The University of Sheffield
Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology

Protein NMRim-cjc-06.jpg

Dr C J Craven

blank space The research in my group is mainly in the application of solution state NMR (and also structural bioinformatic techniques and X-ray crystallography) to study the structure, dynamics and interactions of proteins and ligands.

Career History

2007- present: Lecturer, Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, University of Sheffield
1995-2007: Senior Experimental Officer, Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, University of Sheffield
1993-1995: PDRA, Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, University of Sheffield
1991-1992: Lecturer, Department of Physics, University of Malawi, Zomba, Malawi
1987-1991: PhD, Department of Physics, University of Edinburgh "A Molecular Dynamics Study of the Structure and Dynamics of Solid Benzene"

 My research interests lie mainly in bringing quantitative computational methods to bear on biological problems at the molecular and cellular level. I am a strong believer that such analysis needs to be rigourous, but at the same time the aim must always be to draw the quantitative/computational and the more directly biological research communities together. To this end my work most recently has been directed towards developing a model of hyphal growth in fungi which incorporates both molecular cell biology concepts and a quantitiative 3D physical model. I am also interested in finding sense in bioinformatic data of related protein familes, in particular in the DnaD/DnaB family, the PLUNC family, and the SurA/Peb4/Trigger-factor family.
In line with a belief that quantitative analysis needs to be drawn into a middle ground where both the computational specialist and the experimental biologist can understand it, I am the course director of the new MSc in Mechanistic Biology (http://www.shef.ac.uk/mbb/mechanistic-biology), in which we train molecular bioscience graduates computer programming and allied mathematical, physical and chemical skills.

Ray-traced representation of the 2D 15N HSQC spectrum of TCTP.
 Figure 1: Ray-traced representation of the 2D 15N HSQC spectrum of TCTP. The intense signals towards the centre of the spectrum arise from a well conserved mobile loop of twenty residues.
Craven1

 Figure 2: Deciphering the cryptic similarity between the DnaD and DnaD proteins (see Marston et al., 2010).

 

Selected Publications

Trotter EW, Rolfe MD, Hounslow AM, Craven CJ, Williamson MP, Sanguinetti G, Poole RK, Green J
Reprogramming of Escherichia coli K-12 metabolism during the initial phase of transition from an anaerobic to a micro-aerobic environment
PLoS One 2011 6(9):e25501
Systematic nomenclature for the PLUNC/PSP/BSP30/SMGB proteins as a subfamily of the BPI fold-containing superfamily
Biochem Soc Trans 2011 39(4):977-983
Bingle CD, Bingle L, Craven CJ
Distant cousins: genomic and sequence diversity within the BPI fold-containing (BPIF)/PLUNC protein family
Biochem Soc Trans 2011 39(4):961-965
Kale A, Phansopa C, Suwannachart C, Craven CJ, Rafferty JB, Kelly DJ
The virulence factor PEB4 (Cj0596) and the periplasmic protein Cj1289 are two structurally related SurA-like chaperones in the human pathogen Campylobacter jejuni J Biol Chem 2011 286(24):21254-21265
Chiang SC, Veldhuizen EJ, Barnes FA, Craven CJ, Haagsman HP, Bingle CD
Identification and characterisation of the BPI/LBP/PLUNC-like gene repertoire in chickens reveals the absence of a LBP gene
Dev Comp Immunol 2011 35(3):285-95
Marston FY, Grainger WH, Smits WK, Hopcroft NH, Green M, Hounslow AM, Grossman AD, Craven CJ, Soultanas P
When simple sequence comparison fails: the cryptic case of the shared domains of the bacterial replication initiation proteins DnaB and DnaD
Nucleic Acids Res 2010 38(20):6930-42
Tomlinson JH, Craven CJ, Williamson MP, Pandya MJ
Dimerization of protein G B1 domain at low pH: a conformational switch caused by loss of a single hydrogen bond
Proteins: Struct Funct Bioinf 2010 78:1652-1661
Marston JP, Cliff MJ, Reed MA, Blackburn GM, Hounslow AM, Craven CJ, Waltho JP
Structural tightening and interdomain communication in the catalytic cycle of phosphoglycerate kinase
J Mol Biol 2010 396(2):345-360
Long J, Garner TP, Pandya MJ, Craven CJ, Chen P, Shaw B, Williamson MP, Layfield R, Searle MS
Dimerisation of the UBA domain of p62 inhibits ubiquitin binding and regulates NF-kappaB signalling
J Mol Biol 2010 396(1):178-194
Williamson MP, Craven CJ
Automated protein structure calculation from NMR data
J Biomol NMR. 2009 Mar;43(3)131-143
Cliff MJ, Craven CJ, Marston JP, Hounslow AM, Clarke AR, Waltho JP
The denatured state of N-PGK is compact and predominantly disordered
J Mol Biol. 2009 Jan 9;385(1):266-77
Nyon MP, Rice DW, Berrisford JM, Hounslow AM, Moir AJ, Huang H, Nathan S, Mahadi NM, Bakar FD, Craven CJ
Catalysis by Glomerella cingulata cutinase requires conformational cycling between the active and inactive states of its catalytic triad
J Mol Biol. 2009 Jan 9;385(1):226-35

