Claire Strain-Damerell

Claire is a Senior Research Technician working with Dr Martin Walsh. She completed her DPhil in Biochemistry at the University of Sussex, with her thesis titled ‘Functional analysis of Rex, a sensor of the NADH/NAD⁺ redox poise in Streptomyces coelicolor’. She then went on to work as a postdoctoral scientist at the Structural Genomics Consortium, University of Oxford, where she built up an expertise in high-throughput cloning, expression and purification of human proteins associated with rare diseases. She joined Diamond in 2018.

 

Our group is focused on dissecting the mechanism of action of bacterial pathogens, with the aim of advancing vaccine and antimicrobial drug development. To do this we study the structure (crystallography/EM) and function of proteins involved in nutrient uptake and transport across the bacterial membrane. I am particularly interested in the cloning, expression and purification of bacterial membrane protein complexes implicated in pathogenesis.

 

Douangamath A, Fearon D, Gehrtz P, Krojer T, Lukacik P, Owen CD, Resnick E, Strain-Damerell C, Aimon A, Ábrányi-Balogh P, Brandão-Neto J, Carbery A, Davison G, Dias A, Downes TD, Dunnett L, Fairhead M, Firth JD, Jones SP, Keeley A, Keserü GM, Klein HF, Martin MP, Noble MEM, O'Brien P, Powell A, Reddi RN, Skyner R, Snee M, Waring MJ, Wild C, London N, von Delft F, Walsh MA. Crystallographic and electrophilic fragment screening of the SARS-CoV-2 main protease. Nat Commun. 2020 Oct 7;11(1):5047. doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-18709-w. PMID: 33028810; PMCID: PMC7542442.

Strain-Damerell C, Burgess-Brown NA. High-Throughput Site-Directed Mutagenesis. Methods Mol Biol. 2019;2025:281-296. doi: 10.1007/978-1-4939-9624-7_13. PMID: 31267458.

Strain-Damerell C, Mahajan P, Fernandez-Cid A, Gileadi O, Burgess-Brown NA. Screening and Production of Recombinant Human Proteins: Ligation-Independent Cloning. Methods Mol Biol. 2021;2199:23-43. doi: 10.1007/978-1-0716-0892-0_3. PMID: 33125643.

Malla TR, Tumber A, John T, Brewitz L, Strain-Damerell C, Owen CD, Lukacik P, Chan HTH, Maheswaran P, Salah E, Duarte F, Yang H, Rao Z, Walsh MA, Schofield CJ. Mass spectrometry reveals potential of β-lactams as SARS-CoV-2 Mpro inhibitors. Chem Commun (Camb). 2021 Feb 15;57(12):1430-1433. doi: 10.1039/d0cc06870e. PMID: 33462575; PMCID: PMC8006714.

Ferreira IM, Quesñay JEN, Bastos AC, Rodrigues CT, Vollmar M, Krojer T, Strain-Damerell C, Burgess-Brown NA, von Delft F, Yue WW, Dias SM, Ambrosio AL. Structure and activation mechanism of the human liver-type glutaminase GLS2. Biochimie. 2021 Jun;185:96-104. doi: 10.1016/j.biochi.2021.03.009. Epub 2021 Mar 18. PMID: 33746066; PMCID: PMC8130709.

Mahajan P, Strain-Damerell C, Mukhopadhyay S, Fernandez-Cid A, Gileadi O, Burgess-Brown NA. Screening and Production of Recombinant Human Proteins: Protein Production in Insect Cells. Methods Mol Biol. 2021;2199:67-94. doi: 10.1007/978-1-0716-0892-0_5. PMID: 33125645.

Burgess-Brown NA, Mahajan P, Strain-Damerell C, Fernandez-Cid A, Gileadi O, Gräslund S. Screening and Production of Recombinant Human Proteins: Protein Production in E. coli. Methods Mol Biol. 2021;2199:45-66. doi: 10.1007/978-1-0716-0892-0_4. PMID: 33125644.

Redhead MA, Owen CD, Brewitz L, Collette AH, Lukacik P, Strain-Damerell C, Robinson SW, Collins PM, Schäfer P, Swindells M, Radoux CJ, Hopkins IN, Fearon D, Douangamath A, von Delft F, Malla TR, Vangeel L, Vercruysse T, Thibaut J, Leyssen P, Nguyen TT, Hull M, Tumber A, Hallett DJ, Schofield CJ, Stuart DI, Hopkins AL, Walsh MA. Bispecific repurposed medicines targeting the viral and immunological arms of COVID-19. Sci Rep. 2021 Jun 24;11(1):13208. doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-92416-4. Erratum in: Sci Rep. 2021 Sep 28;11(1):19633. PMID: 34168183; PMCID: PMC8225628.

