Dr Rex Palmer

Emeritus Reader in Structural Crystallography

Contact details

Tel: +44 (0) 20 7631 6875 or +44 (0) 20 8449 1049

About Dr Rex Palmer

I was a member of the academic staff of the Department of Crystallography during its formative years under J D Bernal, Harry Carlisle, Tom Blundell and David Moss from 1964-2001. When I retired in 2001 I became Emeritus Reader in Structural Crystallography. Since then I have maintained my connections with the College through the publication of books, research articles and journal papers. I trained under Carlisle in protein crystallography, which is an interest I have always maintained. However as my publication record shows I have a broader interest in crystallography in general (viz Bernal’s ethos) encompassing all types of biologically active molecules. My links with the College are strengthened by degrees gained by my wife Hilda (MSc) and son Kevin (MSc and PhD) in the department of crystallography.

I am still academically active, publishing some 4-5 papers a year thanks to a great team of collaborators, and give about 6 hours worth of lectures a year at Christ Church University Canterbury, where I am a Senior Visiting Research Fellow, and at Greenwich University where I am Visiting Professor in X-ray Crystallography. The 5^th edition of the book on Structure Determination by X-ray Crystallography with Mark Ladd (Surrey) is due to be published in 2012.

Biographical Details

Degrees and Posts Held

BSc (Special Physics) King’s College, London (1958)
PhD (Crystallography) Birkbeck College, London (1962)
Research Fellow University of Illinois (1962-1963)
Research Fellow California Institute of Technology (1963-1964)
Academic Staff Birkbeck College, London 1964-2001

Teaching

PhDs: 29
MSc: Crystallography (over 300 successful students) and MSc Biomolecular Organisation
BSc: Science for the Citizen: One day course in Drug Design
Advanced Certificate in Molecular Pharmacology
MSc Crystallography: Admissions Tutor 1972-96; Chairman of Examiners1986-96.
Course Organiser 1987-1996

Other Current Affiliations

Senior Visiting Research Fellow: Christ Church University, Canterbury
Visiting Professor in X-ray Cystallography: University of Greenwich

Membership

Fellow of the Institute of Physics (F Inst P) and Chartered Physicist (C Phys) 1975
Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine (FRSM) 2007
Member of the British Crystallographic Association
Member of the British Biophysical Association
Member of the American Crystallographic Association
Member of the British Pharmacolgical Society

Honorary Appointments

Visiting Lecturer in Bioinformatics, Canterbury Christ Church University
Visiting Lecturer in Protein Crystallography, Royal Holloway and Bedford College
Visiting Professor in Protein Crystallography: University of Moscow (1997-2001)
Honorary Lecturer in Protein Crystallography: Free University of Brussels (1991-1992)
Honorary Lecturer in Protein Crystallography: Lahti Institute, Finland (August 1990)

Recent Invited Lectures

University of Greenwich Protein Crystallography (Dec 2010)
Christ Church University Canterbury Protein Crystallography (Feb 2010, March 2011)
Greenwich University Facets of X-ray Crystallography (May 2006)
John Moores University Liverpool X-ray Crystallographic Studies of Protein-Ligand Interactions: Sugar Binding in RIPII B-chains (February 2004)
British Biochemical Society, Nottingham University X-ray Crystallographic Studies of Protein-ligand Interactions (June 2003)
University of Cork: X-ray Crystallographic Studies of Protein-Ligand Interactions: Sugar Binding in RIPII B-chains (March 2000)

Editorial

Editorial Board: Journal of Crystallographic and Spectroscopic Research
Editorial Board: Journal of Chemical Crystallography
Editorial Board: Biotechnologuiya (Russian Biotechnology)
Referee for Crystallographic Papers to: Journals of the Chemical Society; Acta Crystallographica; Journal of Crystallographic and Spectroscopic Research; Journal of Chemical Crystallography; Journal of Molecular Biology; Biomedical Sciences; Nature; Biochemistry; Inorganica Chimica Acta

