Biological Sciences

Profile

In 1993 John graduated from the University of Glasgow with a BSc (Hons) degree in Microbiology. He went on to complete a PhD in Virology at the Medical Research Council Virology Unit, Glasgow. John worked in the Structural Biology Laboratories at the University of York before joining Professor Geoff Kneales’ group at Portsmouth University in 2000, where he worked for five years on DNA-binding proteins.

John obtained a Postdoctoral Fellowship in 2005 with the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Grenoble, France in the group of Dr Raimond Ravelli where he led the implementation of a new instrument at the world-leading European Synchrotron Radiation Facility. The online microspectrophotometer combines macromolecular crystallography with spectroscopy allowing better interpretation, collection and validation of structural data. Spectral signatures from UV/Vis absorption, fluorescence and Raman can be monitored directly from macromolecular crystals as they are being exposed in the X-ray beam.

In 2007, John re-joined the University of Portsmouth taking up the prestigious appointment of RCUK Senior Research Fellow in Structural Molecular Biology. John has now commissioned a new X-ray crystallography facility that complements the already strong Biophysics Group at Portsmouth. He currently supervises two PhD students: Mr Richard Martin and Mr Jack Phillips.

Research Interests

John has an interest in both the structure and function of proteins, nucleic acids and their complexes. He combines X-ray crystallography with other biophysical methods such as spectroscopy, analytical ultracentrifugation and small-angle X-ray and neutron scattering.

Current projects include:

• DNA damage and therapeutic mechanisms of the anti-cancer drug Cisplatin
• Combining crystallography and spectroscopy
• Nucleosome assembly proteins
• Control of restriction-modification (R-M) systems
• Prion capture and gene 5 protein
• Structure and function of novel cellulose degrading enzymes
• Structural analysis of mitochondrial-encoded proteins

Current External Collaborators

• Dr Raimond Ravelli, Department of Molecular Cell Biology, Leiden University Medical Center, The Netherlands
• Prof. Elspeth Garman, Department of Biochemistry, Oxford University, UK
• Dr Martin Weik, Institut de Biologie Structurale, Grenoble, France
• Dr Philippe Carpentier, Institut de Biologie Structurale, Grenoble, France
• Dr Wen-Quan Zou, Department of Pathology and National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center, Case Western Reserve University, USA
• Dr Emily Newman, EMBL, Grenoble, France
• Dr Rhiannon Lloyd, Institute of Zoology, Zoological Society of London, Regent's Park, London, UK
• Dr Kirk Schnorr, Novozymes A/S, Bagsvaerd, Denmark
• Dr Mike Himmel, National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, Colorado, USA

External Research Activities

• Treasurer of the European Crystallography Meeting ECM28
• Secretary of the Biological Structures Group (BSG) of the British Crystallographic Association (BCA).
• BSG Representative on BCA Council.
• Co-ordinator for the 14 PIs of the ESRF BAG “Fundamental and Applied Aspects of Radiation Damage”.
• Member of the Editorial Board of Current Protein & Peptide Science.
• Co-inventor and advisor for the ESRF online microspectrophotometer (reference publication).
• Member of BAGs at the Diamond Light Source, ESRF and ILL.
• PhD Examiner: University of York, University of Bristol.

Recent Publications

More recent publications

Earlier publications

• McGeehan, J. E., Ball, N., Streeter, S. D., Thresh, S.-J. & Kneale G. G. Recognition of dual symmetry by the Controller protein C.Esp1396I based on the structure of the transcriptional activation complex. Nucleic Acids Research (in press)

• Brockhauser, S., McCarthy, A. A., Di Michiel, M., McGeehan, J. E. & Ravelli, R. B. G. X-ray tomography on MX samples. Acta Crystallographica A65, s166.

• McGeehan, J. E., Carpentier, P., Royant, A., Bourgeois, D. & Ravelli, R. B. G. X-ray radiation-induced damage in DNA monitored by online Raman. Journal of Synchrotron Radiation 14, 99-108.
• Royant, A., Carpentier, P., Ohana, J., McGeehan, J., Paetzold, B., Noirclerc-Savoye, M., Verne, X. Adam, V. & Bourgeois D. Advances in spectroscopic methods for biological crystals. 1. Fluorescence lifetime measurements. Journal of Applied Crystallography 40, 1105–1112.

• McGeehan, J. E., Papapanagiotou, I., Streeter, S. D. & Kneale, G. G. Cooperative binding of the C.AhdI controller protein to the C/R promoter and its role in endonuclease gene expression. Journal of Molecular Biology 358
• Yuan, J., Xiao, X., McGeehan, J., Dong, Z., Kneale, G. & Gambetti, P., Zou, WQ. Insoluble aggregates and protease-resistant conformers of prion protein in uninfected human brains. Journal Biological Chemistry 281, 34848-34858.
• Friedeberg, C., Scarlett, G., McGeehan, J., Abudaya, A., Guille, M. & Kneale, G. Identification of a structural and functional domain in xNAP1 involved in protein-protein interactions. Nucleic Acids Research 34, 4893-4899.