Zaidman D, Gehrtz P, Filep M, Fearon D, Gabizon R, Douangamath A, Prilusky J, Duberstein S, Cohen G, Owen CD, Resnick E, Strain-Damerell C, Lukacik P; Covid- Moonshot Consortium, Barr H, Walsh MA, von Delft F, London N. An automatic pipeline for the design of irreversible derivatives identifies a potent SARS- CoV-2 Mpro inhibitor. Cell Chem Biol. 2021 Dec 16;28(12):1795-1806.e5. doi: 10.1016/j.chembiol.2021.05.018. Epub 2021 Jun 25. PMID: 34174194; PMCID: PMC8228784.

Chan HTH, Moesser MA, Walters RK, Malla TR, Twidale RM, John T, Deeks HM, Johnston-Wood T, Mikhailov V, Sessions RB, Dawson W, Salah E, Lukacik P, Strain- Damerell C, Owen CD, Nakajima T, Świderek K, Lodola A, Moliner V, Glowacki DR, Spencer J, Walsh MA, Schofield CJ, Genovese L, Shoemark DK, Mulholland AJ, Duarte F, Morris GM. Discovery of SARS-CoV-2 Mpro peptide inhibitors from modelling substrate and ligand binding. Chem Sci. 2021 Sep 6;12(41):13686-13703. doi: 10.1039/d1sc03628a. PMID: 34760153; PMCID: PMC8549791.

Bradley AR, Echalier A, Fairhead M, Strain-Damerell C, Brennan P, Bullock AN, Burgess-Brown NA, Carpenter EP, Gileadi O, Marsden BD, Lee WH, Yue W, Bountra C, von Delft F. The SGC beyond structural genomics: redefining the role of 3D structures by coupling genomic stratification with fragment-based discovery. Essays Biochem. 2017 Nov 8;61(5):495-503. doi: 10.1042/EBC20170051. PMID: 29118096; PMCID: PMC5869235.

Dong YY, Wang H, Pike ACW, Cochrane SA, Hamedzadeh S, Wyszyński FJ, Bushell SR, Royer SF, Widdick DA, Sajid A, Boshoff HI, Park Y, Lucas R, Liu WM, Lee SS, Machida T, Minall L, Mehmood S, Belaya K, Liu WW, Chu A, Shrestha L, Mukhopadhyay SMM, Strain-Damerell C, Chalk R, Burgess-Brown NA, Bibb MJ, Barry Iii CE, Robinson CV, Beeson D, Davis BG, Carpenter EP. Structures of DPAGT1 Explain Glycosylation Disease Mechanisms and Advance TB Antibiotic Design. Cell. 2018 Nov 1;175(4):1045-1058.e16. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2018.10.037. PMID: 30388443; PMCID: PMC6218659.

Damerell DR, Strain-Damerell C, Garsot S, Joyce SP, Barrett P, Marsden BD. SATurn: a modular bioinformatics framework for the design of robust maintainable web-based and standalone applications. Bioinformatics. 2019 Jan 15;35(2):349-351. doi: 10.1093/bioinformatics/bty549. PMID: 29982288; PMCID: PMC6329998.

Strain-Damerell C, Mahajan P, Gileadi O, Burgess-Brown NA. Medium-throughput production of recombinant human proteins: ligation-independent cloning. Methods Mol Biol. 2014;1091:55-72. doi: 10.1007/978-1-62703-691-7_4. PMID: 24203324.

Johansson C, Velupillai S, Tumber A, Szykowska A, Hookway ES, Nowak RP, Strain-Damerell C, Gileadi C, Philpott M, Burgess-Brown N, Wu N, Kopec J, Nuzzi A, Steuber H, Egner U, Badock V, Munro S, LaThangue NB, Westaway S, Brown J, Athanasou N, Prinjha R, Brennan PE, Oppermann U. Structural analysis of human KDM5B guides histone demethylase inhibitor development. Nat Chem Biol. 2016 Jul;12(7):539-45. doi: 10.1038/nchembio.2087. Epub 2016 May 23. PMID: 27214403.

Fox NG, Yu X, Feng X, Bailey HJ, Martelli A, Nabhan JF, Strain-Damerell C, Bulawa C, Yue WW, Han S. Structure of the human frataxin-bound iron-sulfur cluster assembly complex provides insight into its activation mechanism. Nat Commun. 2019 May 17;10(1):2210. doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-09989-y. PMID: 31101807; PMCID: PMC6525205.

Bulbrook D, Brazier H, Mahajan P, Kliszczak M, Fedorov O, Marchese FP, Aubareda A, Chalk R, Picaud S, Strain-Damerell C, Filippakopoulos P, Gileadi O, Clark AR, Yue WW, Burgess-Brown NA, Dean JLE. Tryptophan-Mediated Interactions between Tristetraprolin and the CNOT9 Subunit Are Required for CCR4-NOT Deadenylase Complex Recruitment. J Mol Biol. 2018 Mar 2;430(5):722-736. doi: 10.1016/j.jmb.2017.12.018. Epub 2017 Dec 29. PMID: 29291391.