Nyon MP, Rice DW, Berrisford JM, Huang H, Moir AJ, Craven CJ, Nathan S, Mahadi NM, Abu Bakar FDCrystallization and preliminary X-ray analysis of recombinant Glomerella cingulata cutinase
Acta Crystallogr Sect F Struct Biol Cryst Commun. 2008 Jun 1;64(Pt 6):504-8

Morgan GJ, Giannini S, Hounslow AM, Craven CJ, Zerovnik E, Turk V, Waltho JP, Staniforth RA
Exclusion of the native alpha-helix from the amyloid fibrils of a mixed alpha/beta protein
J Mol Biol. 2008 Jan 11;375(2):487-98
Tintaru AM, Hautbergue GM, Hounslow AM, Hung ML, Lian LY, Craven CJ, Wilson SA
Structural and functional analysis of RNA and TAP binding to SF2/ASF
EMBO Rep. 2007 Aug;8(8):756-62
Tintaru AM, Hautbergue GM, Hounslow AM, Lian LY, Wilson SA, Craven CJ
Assignment of 1H, 13C, and 15N resonances for SF2 RNA recognition motif 2
J Biomol NMR. 2007 Jun;38(2):193
Cliff MJ, Alizadeh T, Jelinska C, Craven CJ, Staniforth RA, Waltho JP
A thiol labelling competition experiment as a probe for sidechain packing in the kinetic folding intermediate of N-PGK
J Mol Biol. 2006 Dec 8;364(4):810-23
Wells MA, Jelinska C, Hosszu LL, Craven CJ, Clarke AR, Collinge J, Waltho JP, Jackson GS
Multiple forms of copper (II) co-ordination occur throughout the disordered N-terminal region of the prion protein at pH 7.4
Biochem J. 2006 Dec 15;400(3):501-10
Wells MA, Jackson GS, Jones S, Hosszu LL, Craven CJ, Clarke AR, Collinge J, Waltho JP
A reassessment of copper(II) binding in the full-length prion protein
Biochem J. 2006 Nov 1;399(3):435-44
Cartron ML, Maddocks S, Gillingham P, Craven CJ, Andrews SC
Feo - transport of ferrous iron into bacteria
Biometals. 2006 Apr;19(2):143-57
Reed MA, Jelinska C, Syson K, Cliff MJ, Splevins A, Alizadeh T, Hounslow AM, Staniforth RA, Clarke AR, Craven CJ, Waltho JP
The denatured state under native conditions: a non-native-like collapsed state of N-PGK
J Mol Biol. 2006 Mar 24;357(2):365-72