User:Lauren McKee

I hold the position of Researcher with Docent (Reader/Associate Prof-equivalent) in Biotechnology at the KTH Division of Glycoscience in Stockholm, Sweden. I am principal investigator for the Stockholm CAZyme group. And, since January 2023, I am a vice-director for a national PhD Academy in Sweden, financed by the Wallenberg Wood Science Centre network. I studied for my Biochemistry BSc, Environmental Biogeochemistry MSc, and Carbohydrate Enzymology PhD in my home town, at Newcastle University, UK. My doctoral research focussed on structure-function analysis of GH43 enzymes [1] [2] and was supervised by Professor Harry Gilbert. I spent almost two years with Harry at the Complex Carbohydrate Research Centre at UGA, Georgia, USA. Shortly after completing my PhD, I moved to Stockholm to begin a post-doctoral scholarship position supervised by Professor Harry Brumer [3] [4], before he moved to UBC in Canada. When Harry moved, I worked with Prof Vincent Bulone [5] [6] until I secured my own independent funding and could begin to run my own team and projects. My main interests are the discovery and characterisation of glycoside hydrolases, glycosyltransferases, polysaccharide utilisation loci [7] [8], and carbohydrate binding modules (especially family CBM92 [9]), with a particular focus on environmental bacteria from soil, marine, and industrial ecosystems [10] [11].

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1. Cartmell A, McKee LS, Peña MJ, Larsbrink J, Brumer H, Kaneko S, Ichinose H, Lewis RJ, Viksø-Nielsen A, Gilbert HJ, and Marles-Wright J. (2011). The structure and function of an arabinan-specific alpha-1,2-arabinofuranosidase identified from screening the activities of bacterial GH43 glycoside hydrolases. J Biol Chem. 2011;286(17):15483-95. DOI:10.1074/jbc.M110.215962 |
2. McKee LS, Peña MJ, Rogowski A, Jackson A, Lewis RJ, York WS, Krogh KB, Viksø-Nielsen A, Skjøt M, Gilbert HJ, and Marles-Wright J. (2012). Introducing endo-xylanase activity into an exo-acting arabinofuranosidase that targets side chains. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2012;109(17):6537-42. DOI:10.1073/pnas.1117686109 |
3. Larsbrink J, Rogers TE, Hemsworth GR, McKee LS, Tauzin AS, Spadiut O, Klinter S, Pudlo NA, Urs K, Koropatkin NM, Creagh AL, Haynes CA, Kelly AG, Cederholm SN, Davies GJ, Martens EC, and Brumer H. (2014). A discrete genetic locus confers xyloglucan metabolism in select human gut Bacteroidetes. Nature. 2014;506(7489):498-502. DOI:10.1038/nature12907 |
4. McKee LS and Brumer H. (2015). Growth of Chitinophaga pinensis on Plant Cell Wall Glycans and Characterisation of a Glycoside Hydrolase Family 27 β-l-Arabinopyranosidase Implicated in Arabinogalactan Utilisation. PLoS One. 2015;10(10):e0139932. DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0139932 |
5. McKee LS, Sunner H, Anasontzis GE, Toriz G, Gatenholm P, Bulone V, Vilaplana F, and Olsson L. (2016). A GH115 α-glucuronidase from Schizophyllum commune contributes to the synergistic enzymatic deconstruction of softwood glucuronoarabinoxylan. Biotechnol Biofuels. 2016;9:2. DOI:10.1186/s13068-015-0417-6 |
6. Larsbrink J, Tuveng TR, Pope PB, Bulone V, Eijsink VG, Brumer H, and McKee LS. (2017). Proteomic insights into mannan degradation and protein secretion by the forest floor bacterium Chitinophaga pinensis. J Proteomics. 2017;156:63-74. DOI:10.1016/j.jprot.2017.01.003 |
7. McKee LS, La Rosa SL, Westereng B, Eijsink VG, Pope PB, and Larsbrink J. (2021). Polysaccharide degradation by the Bacteroidetes: mechanisms and nomenclature. Environ Microbiol Rep. 2021;13(5):559-581. DOI:10.1111/1758-2229.12980 |
8. Lu Z, Rämgård C, Ergenlioğlu İ, Sandin L, Hammar H, Andersson H, King K, Inman AR, Hao M, Bulone V, and McKee LS. (2023). Multiple enzymatic approaches to hydrolysis of fungal β-glucans by the soil bacterium Chitinophaga pinensis. FEBS J. 2023;290(11):2909-2922. DOI:10.1111/febs.16720 |
9. Hao MS, Mazurkewich S, Li H, Kvammen A, Saha S, Koskela S, Inman AR, Nakajima M, Tanaka N, Nakai H, Brändén G, Bulone V, Larsbrink J, and McKee LS. (2024). Structural and biochemical analysis of family 92 carbohydrate-binding modules uncovers multivalent binding to β-glucans. Nat Commun. 2024;15(1):3429. DOI:10.1038/s41467-024-47584-y |
10. McKee LS, Martínez-Abad A, Ruthes AC, Vilaplana F, and Brumer H. (2019). Focused Metabolism of β-Glucans by the Soil Bacteroidetes Species Chitinophaga pinensis. Appl Environ Microbiol. 2019;85(2). DOI:10.1128/AEM.02231-18 |
11. Lu Z, Kvammen A, Li H, Hao M, Inman AR, Bulone V, and McKee LS. (2023). A polysaccharide utilization locus from Chitinophaga pinensis simultaneously targets chitin and β-glucans found in fungal cell walls. mSphere. 2023;8(4):e0024423. DOI:10.1128/msphere.00244-23 |