Prof Helen Saibil

Positions held:

Bernal Professor of Structural Biology, School of Natural Sciences

Supervision and teaching
Supervision and teaching

Supervision

Supervisions within Birkbeck:

5

Doctoral alumni since 2013-14
- REBECCA LEES
  
  Nature of supervision:
  Principal Supervisor, Oct 2020
  
  Title of thesis:
  The role of Merozoite Surface Protein 1 in Plasmodium falciparum egress from erythrocytes
  
  Awarded:
  2024
- JIM MONISTROL
  
  Nature of supervision:
  Principal Supervisor, Oct 2018
  
  Title of thesis:
  The aggregation of alpha-synuclein and its disaggregation by the Hsp70 disaggregation machinery
  
  Awarded:
  2022
- SCOTT GARDNER
  
  Nature of supervision:
  Principal Supervisor, Oct 2017
  
  Title of thesis:
  Mechanisms of chaperonin-assisted protein folding
  
  Awarded:
  2021
- JOSEPH BETON
  
  Nature of supervision:
  Principal Supervisor, Oct 2016
  
  Title of thesis:
  Studies of the Human Hsp70 Disaggregase by Electron and Atomic Force Microscopy
  
  Awarded:
  2020
- THOMAS PESKETT
  
  Nature of supervision:
  Principal Supervisor, Sep 2014
  
  Awarded:
  2018
Teaching

Teaching modules
- Advanced Cell Biology (BCBC006S6)
- Molecular and Cellular Structure Determination (SCBS092S7)
Publications
Publications
Article
- Monistrol, J. and Beton, J. and Johnston, E. and Dang, T.L. and Bukau, B. and Saibil, Helen (2025) Stepwise recruitment of chaperone Hsc70 by DNAJB1 produces ordered arrays primed for bursts of amyloid fibril disassembly. Communications Biology ISSN 2399-3642.
- Gardner, S. and Darrow, M. and Lukoyanova, N. and Thalassinos, K. and Saibil, Helen (2023) Structural basis of substrate progression through the bacterial chaperonin cycle. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 120 (50), pp. e2308933120. ISSN 0027-8424.
- van den Boom, J. and Marini, G. and Meyer, H. and Saibil, Helen (2023) Structural basis of ubiquitin-independent PP1 complex disassembly by p97. The EMBO Journal 42 (14), pp. e113110. ISSN 0261-4189.
- Marini, G. and Poland, B. and Leininger, C. and Lukoyanova, N. and Spielbauer, D. and Barry, J.K. and Altier, D. and Lum, A. and Scolaro, E. and Ortega, C.P. and Yalpani, N. and Sandahl, G. and Mabry, T. and Klever, J. and Nowatzki, T. and Zhao, J.-Z. and Sethi, A. and Kassa, A. and Crane, V. and Lu, A.L. and Nelson, M.E. and Eswar, N. and Topf, Maya and Saibil, Helen (2023) Structural journey of an insecticidal protein against western corn rootworm. Nature Communications 14 (1), ISSN 2041-1723.
- Beton, J.G. and Monistrol, J. and Wentink, A. and Johnston, E.C. and Roberts, A.J. and Bukau, B.G. and Hoogenboom, B.W. and Saibil, Helen (2022) Cooperative amyloid fibre binding and disassembly by the Hsp70 disaggregase. The EMBO Journal 41 (16), pp. e110410. ISSN 0261-4189.
- Manka, S.W. and Zhang, W. and Wenborn, A. and Betts, J. and Joiner, S. and Saibil, Helen and Collinge, J. and Wadsworth, J.D.F. (2022) Å cryo-EM structure of ex vivo RML prion fibrils. Nature Communications 13 (1), ISSN 2041-1723.
- Ivanova, Marina E. and Lukoyanova, Natalya and Malhotra, Sony and Topf, Maya and Trapani, J.A. and Voskoboinik, I. and Saibil, Helen (2022) The pore conformation of lymphocyte perforin. Science Advances 8 (6), ISSN 2375-2548.
