Maureen

Quin

Research Assistant Professor
Biochemistry Molecular Biology and Biophysics

Research interests

Maureen is a Research Assistant Professor in the Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Biophysics department. Her research focuses on designing and creating new supramolecular complexes as scaffolding systems for nanobiotechnology and biocatalytic processes. She uses a combination of synthetic biology, bioinformatics, protein engineering, microscopy and structural biology to explore how different protein architectures can be assembled in vivo and in vitro. Maureen also develops approaches to target enzymes to the protein scaffolds, to understand the effect of spatial organization on multi-enzyme biocatalytic cascade efficiency. 

Selected publications

Quin MB, Wallin KK, Zhang G, Schmidt-Dannert C. Spatial organization of multi-enzyme biocatalytic cascades. Org Biomol Chem. 2017; Apr 4. doi: 10.1039/c7ob00391a. [Epub ahead of print].

Pane-Farre J, Quin MB, Lewis RJ, Marles-Wright J. Structure and function of the stressosome signaling hub. Subcell Biochem. 2017; 83:1-41 doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-46503-6_1.

Quin MB, Perdue SA, Hsu SY, Schmidt-Dannert C. Encapsulation of multiple cargo proteins within recombinant Eut nanocompartments. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol. 2016 Nov;100(21):9187-9200.

de Sena Filho JG, Quin MB*, Spakowicz DJ, Shaw JJ, Kucera K, Dunican B, Strobel SA, Schmidt-Dannert C. Genome of Diaporthe sp. provides insights into the potential inter-phylum transfer of a fungal sesquiterpenoid biosynthetic pathway. Fungal Biol. 2016 Aug;120(8):1050-63. doi: 10.1016/j.funbio.2016.04.001 (*co-first author).

Held M, Kolb A, Perdue S, Hsu SY, Bloch SE, Quin MB*, Schmidt-Dannert C. Engineering formation of multiple recombinant Eut protein nanocompartments in E. coli. Sci Rep. 2016 Apr 11;6:24359. doi: 10.1038/srep24359 (*co-corresponding author).

Quin MB, Michel SN, Schmidt-Dannert C. Moonlighting Metals: Insights into Regulation of Cyclization Pathways in Fungal delta(6)-Protoilludene Sesquiterpene Synthases. Chembiochem. 2015 Oct 12;16(15):2191-9. doi: 10.1002/cbic.201500308.

Quin MB, Schmidt-Dannert C. Designer microbes for biosynthesis. Curr Opin Biotechnol. 2014 Oct;29:55-61. doi: 10.1016/j.copbio.2014.02.014.

Quin MB, Flynn CM, Schmidt-Dannert C. Traversing the fungal terpenome. Nat Prod Rep. 2014 Oct;31(10):1449-73. doi: 10.1039/c4np00075g.

Tikh IB, Quin MB, Schmidt-Dannert C. A tale of two reductases: extending the bacteriochlorophyll biosynthetic pathway in E. coli. PLoS One. 2014 Feb 21;9(2):e89734. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0089734.

Quin MB, Flynn CM, Wawrzyn GT, Choudhary S, Schmidt-Dannert C. Mushroom hunting by using bioinformatics: application of a predictive framework facilitates the selective identification of sesquiterpene synthases in basidiomycota. Chembiochem. 2013 Dec 16;14(18):2480-91. doi: 10.1002/cbic.201300349.

Quin MB, Wawrzyn G, Schmidt-Dannert C. Purification, crystallization and preliminary X-ray diffraction analysis of Omp6, a protoilludene synthase from Omphalotus olearius. Acta Crystallogr Sect F Struct Biol Cryst Commun. 2013 May 1;69(Pt 5):574-7. doi: 10.1107/S1744309113010749.

Held M, Quin MB*, Schmidt-Dannert C. Eut bacterial microcompartments: insights into their function, structure, and bioengineering applications. J Mol Microbiol Biotechnol. 2013;23(4-5):308-20. doi: 10.1159/000351343. (*co-first author)

Wawrzyn GT, Quin MB, Choudhary S, López-Gallego F, Schmidt-Dannert C. Draft genome of Omphalotus olearius provides a predictive framework for sesquiterpenoid natural product biosynthesis in Basidiomycota. Chem Biol. 2012 Jun 22;19(6):772-83. doi: 10.1016/j.chembiol.2012.05.012.

Quin MB, Berrisford JM, Newman JA, Baslé A, Lewis RJ, Marles-Wright J. The bacterial stressosome: a modular system that has been adapted to control secondary messenger signaling. Structure. 2012 Feb 8;20(2):350-63. doi: 10.1016/j.str.2012.01.003.

Choudhary S, Quin MB, Sanders MA, Johnson ET, Schmidt-Dannert C. Engineered protein nano-compartments for targeted enzyme localization. PLoS One. 2012;7(3):e33342. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0033342.

Quin MB, Schmidt-Dannert C. Engineering of biocatalysts - from evolution to creation. ACS Catal. 2011 Sep 2;1(9):1017-1021.