Haydyn Mertens

EIPOD Postdoc

Address

EMBL c/o DESY
Notkestrasse 85, Geb. 25 A
22603 Hamburg
Germany

hmertens@embl-hamburg.de

Biography

2011 - Australian Synchrotron
2008 - EIPOD (EMBL Interdisciplinary PostDoc) research fellow, EMBL Hamburg/Heidelberg/Grenoble
2005 - PhD, University of Melbourne, Department of Biochemistry, Melbourne, Australia
1998 - BSc (honours, chemistry/biochemistry), University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia

Research field

Interfacing small-angle scattering (SAXS/SANS) and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) in the field of structural biology. Particular interest in the development of tools for the optimisation of complementary methods to solve biological problems at the molecular level. Current research focusses on the structural characterisation of in-vivo FRET sensors developed in a collaborative project with the Chemical Biology Unit of Carsten Schultz at the EMBL, Heidelberg. Other projects include the structural analysis by combined SAXS/NMR of proteins involved in the regulation of complement activation in the innate immune system.

Selected publications

Morgan, H.P., Schmidt, C.Q., Guariento, M., Gillespie, D., Jiang, J., Herbert, A.P., Mertens, H.D.T, Blaum, B., Svergun, D.I., Uhrin, D., Barlow, P.N. & Hannan, J.P. (2011) Structural basis for engagement by complement factor H of C3b on a self surface - implications for host protection. Nat. Struct. Mol. Biol. 2011 Feb 13. [Epub ahead of print].
Mertens, H.D.T. and Svergun, D.I., Structural characterization of proteins and complexes using small-angle X-ray solution scattering. J. Struct. Biol., 2010, 172(1):128-141.
Tull, D., Naderer, T., Spurck, T., Mertens, H.D.T., Heng, J., McFadden, G.I., Gooley, P.R., McConville, M.J. Membrane protein SMP-1 is required for normal flagellum function in Leishmania. J. Cell Sci. 2010, 123(pt 4):544-54.
Schmidt, C.Q., Herbert, A.P., Mertens, H.D.T., Guariento, M., Soares, D.C., Uhrin, D., Rowe, A.J., Svergun, D.I., Barlow, P.N. The central portion of factor H (modules 10-15) is compact and contains a structurally deviant CCP module. J. Mol. Biol. 2010, 395(1):105-22.
Branson, K.M., Mertens, H.D., Swarbrick, J.D., Fletcher, J.I., Kedzierski, L., Gayler, K.R., Gooley, P.R., Smith, B.J. Discovery of inhibitors of lupin diadenosine 5',5'''-P(1),P(4)-tetraphosphate hydrolase by virtual screening. Biochemistry. 2009, 48(32):7614-20.
Mertens H.D.T., Callaghan J.M., Swarbrick J.D., McConville M.J., Gooley P.R. A high-resolution solution structure of a trypanosomatid FYVE domain. Protein Sci. 2007 16(11):2552-9.

Last modified: August 31, 2011