- Saibil, Helen (2022) Cryo-EM in molecular and cellular biology. Molecular Cell 82 (2), pp. 274-284. ISSN 1097-2765.
- Sarkans, U. and Chiu, W. and Collinson, L. and Darrow, M.C. and Ellenberg, J. and Grunwald, D. and Hériché, J.-K. and Iudin, A. and Martins, G.G. and Meehan, T. and Narayan, K. and Patwardhan, A. and Russell, M.R.G. and Saibil, Helen R. and Strambio-De-Castillia, C. and Swedlow, J.R. and Tischer, C. and Uhlmann, V. and Verkade, P. and Barlow, M. and Bayraktar, O. and Birney, E. and Catavitello, C. and Cawthorne, C. and Wagner-Conrad, S. and Duke, E. and Paul-Gilloteaux, P. and Gustin, E. and Harkiolaki, M. and Kankaanpää, P. and Lemberger, T. and McEntyre, J. and Moore, J. and Nicholls, A.W. and Onami, S. and Parkinson, H. and Parsons, M. and Romanchikova, M. and Sofroniew, N. and Swoger, J. and Utz, N. and Voortman, L.M. and Wong, F. and Zhang, P. and Kleywegt, G.J. and Brazma, A. (2021) REMBI: Recommended Metadata for Biological Images—enabling reuse of microscopy data in biology. Nature Methods ISSN 1548-7091.
- Saibil, Helen R. (2021) The PDB and protein homeostasis: from chaperones to degradation and disaggregase machines. Journal of Biological Chemistry 296, pp. 100744. ISSN 0021-9258.
- Zhou, Y. and Peskett, T.R. and Landles, C. and Warner, J.B. and Sathasivam, K. and Smith, E.J. and Chen, S. and Wetzel, R. and Lashuel, H.A. and Bates, G.P. and Saibil, Helen R. (2021) Correlative light and electron microscopy suggests that mutant huntingtin dysregulates the endolysosomal pathway in presymptomatic Huntington’s disease. Acta Neuropathologica Communications 9 (1), ISSN 2051-5960.
- Deville, C. and Franke, K. and Mogk, A. and Bukau, B. and Saibil, Helen R. (2019) Two-step activation mechanism of the ClpB Disaggregase for sequential substrate threading by the Main ATPase Motor. Cell Reports 27 (12), pp. 3433-3446.e4. ISSN 2211-1247.
- Fitzpatrick, A.W.P. and Saibil, Helen R. (2019) Cryo-EM of amyloid fibrils and cellular aggregates. Current Opinion in Structural Biology 58, pp. 34-42. ISSN 0959-440X.
- Terry, C. and Harniman, R.L. and Sells, J. and Wenborn, A. and Joiner, S. and Saibil, Helen R. and Miles, M.J. and Collinge, J. and Wadsworth, J.D.F. (2019) Structural features distinguishing infectious ex vivo mammalian prions from non-infectious fibrillar assemblies generated in vitro. Scientific Reports 9 (1), pp. 376. ISSN 2045-2322.
- Natesh, Ramanathan and Clare, Daniel K. and Farr, G.W. and Horwich, A.L. and Saibil, Helen R. (2018) A two-domain folding intermediate of RuBisCO in complex with the GroEL chaperonin. International Journal of Biological Macromolecules 118 (A), pp. 671-675. ISSN 1879-0003.
- Peskett, T.R. and Rau, F. and O'Driscoll, Jonathan and Patani, R and Lowe, Alan R. and Saibil, Helen R. (2018) A liquid to solid phase transition underlying pathological huntingtin exon1 aggregation. Molecular Cell 7 (4), pp. P588-601.E6. ISSN 1097-2765.
