Research
I am a structural and computational biologist with a background in EM, light microscopy, biophysics, and X-ray crystallography. I am interested in combining low resolution microscopy, biophysical, and biochemical methods (including FRET and crosslinking) with atomic modelling to understand protein and RNA assemblies involved in signalling, bacterial virulence, and innate immunity.
Working in Profs Clare Bryant and Nick Gay's lab I am looking at the trafficking and interactions of TLR receptors and their associated adaptors.
I also have an interest in new ways to visualize and annotate data in combination with 3D structures.
Publications
Stephenson JD, Li H, Kenyon JC, Symmons M, Klenerman D, Lever AM.
Three-dimensional RNA structure of the major HIV-1 packaging signal
region. Structure. 2013 Jun 4;21(6):951-62. doi:
10.1016/j.str.2013.04.008.
Symmons MF*, Bokma E, Koronakis E, Hughes C, Koronakis V. The assembled
structure of a complete tripartite bacterial multidrug efflux pump. Proc
Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2009 Apr 28;106(17):7173-8. *Corresponding author.
Gavory G, Symmons MF, Krishnan Ghosh Y, Klenerman D, Balasubramanian S.
Structural analysis of the catalytic core of human telomerase RNA by
FRET and molecular modeling. Biochemistry. 2006 Nov 7;45(44):13304-11.
Hinchliffe P, Symmons MF, Hughes C, Koronakis V. Structure and operation
of bacterial tripartite pumps. Annu Rev Microbiol. 2013;67:221-42.
Marvin DA, Welsh LC, Symmons MF, Scott WR, Straus SK. Molecular
structure of fd (f1, M13) filamentous bacteriophage refined with respect
to X-ray fibre diffraction and solid-state NMR data supports specific
models of phage assembly at the bacterial membrane. J Mol Biol. 2006 Jan
13;355(2):294-309.