Mahajan P, Strain-Damerell C, Gileadi O, Burgess-Brown NA. Medium-throughput production of recombinant human proteins: protein production in insect cells. Methods Mol Biol. 2014;1091:95-121. doi: 10.1007/978-1-62703-691-7_6. PMID: 24203326.

Burgess-Brown NA, Mahajan P, Strain-Damerell C, Gileadi O, Gräslund S. Medium-throughput production of recombinant human proteins: protein production in E. coli. Methods Mol Biol. 2014;1091:73-94. doi: 10.1007/978-1-62703-691-7_5. PMID: 24203325.

Brewitz L, Kamps JJAG, Lukacik P, Strain-Damerell C, Zhao Y, Tumber A, Malla TR, Orville AM, Walsh MA, Schofield CJ. Mass Spectrometric Assays Reveal Discrepancies in Inhibition Profiles for the SARS-CoV-2 Papain-Like Protease. ChemMedChem. 2022 Jan 27:e202200016. doi: 10.1002/cmdc.202200016. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 35085423.

Rose NR, Woon EC, Tumber A, Walport LJ, Chowdhury R, Li XS, King ON, Lejeune C, Ng SS, Krojer T, Chan MC, Rydzik AM, Hopkinson RJ, Che KH, Daniel M, Strain- Damerell C, Gileadi C, Kochan G, Leung IK, Dunford J, Yeoh KK, Ratcliffe PJ, Burgess-Brown N, von Delft F, Muller S, Marsden B, Brennan PE, McDonough MA, Oppermann U, Klose RJ, Schofield CJ, Kawamura A. Plant growth regulator daminozide is a selective inhibitor of human KDM2/7 histone demethylases. J Med Chem. 2012 Jul 26;55(14):6639-43. doi: 10.1021/jm300677j. Epub 2012 Jul 11. PMID: 22724510; PMCID: PMC4673902.

McCorvie TJ, Kopec J, Hyung SJ, Fitzpatrick F, Feng X, Termine D, Strain- Damerell C, Vollmar M, Fleming J, Janz JM, Bulawa C, Yue WW. Inter-domain communication of human cystathionine β-synthase: structural basis of S-adenosyl- L-methionine activation. J Biol Chem. 2014 Dec 26;289(52):36018-30. doi: 10.1074/jbc.M114.610782. Epub 2014 Oct 21. PMID: 25336647; PMCID: PMC4276868.

Philpott M, Rogers CM, Yapp C, Wells C, Lambert JP, Strain-Damerell C, Burgess-Brown NA, Gingras AC, Knapp S, Müller S. Assessing cellular efficacy of bromodomain inhibitors using fluorescence recovery after photobleaching. Epigenetics Chromatin. 2014 Jul 13;7:14. doi: 10.1186/1756-8935-7-14. PMID: 25097667; PMCID: PMC4115480.

Kallifidas D, Pascoe B, Owen GA, Strain-Damerell CM, Hong HJ, Paget MS. The zinc-responsive regulator Zur controls expression of the coelibactin gene cluster in Streptomyces coelicolor. J Bacteriol. 2010 Jan;192(2):608-11. doi: 10.1128/JB.01022-09. Epub 2009 Nov 13. PMID: 19915027; PMCID: PMC2805322.

McLaughlin KJ, Strain-Damerell CM, Xie K, Brekasis D, Soares AS, Paget MS, Kielkopf CL. Structural basis for NADH/NAD+ redox sensing by a Rex family repressor. Mol Cell. 2010 May 28;38(4):563-75. doi: 10.1016/j.molcel.2010.05.006. PMID: 20513431.

Tumber A, Nuzzi A, Hookway ES, Hatch SB, Velupillai S, Johansson C, Kawamura A, Savitsky P, Yapp C, Szykowska A, Wu N, Bountra C, Strain-Damerell C, Burgess- Brown NA, Ruda GF, Fedorov O, Munro S, England KS, Nowak RP, Schofield CJ, La Thangue NB, Pawlyn C, Davies F, Morgan G, Athanasou N, Müller S, Oppermann U, Brennan PE. Potent and Selective KDM5 Inhibitor Stops Cellular Demethylation of H3K4me3 at Transcription Start Sites and Proliferation of MM1S Myeloma Cells. Cell Chem Biol. 2017 Mar 16;24(3):371-380. doi: 10.1016/j.chembiol.2017.02.006. Epub 2017 Mar 2. PMID: 28262558; PMCID: PMC5361737.

Stringer RA, Strain-Damerell C, Nicklin P, Houston JB. Evaluation of recombinant cytochrome P450 enzymes as an in vitro system for metabolic clearance predictions. Drug Metab Dispos. 2009 May;37(5):1025-34. doi: 10.1124/dmd.108.024810. Epub 2009 Feb 5. PMID: 19196847.