- Thomas, J.A. and Tan, M.S.Y. and Bisson, C. and Borg, A. and Umrekar, T.R. and Hackett, F. and Hale, V.L. and Vizcay-Barrena, G. and Fleck, R.A. and Snijders, A. and Saibil, Helen R. and Blackman, M.J. (2018) A protease cascade regulates release of the human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum from host red blood cells. Nature Microbiology 3, pp. 447-455. ISSN 2058-5276.
- Brennan, A.J. and Law, R.H.P. and Conroy, P.J. and Noori, T. and Lukoyanova, Natalya and Saibil, Helen R. and Yagita, H. and Ciccone, A. and Verschoor, S. and Whisstock, J.C. and Trapani, J.A. and Voskoboinik, I. (2018) Perforin proteostasis is regulated through its C2 domain: supra-physiological cell death mediated by T431D-perforin. Cell Death & Differentiation 25, pp. 1517-1529. ISSN 1350-9047.
- Saibil, Helen R. (2017) Blob-ology and biology of cryo-EM: an interview with Helen Saibil. BMC Biology 15 (1), ISSN 1741-7007.
- Deville, Celia and Carroni, Marta and Franke, K.B. and Topf, Maya and Bukau, B. and Mogk, A. and Saibil, Helen R. (2017) Structural pathway of regulated substrate transfer and threading through an Hsp100 disaggregase. Science Advances 3 (8), pp. e1701726. ISSN 2375-2548.
- Patwardhan, A. and Brandt, R. and Butcher, S.J and Collinson, L. and Gault, D. and Grünewald, K. and Hecksel, C. and Huiskonen, J.T. and Iudin, A. and Jones, M.L. and Korir, P.K. and Koster, A.J. and Lagerstedt, I. and Lawson, C.L. and Mastronarde, D. and McCormick, M. and Parkinson, H. and Rosenthal, P.B. and Saalfeld, S. and Saibil, Helen R. and Sarntivijai, S. and Solanes Valero, I. and Subramaniam, S. and Swedlow, J.R. and Tudose, I. and Winn, M. and Kleywegt, G.J. (2017) Building bridges between cellular and molecular structural biology. eLife 6, ISSN 2050-084X.
- Clare, D.K. and Siebert, C.A. and Hecksel, C. and Hagen, C. and Mordhorst, V. and Grange, M. and Ashton, A.W. and Walsh, M.A. and Grünewald, K. and Saibil, Helen R. and Stuart, D.I. and Zhang, P. (2017) Electron Bio-Imaging Centre (eBIC): the UK national research facility for biological electron microscopy. Acta Crystallographica Section D Biological Crystallography 73 (6), pp. 488-495. ISSN 0907-4449.
- Hale, V.L. and Watermeyer, Jean and Hackett, F. and Vizcay-Barrena, G. and van Ooij, C. and Thomas, J.A. and Spink, M.C. and Harkiolaki, M. and Duke, E. and Fleck, R.A. and Blackman, M.J. and Saibil, Helen R. (2017) Parasitophorous vacuole poration precedes its rupture and rapid host erythrocyte cytoskeleton collapse inPlasmodium falciparumegress. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 114 (13), pp. 3439-3444. ISSN 0027-8424.
- Leung, C. and Hodel, A.W. and Brennan, A. and Lukoyanova, N. and Tran, S. and House, C.M. and Kondos, S.C. and Whisstock, J.C. and Dunstone, M.A. and Trapani, J.A. and Voskoboinik, I. and Saibil, Helen R. and Hoogenboom, B.W. (2017) Real-time visualization of perforin nanopore assembly. Nature Nanotechnology ISSN 1748-3387.
- Hodel, A.W. and Leung Shin Cheung, Carl and Dudkina, Natalia and Saibil, Helen R. and Hoogenboom, B.W. (2016) Atomic force microscopy of membrane pore formation by cholesterol dependent cytolysins. Current Opinion in Structural Biology 39 (1), pp. 8-15. ISSN 0959-440X.
- Lukoyanova, N. and Hoogenboom, B.W. and Saibil, Helen R. (2016) The membrane attack complex, perforin and cholesterol-dependent cytolysin superfamily of pore-forming proteins. Journal of Cell Science 129 (11), pp. 2125-2133. ISSN 0021-9533.