Magazine, Newspaper, Radio, and TV Publicity for Lectin Research

"Mistletoe's Deadly Embrace", Andy Coghlan, New Scientist 15/11/95
"Kissing Goodbye to Cancer?", John Emsley, Independent 19/12/95
Similar story in Independent on Sunday 24/12/95
"Mistletoe Lectin", Julian Colman, BBC World Radio, 20/11/95
"Mistletoe Toxin", Julian Colman, European Radio, 20/11/95
"Mistletoe's Dual Nature: Plant and Toxin", John Dunn, BBC2, 14/12/95
"Mistletoe and its Toxins" BS TV (Christmas week 1995)
Canadian TV Supplement, broadcast Christmas week in Canada and widely in Europe and Asia
"Mistletoe and Mistletoe Lectin in the Fight against Cancer". ITN John McGinty 27/12/95

Research Interests

Structure and Function of Biologically Active Molecules in General with particular reference to:

Ribonuclease structure and function
Mistletoe lectin, sambucus niger lectin, RIP toxins and other lectin protein structures
Drug Design and Small Molecule Crystallography (including anticonvulsants and steroids)
Cyclosporin structures
Sodium Channel binding drugs
Molecular Modelling and Dynamics
Structural studies are undertaken using X-ray crystallographic analysis or neutron diffraction

Collaborators

Professor B Z Choudhry (Greenwich)
Professor C D Reynolds (John Moores)
Dr B Howlin (Surrey)
Dr J Saldanha (NIMR)
Dr D R Lisgarten (Canterbury)
Dr J N Lisgarten (Greenwich)
Dr B S Potter (Birkbeck)
Dr Madeleine Helliwell (Manchester)

Publications since 2001

Book

"Structure Determination by X-ray Crystallography"

M.F.C. Ladd and R. A. Palmer (Klewer/Plenum New York) Fourth edition (hardback and paperback): 2003 [818 pages plus CD] 5th edition now in preparation

Contributions to Edited Collections

"X-ray Crystallographic Studies of Protein-Ligand Interactions"

R. A. Palmer, Birkbeck College (pp 96) Chapter 12 in Protein-Ligand Interactions [S. Harding and B. Chowdhury eds] Practical Approach Series OUP England December 2000

"Hardness of the Oxide Films Formed as a Result of Aluminium Anode Oxidation Processes"

Mircea Chis, Mihail O. Cojocaru, Rex Palmer and Doina. Cojocaru. Proceedings of the International Conference on “Mass and Charge Transport in Inorganic Materials-Fundamentals to Devices”, Lido di Jesolo, Venice, Italy, 2000

“X-ray Crystallographic Studies of Protein-Ligand Interactions”

R. A. Palmer and H. Niwa. Biochem. Soc. Trans. (2003) 31, (973–979)

Invited Book Chapter on Chemical Crystallography (in preparation);

“Review of Benzyl Pyrimidines and Benzyl Triazines (Lamotrigines): Sodium Channel Binding Drugs and Anticonvulsants”

R. A. Palmer, B. S. Potter, M. J. Leach and B. Z. Chowdhury

Refereed Articles

"Crystal structure at 3 Å of mistletoe lectin I, a dimeric type-I ribosome-inactivating protein, complexed with galactose"

Hideaki Niwa, Alexander G Tonevitsky, I I Agapov, Steve Saward, Uwe Pfüller, Rex A Palmer. Eur. J. Biochem. (2003) 270, 2739-2749 (FEBS 2003)

“A new gene encoding the ribosome-inactivating protein from mistletoe extracts”

Tonevitsky AG., Agapov II, Pevzner IB, Maluchenko NV, Moisenovich MM, Palmer RA, Yurkova M, Pfueller K, Pfueller U. Arzneimittelforschung (2004) 54(4):242-9

“Structural basis for sugar recognition, including the Tn carcinoma antigen, by the lectin SNA-II from Sambucus nigra”

Laurent Maveyraud, Hideaki Niwa, Valérie Guillet, Dmitri I. Svergun, Peter Konarev, Rex A. Palmer, Willy J. Peumans, Pierre Rougé, Els J.M. Van Damme, Colin D. Reynolds, and Lionel Mourey. PROTEINS (2009) 75:89-103

