Annette Shrive

Biography

I undertook both my BSc (Physics and Maths) and PhD (Protein Crystallography) at Keele University. The latter involved the development of synchrotron x-ray Laue method for use with large macromolecules such as proteins and viruses. I revisited Keele as a postdoctoral worker and was appointed as a Lecturer at Keele University in September 1999. I have been a visiting scientist at Purdue University, USA and LMB Cambridge and I have undertaken postdoctoral work in structural biology at Keele University, University of Edinburgh and Purdue University, USA.

Research and scholarship

My research interests are in structural biology and in how the structure of biological macromolecules is related to their function and is focused on the structure and function of key molecules of the innate immune system. The innate immune response has non-variable components which respond in a fairly general, often rapid manner to threatening microorganisms and molecules of both internal and external origin. A major focus of my research is on the three-dimensional structures of pentraxins and active fragments of collectins and related proteins and their interactions with natural ligands. Alongside structural work, we also aim to understand how these molecules are functioning in the immune system. From a clinical perspective, one aspect of this work includes analysis of possible modified forms of C-reactive protein in patient serum samples (REC reference 17/WM/0150). Further information on the work of the Structural Biology Research group can be found here.