yucesan, Alper Yilmaz).

MSc, Physics

Trakya University — Edirne, Turkey

2011 – 2013

Research on GaAs/GaAlAs quantum wells; GPA 67/100.

BSc, Physics

Trakya University — Edirne, Turkey

2007 – 2011

Coursework in classical mechanics, relativity, and quantum mechanics; GPA 2.78/4.00.

Selected Publications

Improvement of protein tertiary and quaternary structure predictions using the ReFOLD refinement method and the AlphaFold2 recycling process

Bioinformatics Advances, 2023

Citations: 9

Using local protein model quality estimates to guide a molecular dynamics-based refinement strategy

Homology Modeling: Methods and Protocols (Springer US), 2023

Citations: 1

ReFOLD3: refinement of 3D protein models with gradual restraints based on predicted local quality and residue contacts

Nucleic Acids Research, 2021

Citations: 16

Methods for the Refinement of Protein Structure 3D Models

International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 2019

Citations: 68

Prediction of protein structures, functions and interactions using the IntFOLD7, MultiFOLD and ModFOLDdock servers

Nucleic Acids Research, 2023

Citations: 38

Estimation of model accuracy in CASP15 using the ModFOLDdock server

Proteins: Structure, Function, and Bioinformatics, 2023

Citations: 12

IntFOLD: An integrated web resource for high-performance protein structure and function prediction

Nucleic Acids Research, 2019

Citations: 130

ModFOLD8: Accurate global and local quality estimates for 3D protein models

Nucleic Acids Research, 2021

Citations: 69

Structural, functional, and mechanistic insights uncover the fundamental role of orphan connexin-62 in platelets

Blood, 2021

Citations: 11

Modelling SARS‐CoV‐2 proteins in the CASP‐commons experiment

Proteins: Structure, Function, and Bioinformatics, 2021

Citations: 19

Design and synthesis of small peptide sequences to detect concentrations of free transition metal ions

Abstracts of Papers of the American Chemical Society, 2014

Conference abstract

Talks & Posters

  • ReFOLD4 for refinement of AlphaFold2 predictions — ISMB 2023 (3D-SIG)
  • MD-based refinement guided by local quality — University of Reading BioSci Symposium
  • ReFOLD2/3 refinement posters — CASP13/14/16, ISMB 2021, 3D-SIG

References

Prof. Liam McGuffin

School of Biological Sciences, University of Reading

l.j.mcguffin@reading.ac.uk

Assist. Prof. Alper Yilmaz

Yildiz Technical University Bioengineering Department

alperyilmaz@gmail.com

BS HF DK