Personal Statement
The Goult laboratory studies how cells compute with mechanical forces.

Ben joined the Department of Biochemistry, Cell and Systems Biology at the University of Liverpool in March 2024. His research group studies the protein talin and its central role in the mechanical information-processing machinery of cells. The lab combines structural biology, biochemistry, biophysics and mechanobiology to understand how mechanical forces regulate protein structure and cellular signalling.

Ben’s research focuses on the force-dependent binary switches within talin and how these switches coordinate cellular signalling pathways. His work has revealed how mechanical inputs can be converted into biochemical outputs and proposes that talin-based switch networks function as molecular systems capable of storing mechanical information. The lab is currently exploring how these mechanisms may contribute to memory formation in the brain.

Research in the Goult laboratory is supported by Cancer Research UK, the British Heart Foundation and BrightFocus.

Career

1995–1998 University of Sheffield — BSc (Hons) Biochemistry
1998–2002 UMIST — PhD in Biological Science
2003–2005 University of Manchester — Research Associate
2005–2006 AstraZeneca Alderley Park — Senior Physical Scientist
2006–2012 University of Leicester — Research Associate
2012–2014 University of Leicester — Research Fellow
2014–2017 University of Kent — Lecturer
2017–2020 University of Kent — Senior Lecturer
2020–2022 University of Kent — Reader
2022–2024 University of Kent — Professor
2024–present University of Liverpool — Professor

Biography

Ben Goult studied Biochemistry at the University of Sheffield before undertaking a PhD at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST), working with Dr Tim Norwood and Professor Lu-Yun Lian to develop NMR-based approaches for drug discovery. After a postdoctoral position at the University of Manchester he joined AstraZeneca at Alderley Park as a Senior Physical Scientist. In 2006 he returned to academia to work with Professor David Critchley at the University of Leicester, where he began his research on the mechanosensitive protein talin and its role in integrin-mediated cell adhesion. In 2013 he discovered the first force-dependent binary switch within talin. In 2014 he established his independent research group at the University of Kent, where he developed the concept that talin functions as a mechanosensitive signalling hub capable of processing mechanical information. In 2021 he proposed the MeshCODE theory, which suggests that networks of talin switches can store and process mechanical information within cells.

In 2024 he joined the University of Liverpool as Professor of Mechanistic Cell Biology, where his laboratory now investigates how mechanically encoded information in proteins may contribute to the physical basis of memory in biological systems.

Research Overview
Our laboratory studies how cells compute with mechanical forces.

Cells constantly experience physical forces from their environment. Our research aims to understand how these forces are sensed at the molecular level and converted into biological signals that control cellular behaviour. To address this problem, we combine structural biology, biochemistry, biophysics and mechanobiology to study the proteins that transmit forces through cell–extracellular matrix adhesion complexes.

Our work focuses on the mechanosensitive protein talin, which we defined as a central signalling hub within integrin adhesions. We discovered that the talin rod contains a series of force-dependent binary switches that unfold under mechanical load, converting mechanical inputs into biochemical signalling outputs. These switches allow talin to function as a molecular system that processes mechanical information inside cells.

More recently, we showed that talin switches can remain persistently altered, revealing that talin possesses a form of molecular memory in which mechanical information is stored in protein conformation. This work led to the MeshCODE theory, which proposes that networks of mechanosensitive proteins operate as molecular information-processing systems capable of storing and updating mechanical information.

Our long-term goal is to understand how mechanical information encoded in proteins influences cellular signalling, neural function and memory. By connecting molecular-scale mechanics to cellular and neuronal information processing, we aim to define the mechanical basis of biological information processing.

This research is providing new insights into diseases linked to defects in mechanosensitive signalling, including Alzheimer’s disease and rare childhood epilepsies like CDKL5 deficiency disorder.

In parallel, we have discovered that talin also functions as an exceptional molecular shock absorber. We are exploiting this property to develop Talin Shock Absorbing Materials (TSAMs), translating the unique mechanical behaviour of mechanosensitive proteins into advanced materials for defence and consumer technologies.

We also create MeshCODE "to-scale" animations that reconstruct mechanosensitive protein systems at true molecular scale, providing a visual framework for explaining mechanical information processing in cells to students, scientists and the wider public.