Anna Duncan

Complex and Crowded Bilayers

Background

I studied Mathematics at Oxford as an undergraduate before branching into the Life Sciences. The conversion started with a MSc in Chemoinformatics at the University of York, and continued with a PhD in the Mitochondrial Biology Unit, Cambridge, supervised by Alan Robinson. My PhD was focused on cardiolipin interactions with mitochondrial membrane proteins using coarse-grained molecular dynamics.

Research

I am interested in using computational approaches for the study of membrane protein structure-dynamics-function relationships. More specifically: how this relationship is affected by lipid interactions and membrane topology, particularly in crowded membranes with complex lipid composition. Further, I am interested in how diffusion and clustering of membrane proteins are affected by crowding. I am currently working on large-scale coarse-grained simulations of complex membranes.

Publications

Duncan A L, Ruprecht J J, Kunji E R S, Robinson A J.
Cardiolipin dynamics and binding to conserved residues in the mitochondrial ADP/ATP carrier.
BBA Biomembranes 2018 1860(5) 1035-1045

Duncan A L, Koldso H, Helie J, Fowler P W, Chavent M, Sansom M S P.
Protein crowding and lipid complexity influence the nanoscale dynamic organization of ion channels in cell membranes
Sci Rep 2017 7 16647

Fowler P W, Helie J, Duncan A L, Chavent M, Koldso H, Sansom M S P.
Membrane stiffness is modified by integral membrane proteins.
Soft Matter 2016 12 7792-7803

Koldso H, Reddy T, Fowler P W, Duncan A L, Sansom M S P.
Membrane compartmentalization reducing the mobility of lipids and proteins within a model plasma membrane.
J Phys Chem B 2016 120(34) 8873-8881

Duncan A L, Robinson A J, Walker J E.
Cardiolipin binds selectively but transiently to conserved lysine residues in the rotor of metazoan ATP synthases.
Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 2016 113(31) 8687-8692

Chavent M*, Duncan A L*, Sansom M S P.
Molecular dynamics simulations of membrane proteins and their interactions: from nanoscale to mesoscale.
Curr Op Struct Biol 2016 40 8-16

Rassam P, Copeland N A, Birkholz O, Toth C, Chavent M, Duncan A L, Cross S J, Housden N G, Kaminska R, Seger U, Quinn D M, Garrod T J, Sansom M S P, Piehler J, Baumann C G, Kleanthous C.
Supramolecular assemblies underpin turnover of outer membrane proteins in bacteria.
Nature 2015 253 333-336

Kazak L, Reyes A, Duncan A L, Rorbach J, Wood S R, Brea-Calvo G, Gammage P A, Robinson A J, Minczuk M, Holt I J.
Alternative translation initiation augments the human mitochondrial proteome.
Nucleic Acids Res 2013 41(4) 2354-69

Barillari C, Duncan A L, Westwood I M, Blagg J, van Montford R L.
Analysis of water patterns in protein kinase binding sites.
Proteins 2011 79(7) 2109-21

* Equal contribution