“Crystal structure at 2.5 Å of Mistletoe Lectin I, a dimeric type-I ribosome-inactivating protein, complexed with lactose"

David R Lisgarten, Hideaki Niwa, Rex A Palmer [In preparation]

“3D QSAR (COMFA) of a series of potent and highly selective VLA-4 antagonists”

J Singh, H van Vlijmen, Wen-Cherng-Lee, Y Lao, Ko-Chung Lin, H Ateeq, J Cuervo, C Zimmerman, C Hammond, M Karpusas, R Palmer, T Chattopadhyay, S P Adams J. Computer-Aided Mol. Design (2002) 16(3):201-211

"A predicted fold for the ABri amyloid subunit: a model for ameloidogenisis in familial British dementia"

Daruka Mahadevan, Tapan K Chadopadhyay, Rex A Palmer, Ronan O'Brien, Jose' W. Saldanha. Prot Peptide Lett (2001) June 2001, vol. 8, no. 3, pp. 171-178(8)

“Antagonist binding in the rat muscarinic receptor: A study by docking and X-ray crystallography”

Anna C Tanczos, Rex A Palmer, Brian S Potter, José W Saldanha, Brendan J Howlin. Comp Biol Chem (2004) 28(5-6), 375-385

“X-ray Structures and Absolute Configurations of the Antibiotics Oligomycins A, B and C: Inhibitors of ATP Synthase”

Rex A Palmer, Brian S. Potter. Journal of Chemical Crystallography (2008) 38:243–253

“A Comparative Study of the Single Crystal X-ray Determination and Molecular Modelling of the Binding of Oligomycin to ATP Synthase”

Roderic Green, Alfred Thumser, David Povey, José W Saldanha, Brian S Potter, Rex A Palmer and Brendan J Howlin. Journal of Computational Biology and Chemistry (2009) 33(3) 189-195

“Two New Cyclosporin Folds Observed in the Structures of the Immunosuppressant Cyclosporin G and the Formyl Peptide Receptor Antagonist Cyclosporin H”

Brian Potter, Rex Palmer, Robert Withnall, Terence Jenkins and Babur Z. Chowdhry. Org. Biomol. Chem. (2003) 1, 1466-1474

"Molecular Dynamics of Cyclosporins CsA, CsH and CsG: Investigation of Conformational Interchangeability"

Brian S Potter, DL Lisgarten and Rex A Palmer. [Work in progress]

"The Neutron Structure of the Formyl Peptide Receptor Antagonist Cyclosporin H (CsH) Unambiguously Determines the Solvent and Hydrogen-Bonding Structure for Crystal Form II"

Anna Gardberg, Brian Potter, Rex Palmer, Dean Myles and Gary McDonald. Journal of Chemical Crystallography(2011) 41:470-480

"The Crystal and Molecular Structure of (24R)-24,25-Dihydroxycycloartan-3-one"

K Bhattacharyya, T Kar, RA Palmer, BS Potter, A. Inada. Acta Crystallographica (2000) C(8) 979-980

"X-ray and Neutron Structure of 1,8-(3,6,9-Trioxaundecane-1,11-diyldioxy)-9,10 dihydro-10-10 dimethylanthracene-9-ol (P326) – Some Pitfalls of Automatic Data Collection"

Rex A Palmer, Brian S Potter, John N Lisgarten, Ruth H Fenn, Sax A. Mason, Owen S. Mills, Peter M. Robinson, C. Ian F. Watt. Acta Crystallogr. (2001). B57, 339-345

“Regioselective synthetic approaches towards 1,2,8,9-tetraazadispiro [4.1.4.3]tetradeca-2,9-dien-6-ones”

AS Girgis, YA Ibrahim, N Mishriky, JN Lisgarten, BS Potter, R A Palmer. Tetrahedron - London (2001) 57(10), 2015-2019

“Formation of Dimers of Some 2-Substituted Indan-1-one Derivatives during Base-Mediated Cross-Aldol Condensation”