- Terry, C. and Wenborn, A. and Gros, N. and Sells, J. and Joiner, S. and Hosszu, L.L.P. and Tattum, M.H. and Panico, Silvia and Clare, Daniel and Collinge, J. and Saibil, Helen R. and Wadsworth, J.D.F. (2016) Ex vivomammalian prions are formed of paired double helical prion protein fibrils. Open Biology 6 (5), pp. 160035. ISSN 2046-2441.
- Dudkina, Natalya and Spicer, B.A. and Reboul, C.F. and Conroy, P.J. and Lukoyanova, Natalya and Elmlund, H. and Law, R.H.P. and Ekkel, S.M. and Kondos, S.C. and Goode, R.J.A. and Ramm, G. and Whisstock, J.C. and Saibil, Helen R. and Dunstone, M.A. (2016) Structure of the poly-C9 component of the complement membrane attack complex. Nature Communications 7, pp. 10588. ISSN 2041-1723.
- Milanesi, Lilia and Sheynis, T. and Xue, W.-F. and Orlova, Elena and Hellewell, A.L. and Jelinek, R. and Hewitt, E.W. and Radford, S.E. and Saibil, Helen R. (2012) Direct three-dimensional visualization of membrane disruption by amyloid fibrils. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 109 (50), pp. 20455-20460. ISSN 0027-8424.
- Orlova, Elena and Saibil, Helen R. (2011) Structural analysis of macromolecular assemblies by electron microscopy. Chemical Reviews 111 (12), pp. 7710-7748. ISSN 0009-2665.
- White, Helen E. and Hodgkinson, J.L. and Jahn, T.R. and Cohen-Krausz, Sara and Gosal, W.S. and Muller, S. and Orlova, Elena and Radford, S.E. and Saibil, Helen R. (2009) Globular Tetramers of beta(2)-Microglobulin assemble into elaborate amyloid fibrils. Journal of Molecular Biology 389 (1), pp. 48-57. ISSN 0022-2836.
- Fronzes, Remi and Schafer, Eva and Wang, Luchun and Saibil, Helen R. and Orlova, Elena and Waksman, Gabriel (2009) Structure of a type IV secretion system core complex. Science 323 (5911), pp. 266-268. ISSN 0036-8075.
- Elad, Nadav and Clare, Daniel K. and Saibil, Helen R. and Orlova, Elena (2008) Detection and separation of heterogeneity in molecular complexes by statistical analysis of their two-dimensional projections. Journal of Structural Biology 162 (1), pp. 108-120. ISSN 1047-8477.
- Elad, Nadav and Farr, G.W. and Clare, Daniel K. and Orlova, Elena and Horwich, A.L. and Saibil, Helen R. (2007) Topologies of a Substrate Protein Bound to the Chaperonin GroEL. Molecular Cell 26 (3), pp. 415 - 426. ISSN 1097-2765.
- Tattum, M.H. and Cohen-Krausz, Sara and Khalili Shirazi, A. and Jackson, G.S. and Orlova, Elena and Collinge, J. and Clarke, A.R. and Saibil, Helen R. (2006) Elongated oligomers assemble into mammalian PrP Amyloid fibrils. Journal of Molecular Biology 357 (3), pp. 975-985. ISSN 0022-2836.
Book Section
- Orlova, Elena and Saibil, Helen R. (2010) Methods for three-dimensional reconstruction of heterogeneous assemblies. In: Jensen, G.J. (ed.) Methods in Enzymology. Cryo-EM, Part B: 3-D Reconstruction. Philadelphia, USA: Elsevier. pp. 321-341. ISBN 9780123849915.

Prof Helen Saibil

Supervision and teaching

Supervision

Doctoral alumni since 2013-14

REBECCA LEES

JIM MONISTROL

SCOTT GARDNER

JOSEPH BETON

THOMAS PESKETT

Teaching

Teaching modules

Publications

Article

Book Section