Research

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Synthetic Biology underpins advances in the bioeconomy

Biological systems - including the simplest cells - exhibit a broad range of functions to thrive in their environment. Research in the Imperial College Centre for Synthetic Biology is focused on the possibility of engineering the underlying biochemical processes to solve many of the challenges facing society, from healthcare to sustainable energy. In particular, we model, analyse, design and build biological and biochemical systems in living cells and/or in cell extracts, both exploring and enhancing the engineering potential of biology. 

As part of our research we develop novel methods to accelerate the celebrated Design-Build-Test-Learn synthetic biology cycle. As such research in the Centre for Synthetic Biology highly multi- and interdisciplinary covering computational modelling and machine learning approaches; automated platform development and genetic circuit engineering ; multi-cellular and multi-organismal interactions, including gene drive and genome engineering; metabolic engineering; in vitro/cell-free synthetic biology; engineered phages and directed evolution; and biomimetics, biomaterials and biological engineering.

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Campeotto:2015:10.1074/jbc.M114.621789,
author = {Campeotto, I and Zhang, Y and Mladenov, MG and Freemont, PS and Grundling, A},
doi = {10.1074/jbc.M114.621789},
journal = {Journal of Biological Chemistry},
pages = {2888--2901},
title = {Complex Structure and Biochemical Characterization of the Staphylococcus aureus Cyclic Diadenylate Monophosphate (c-di-AMP)-binding Protein PstA, the Founding Member of a New Signal Transduction Protein Family},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1074/jbc.M114.621789},
volume = {290},
year = {2015}
}
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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Signaling nucleotides are integral parts of signal transductionsystems allowing bacteria to cope with and rapidly respond tochanges in the environment. The Staphylococcus aureus PII-likesignal transduction protein PstA was recently identified as acyclic diadenylate monophosphate (c-di-AMP)-binding protein.Here, we present the crystal structures of the apo- and c-diAMP-boundPstA protein, which is trimeric in solution as wellas in the crystals. The structures combined with detailed bioinformaticsanalysis revealed that the protein belongs to a newfamily of proteins with a similar core fold but with distinct featuresto classical PII proteins, which usually function in nitrogenmetabolism pathways in bacteria. The complex structurerevealed three identical c-di-AMP-binding sites per trimer witheach binding site at a monomer-monomer interface. Althoughdistinctly different from other cyclic-di-nucleotide-bindingsites, as the half-binding sites are not symmetrical, the complexstructure also highlighted common features for c-di-AMPbindingsites. A comparison between the apo and complexstructures revealed a series of conformational changes thatresult in the ordering of two anti-parallel !-strands that protrudefrom each monomer and allowed us to propose a mechanismon how the PstA protein functions as a signaling transductionprotein.
AU  - Campeotto,I
AU  - Zhang,Y
AU  - Mladenov,MG
AU  - Freemont,PS
AU  - Grundling,A
DO  - 10.1074/jbc.M114.621789
EP  - 2901
PY  - 2015///
SN  - 1083-351X
SP  - 2888
TI  - Complex Structure and Biochemical Characterization of the Staphylococcus aureus Cyclic Diadenylate Monophosphate (c-di-AMP)-binding Protein PstA, the Founding Member of a New Signal Transduction Protein Family
T2  - Journal of Biological Chemistry
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1074/jbc.M114.621789
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/27436
VL  - 290
ER  -
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