Gaurav Narang, Dharam Paul Jindal, Birinder Jit, Ranju Bansal, Brian S Potter, Rex A Palmer. Helvetica Chimica Acta (2006) 89, 258-264

"Control of Aminophosphine Chelate Ring-opening in Pt(II) and Pd(II) Complexes: Potential Dual-mode Anticancer Agents"

Abraha Habtemariam, Beth Watchman, Brian S Potter, Rex Palmer, Simon Parsons, Andrew Parkin, and Peter J. Sadler. J. Chem. Soc. Dalton Trans.(2001) 1306-1318

"Crystal Structure of a Synthetic Anabolic Agent: Stanazolol Ethanol Solvate, 17b-hydroxy 17a methylandrostanol[3,2-c]pyrazole ethanoate”

David R Lisgarten, Joanna S Fell, Brian S Potter, Rex A Palmer. Journal of Chemical Crystallography 33 (2003) 131-137

“X-ray Structures of Fifty Year Old Cholesterol Iodide Crystals Forms I and II"

Rex A Palmer , Brian S Potter, Hilda T Palmer and Christopher S Frampton. Journal of Chemical Cystallography (2007) 37: 1-14. [Dedicated to Professor J. D. Bernal FRS, Professor C. H. Carlisle and Professor Dame D. M. Hodgkin FRS]

“Crystal Structure, Absolute Configuration, Conformational Analysis and Molecular Dynamics Study of the Novel Steroidal Tetrazole Derivative :(25R)-3,12a-diaza-A, C-bishomo-5a-spirostano[3,4-d] [12a 12d] bistetrazole [HS-989]”

David R Lisgarten, Joanna S Fell, John N Lisgarten, Harkishan Singh, Rex A. Palmer. Journal of Chemical Cystallography (2010) 40:185–190

“Anti-plasmoidal activities and X-ray crystal structures of rotenoids from Milletia usaramensis subspecies usaramensis”

Yenesew A, Derese S, Midiwo JO, Oktech- Rabah HA., Lisgarten J, Palmer R, Heydenreich M, Peter MG, Akala H, Wangui J, Liyala P, Waters NC. Phytochemistry (2003) 64(3) 773-779

"Crystal Structure and Conformation of the Antimalarial Drug 5,7-methoxy-8-(3- methyl-1-buten-3-ol)- Coumarin”

JN Lisgarten, BS Potter, J Aymami, H Oketch-Rabah and RA Palmer. Journal of Chemical Crystallography (2003) 33 149-153

“Structure, Absolute Configuration, and Conformation of the Antimalarial Drug Artesunate”

JN Lisgarten, BS Potter, RA Palmer, B Chimanuka, J Ayami. Journal of Chemical Crystallography (2002) 31 561-566

“Structure of the Antiplasmoidal Compound 7,9 Dintrocryptolepine hydrochloride methanol solvate”

JN Lisgarten, BS Potter, RA Palmer, JE Pitts, CW Wright. Journal of Chemical Crystallography (2008) 38 807-813

“X-ray Crystallographic Structure of the Potent Antiplasmodial Compound 2,7-Dibromocryptolepine Acetic Acid Solvate”

Brian S Potter, John N Lisgarten, James E. Pitts, Rex A. Palmer and Colin W. Wright. Journal of Chemical Crystallography (2008) 38 821-825

“Low Temperature X-ray Crystallographic Structure of the Potent Antiplasmodial Compound 5-N-hydroxyethanequindoline hydrochloride 0.5CH3OH”

Hannah C Hampson, Chung Y Ho, Rex A Palmer, Brian S Potter, Madeleine Helliwell, Colin W Wright. Journal of Chemical Crystallography; September 2010

“An absolute structure template for a unique voltage-gated sodium channel binding site”

Rex A Palmer, Brian S Potter, Michael J Leach, Terence C Jenkins,‍‍‍‍‍‍ Babur Z Chowdhry. Med. Chem. Commun., 2010, 1, 45-49 DOI: 10.1039/C0MD00043D, Concise Article