• McGeehan, J. E., Streeter, S., Papapanagiotou, I., Fox, G. C. & Kneale, G. G. High-resolution crystal structure of the restriction-modification controller protein C.AhdI from Aeromonas hydrophila. Journal of Molecular Biology 346. (Cover)
• Persson, R., McGeehan, J. & Wilson, K. S. Cloning, expression, purification, and characterisation of the dUTPase encoded by the integrated Bacillus subtilis temperate phage SPb. Protein Expression and Purification 42, 92-99.
• Yuan, J., Kinter, M., McGeehan, J. E., Perry, G., Kneale, G., Gambetti, P. & Zou, WQ. Concealment of Epitope by Reduction and Alkylation in Prion Protein. Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications 326.

• McGeehan, J. E., Streeter, S., Cooper, J. B., Mohammed, F., Fox, G. C. & Kneale, G. G. Crystallization and preliminary X-ray analysis of the controller protein C.AhdI from Aeromonas hydrophila. Acta Crystallographica D. 60, 323-325.
• McGeehan, J.E., Provatopoulou, X., Kneale, G.G., Collins, R. and Bingyi, Y. The role of dynamic and static light scattering in the biophysical characterization of a zinc finger protein. American Biotechnology Laboratory 22, No. 9, 16-21.
• Streeter, S., Papapanagiotou, I., McGeehan, J. & Kneale, G. G. (2004) DNA footprinting and biophysical characterisation of the controller protein C.AhdI suggests the basis of a genetic switch. Nucleic Acids Research 32, 6445-6453.
• Marks, P., McGeehan, J. & Kneale, G. A novel strategy for the expression and purification of the DNA methytransferase, M.AhdI. Protein Expression and Purification 37, 236-242.
• Marks, P., McGeehan, J., Wilson, G., Errington, N. & Kneale, G. Purification and characterisation of a novel DNA methyltransferase, M.AhdI. Nucleic Acids Research 31, 2803-2810.

Invited Talks

2010

• Diamond / Research Complex at Harwell, 9th December, "Combining crystallography and small-angle solution scattering at the Diamond Light Source"
• NACON VIII, International Meeting on Recognition Studies of Nucleic Acids, Sheffield, 12-16th September, "Controlling the bacterial immune system: structure and function of a genetic switch"
• Prebiotic Chemistry and the Origin of Life Conference, Durham University, 29-30th March, "Clues from radiation-induced damage studies to DNA and protein"
• University of Sheffield, 24th February, "Structure and function studies of R-M controller proteins"
• Sixth International Workshop on Radiation Damage to Biological Samples, SSRL, Stanford, CA, USA, 11-13th March, "The Partitioning Effect: Radiation damage studies of protein-DNA complexes"

2009

• Oxford Diffraction Users Meeting, 10th-11th December, "X-ray Crystallography of Protein-DNA complexes"
• Sussex University, 20th November, "Controlling the bacterial immune system"
• John Moores Liverpool University, 15th October, "Structure and function of a finely tuned genetic switch"
• EXAFS is Back Workshop, Diamond Light Source , 22nd – 23rd June, “Radiation-induced damage mechanisms in the presence of the anti-cancer drug Cisplatin”
• BCA Spring meeting, 21st-23rd April, Loughborough, “Radiation damage of nucleic acids and nucleoprotein complexes”

2008

• BCA Winter Meeting, 16th December, University of Newcastle: “Structural basis of an R-M genetic control switch”
• Gordon Research Conference, 13-18th July, Bates College, ME, USA: poster prize and selected talk “DNA damage and the origin of life”
• SWSBC, University of Exeter, 31st March: “Structural analysis of an R-M genetic control switch”

2007

• SWSBC, UoP, 31st March: “DNA Damage - Combining Crystallography and Spectroscopy”
• Spectroscopy around Biological Crystallography, 6-8th February, IBS, Grenoble, France: “Online spectroscopy and DNA damage”
• Diamond Users Meeting (CCP4 Study weekend), 4th January, Reading, UK: “Online Spectroscopy at the ESRF”

2006

• SLS and Synchrotron SOLEIL PX meeting, 26-27th September, Swiss Light Source, Kloster Wettingen, Switzerland: “Online spectroscopy and DNA damage”
• ESRF Experiments Division, 4th July, ESRF, Grenoble, France: “New tools for users at ESRF MX beamlines”
• 3rd Hamburg-Grenoble Bilateral Meeting, 6th June, EMBL-Hamburg: “A Wider Spectrum’”
• 3rd Synchrotron Radiation School for New ESRF Users, 9th February, ESRF, France, “A new online microspectrophotometer”

Research Grants / Awards

• BBSRC: 440k GBP awarded for "DNA distortion, sequence recognition and the control of R-M gene expression" (2010) for 3 years. PI, Prof. Geoff Kneale, co-applicant Dr John McGeehan.
• BBSRC: 421k GBP awarded for “New tools for the realization of cost-effective liquid biofuels from plant biomass” (2009) for 4 years. PI, Dr Simon Cragg, co-applicants Dr John McGeehan & Prof. Matt Guille.

• David Blow Crystallography Trophy 2010 awarded by the BCA for the groups research on the C-protein genetic switch.

Other interests

• Member of the i-Team Cycling Club Road Racing Team and the Surrey Racing League.
• Member of the British Surfing Association.