David Owen

Following completion of his Ph.D. in 2015 (University of St Andrews, Scotland), David joined Martin Walsh's macromolecular crystallography group at Diamond Light Source as a Post-Doctoral Research Associate. David's focus was structural characterisation of proteins involved in carbohydrate processing, by pathogenic and commensal bacteria, with a particular interest in sialic acid. Work on membrane bound carbohydrate transporters led to greater use of single particle electron microscopy. David also contributed to Diamond's effort to unearth new drugs to combat COVID-19 by solving the structure of the SARS-CoV-2 main protease and papain like proteases in complex with numerous molecules of therapeutic interest.

David joined the electron Bio-Imaging Centre in August 2020 as an Electron Microscope Scientist. His research interests in carbohydrate processing remains and his hope is to use the tools and techniques present at eBIC to continue to answer exciting biological questions.

LE Tailford, CD Owen, J Walshaw, EH Crost, J Hardy-Goddard, G Le Gall, ... (2015) Discovery of intramolecular trans-sialidases in human gut microbiota suggests novel mechanisms of mucosal adaptation Nature communications 6 (1), 1-12.

N Juge, L Tailford, CD Owen (2016) Sialidases from gut bacteria: a mini-review Biochemical Society Transactions 44 (1), 166-175.

CD Owen, P Lukacik, JA Potter, O Sleator, GL Taylor, MA Walsh (2015)
Streptococcus pneumoniae NanC Structural insights into the specificity and mechanism of a sialidase that produces a sialidase inhibitor  Journal of Biological Chemistry 290 (46), 27736-27748.

CD Owen, LE Tailford, S Monaco, T Šuligoj, L Vaux, R Lallement, ... (2017) Unravelling the specificity and mechanism of sialic acid recognition by the gut symbiont Ruminococcus gnavus  Nature communications 8 (1), 1-15.

A Bell, J Brunt, E Crost, L Vaux, R Nepravishta, CD Owen, D Latousakis, ... (2019) Elucidation of a sialic acid metabolism pathway in mucus-foraging Ruminococcus gnavus unravels mechanisms of bacterial adaptation to the gut  Nature microbiology 4 (12), 2393-2404.

LE Tailford, CD Owen, J Walshaw, EH Crost, J Hardy-Goddard, G Le Gall, ... (2015)  Discovery of intramolecular trans-sialidases in human gut microbiota suggests novel mechanisms of mucosal adaptation.  Nat Commun 6: 7624.

A Douangamath, D Fearon, P Gehrtz, T Krojer, P Lukacik, CD Owen, ...  (2020)   Crystallographic and electrophilic fragment screening of the SARS-CoV-2 main protease   bioRxiv.

H Wu, O Rebello, EH Crost, CD Owen, S Walpole, C Bennati-Granier, ...  (2020)   Fucosidases from the human gut symbiont Ruminococcus gnavus  Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences, 1-19.

A Ronis, K Brockman, AK Singh, MO Gaytán, A Wong, S McGrath, ... (2019)   Streptococcus oralis subsp. dentisani produces monolateral serine-rich repeat protein fibrils, one of which contributes to saliva binding via sialic acid  Infection and immunity 87 (10), e00406-19.

CD Owen University of St Andrews (2015)  Structural studies of non-classical sialidases.