“X-ray Crystallographic Structures of Two Lamotrigine Analogues: (I) 3,5-diamino-6-(2-chlorophenyl)-1,2,4-triazine water solvate and (II) 3,5-diamino-6-(3,6-dichlorophenyl)-1,2,4-triazine methanol solvate”

Rex A Palmer, Brian S Potter, Michael J Leach, Babur Z Chowdhry. Journal of Chemical Crystallography (2008) 38:387–392

“Low Temperature X-ray Structures of Two Crystalline Forms (I) and (II) of the Pyrimidine Derivative and Sodium Channel Blocker BW1003C87: 5-(2,3,5-Trichlorophenyl)-2, 4-diaminopyrimidine”

Rex A Palmer, Brian S Potter, Michael J Leach, Babur Z Chowdhry. Journal of Chemical Crystallography (2008) 38: 407–411

“X-ray Crystallographic Structures of Neuroprotective Pyrimidine Derivatives: (I) the Mesylate Salt of BW1003C87 and (II) Sipatrigine Base (BW619C89)”

Rex A Palmer, Brian S Potter, Michael J Leach, Babur Z Chowdhry. Journal of Chemical Crystallography (2007) 37: 771–777

“Low Temperature X-ray Crystallographic Structures of Two Lamotrigine Analogues: (I) 2-Methyl,3-amino, 5-imino- 6-(2,3-dichlorophenyl)-1,2,4-triazine Water Solvate and (II) 2-Methyl,3,5-diamino-6-(2,3-dichlorophenyl)-1,2,4-triazine Isethionate, Hemi-hydrate”

Rex A Palmer, Brian S Potter, Michael J Leach, and Babur Z Chowdhry. Journal of Chemical Crystallography (2008) 38: 255–260

“Central Nervous System Drugs: Low Temperature X-ray Structures of (I) the Base 5- (2,3-Dichlorophenyl)-2,4-diamino-6-fluoromethyl-pyrimidine (4030W92) and (II) 5- (2,6-Dichlorophenyl)-1-H-2,4-diamino-6-methyl-pyrimidine methanesulphonic acid salt (227C89)”

Rex A Palmer, Brian S Potter, Madeleine Helliwell, Michael J Leach, Babur Z Chowdhry. Journal of Chemical Crystallography (2009) 39: 36-41

"Crystal and Molecular Structure of a Double Mesogen Based on Linked p-terphenyl Units"

S Gupta, RA Palmer, BS Potter, CS Frampton, C Tschierske, SP SenGupta. Acta Cryst. C-Crystal Structure Communications (2000) 56 E156 [PDF 39]

“(24R)-24,25-Dihydroxycycloartan-3-one”

Kinkini Bhattacharyya, Tanusree Kar, Rex A Palmer, Brian Spotter, Akira Inada. Acta Cryst. C, Crystal Structure Communications (2000) C56, 979-980 [PDF 40]

“Structure Analysis of a Mesogenic 4-alkenyl bicyclohexylnitrile”

Sakuntala Gupta, RA Palmer, M. Schadt, Sen Gupta. Liquid Crystals, (2001), 28, 1309-1313

“Crystal Structure of 4(1’’ –butenyl) 4’ (cyano) 1,1’ bicyclohexane”

Sakantala Gupta, P Sen Gupta, RA Palmer and BS Potter. Mol. Cryst. Liq. Cryst., (2002) 378, 193-202

"Hardness of the Oxide Films Formed as a Result of Aluminium Anode Oxidation Processes"

M Chis, O Cojocaru, D Cojocaru, RA Palmer. Journal of Applied Crystallography (2000) 33, 1360-1364

“Low Temperature Crystal Structures of Two Rhodanine Derivatives, 3-Amino Rhodanine and 3-Methyl Rhodanine: Geometry of the Rhodanine Ring”

Saima Jabeen, Rex A Palmer, Brian S Potter, Madeleine Helliwell, Trevor J Dines, Babur Z Chowdhry. Journal of Chemical Crystallography (2008) 39: 151-156

“Vibrational spectra of cyclo(L-Methionyl-L-Methionyl)”

Andrew P Mendham, Babur Z Chowdhry, Brian S Potter, Rex A Palmer, TJ Dines, Martin J Snowden, Robert Withnall. Asian Chemistry Letters (2004) 8(1) 65-69

“Vibrational spectra and crystal structure of the di-amino acid peptide cyclo(L- Methionyl- L- Methionyl): comparison of experimental data and DFT calculations”

Andrew P Mendham, Brian S Potter, Rex A Palmer, Trevor J Dines, John C Mitchell, Robert Withnall, Babur Z Chowdhry. Journal of Raman Spectroscopy (2010) 41(2) 148-159

“Vibrational spectroscopy and crystal structure analysis of two polymorphs of the di-amino acid peptide cyclo(L-Glu-L-Glu)”

Andrew P Mendham, Rex A Palmer, Brian S Potter, Trevor J Dines, Martin J Snowden, Robert Withnall, Babur Z. Chowdhry. Journal of Raman Spectroscopy (2010) 41(3) 288-302 DOI: 10.1002/jrs.2467

“Refined Crystal “Structure and Absolute Configuration of the Di-amino Acid Peptide Cyclo(L-aspartyl-L-aspartyl): Comparison with the DFT Calculated Structure”

Rex A Palmer, Brian S Potter, Andrew P Mendham, Trevor J Dines,Babur Z. Chowdhry. Journal of Chemical Crystallography (2010) 40:608–615

"Aza analogs of Nucleic Acid Bases: Experimental Determination and Ab initio Calculations of the Structure and Vibrational Frequencies of the Methyl Adduct of 5 - Azauracil (6-methoxy- 1,2,3,4,5,6,-hexahydro-1,3,5-triazine-2,4-dione, or 6- methoxy, 5- azauracil)"

Brian S Potter, Rex A Palmer, Robert Withnall, Babur Z. Chowdhry. Submitted to New Journal of Chemistry

“Low Temperature Crystal Structure of N-Acetyl-L-Glutamic Acid: Comparison with the DFT Calculated Structure”

Nighat Kausar, Bruce D Alexander, Rex A Palmer, Brian S Potter, Trevor J Dines, Madeleine Helliwell, Babur Z Chowdhry. Journal of Chemical Crystallography (2010) 40:602–607

“Molecular Dynamics Study and CD Measurements of the Neuropeptides: N-acetyl-L-Asp, N-acetyl-L-Glu, L-Asp-L-Glu , a-N-acetyl-L-Asp-L-Glu and the Biologically Inactive β-N-acetyl-L-Asp-L-Glu as a function of temperature”

David R Lisgarten, Rex A Palmer, Brendan Howlin, Babur Z Chowdhry. Work in hand 2011.

“X-ray Crystallographic Structure of the Cyclic Di-amino acid peptide: N,N '-Diacetyl-Cyclo(Gly-Gly)”

Andrew P. Mendham, John Spencer, Babur Z. Chowdhry, Trevor J. Dines, Muhammad Mujahid, Rex A. Palmer,Graham J. Tizzard, Simon J. Coles. To Journal of Chemical Crystallography (2011)

“X-ray Crystallographic Structure and Absolute Configuration of the Cyclic Di-amino Acid Peptide: Cyclo(L-HomoCySH-L-HomoCySH)”

Andrew P. Mendham, John Spencer, Babur Z. Chowdhry,Trevor J. Dines, Muhammad Mujahid, Rex A. Palmer, Graham J. Tizzard, Simon J. Coles. To Journal of Chemical Crystallography (2011)

“1-Benzyl-1H-Tetrazole: X-ray Crystallographic Structure and Geometry of the Tetrazole Ring”

John Spencer, Hiren Patel, John J. Deadman, Rex A. Palmer, Louise Male, Simon J. Coles. Acta Cryst. C, Crystal Structure Communications (2012)

“X-ray Crystallographic Structure of 3-(Propan-2-ylidene) benzofuran-2(3H)-one”

John Spencer, Andrew P. Mendham, Babur Z. Chowdhry, Rex A. Palmer, Barry M. Trost, Nico Cramer, Louise Male, Simon J. Coles. Acta Cryst. C, Crystal Structure Communications (2012)

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