IAFRI Staff

I am a Royal Society University Research Fellow in the School of Natural and Environmental Sciences. My research group uses chemical biology approaches to investigate and modulate protein:carbohydrate interactions.

I was awarded my PhD in 2013, which I undertook with Mike Webb at the University of Leeds. I stayed in Leeds working as a postdoc with Bruce Turnbull before a brief spell as a Teaching Fellow at the University of York. From there I joined the Kawamura Group at the University of Oxford in mid-2014 and moved to Newcastle University in 2019.

Google Scholar Profile

Research in the McAllister group focuses developing methods to produce glycopeptides and glycoproteins (i.e. peptides and proteins modified with carbohydrates), to investigate the roles of these fundamental biological molecules. Carbohydrates are involved in many important biological processes across all Kingdoms of life including how organisms recognise pathogens, how cancers can spread and the basis of the different A/B/O blood groups in humans.

We have an interest in enzymes that modify proteins with glycans, particularly O-GalNAc* glycans, and developing approaches to produce proteins with authentic glycosylation patterns. A current PhD student is investigating which proteins are modified by particular GalNAc-transferases.

*GalNAc = N-acetylgalactosamine

We use a variety of chemical biology approaches techniques including recombinant protein expression, in vitro protein synthesis, solid-phase peptide synthesis, in vitro assays, biophysics and synthetic chemistry.

• Articles

  • Simelis K, Saraç H, Salah E, Nishio K, McAllister TE, Corner TP, Tumber A, Belle R, Schofield CJ, Suga H, Kawamura A. Selective targeting of human TET1 by cyclic peptide inhibitors: Insights from biochemical profiling. Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry 2024, 99, 117597.
  • Coleman OD, Macdonald J, Thomson B, Ward JA, Stubbs CJ, McAllister TE, Clark S, Amin S, Cao Y, Abboud MI, Zhang Y, Sanganee H, Huber KVM, Claridge TDW, Kawamura A. Cyclic peptides target the aromatic cage of a PHD-finger reader domain to modulate epigenetic protein function. Chemical Science 2023, 14(26), 7136-7146.
  • McAllister TE, Coleman OC, Roper G, Kawamura A. Structural diversity in de novo cyclic peptide ligands from genetically encoded library technologies. Peptide Science 2021, 113(1), e24204.
  • Chowdhury R, Abboud MI, McAllister TE, Banerji B, Bhushan B, Sorensen JL, Kawamura A, Schofield CJ. Use of Cyclic Peptides to Induce Crystallization – Case Study with Prolyl Hydroxylase Domain 2. Scientific Reports 2020, 10(1), 21964.
  • McAllister TE, Yeh T-L, Abboud MI, Leung IKH, Hookway ES, King ONF, Bhushan B, Williams ST, Hopkinson RJ, Munzel M, Loik ND, Chowdhury R, Oppermann U, Claridge TDW, Goto Y, Suga H, Schofield CJ, Kawamura A. Non-competitive cyclic peptides for targeting enzyme-substrate complexes. Chemical Science 2018, 9(20), 4569-4578.
  • Abboud MI, McAllister TE, Leung IKH, Chowdhury R, Jorgensen C, Domene C, Mecinovic J, Lippl K, Hancock RL, Hopkinson RJ, Kawamura A, Claridge TDW, Schofield CJ. 2-Oxoglutarate regulates binding of hydroxylated hypoxia-inducible factor to prolyl hydroxylase domain 2. Chemical Communications 2018, 54(25), 3130-3133.
  • Dobrynin G, McAllister TE, Leszczynska KB, Ramachandran S, Krieg AJ, Kawamura A, Hammond EM. KDM4A regulates HIF-1 levels through H3K9me3. Scientific Reports 2017, 7, 11094.
  • Mahon CS, Fascione MA, Sakonsinsiri CS, McAllister TE, Turnbull WB, Fulton DA. Templating carbohydrate-functionalised polymer-scaffolded dynamic combinatorial libraries with lectins. Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry 2015, 13(9), 2756-2761.
  • McAllister TE, Horner KA, Webb ME. Evaluation of the interaction between phosphohistidine analogues and phosphotyrosine binding domains. ChemBioChem 2014, 15(8), 1088-1091.
  • Branson TR, McAllister TE, Garcia-Hartjes J, Fascione MA, Ross JF, Warriner SL, Wennekes T, Zuilhof H, Turnbull WB. A Protein-Based Pentavalent Inhibitor of the Cholera Toxin B-Subunit. Angewandte Chemie International Edition 2014, 126(32), 8463-8467.
  • McAllister TE, Hollins JJ, Webb ME. Prospects for stable analogues of phosphohistidine. Biochemical Society Transactions 2013, 41(4), 1072-1077.
  • McAllister TE, Webb ME. Triazole phosphohistidine analogues compatible with the Fmoc-strategy. Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry 2012, 10, 4043-4049.
  • McAllister TE, Nix MG, Webb ME. Fmoc-chemistry of a stable phosphohistidine analogue. Chemical Communications 2011, 47(4).

• Review

  • McAllister TE, England KS, Hopkinson RJ, Brennan PE, Kawamura A, Schofield CJ. Recent Progress in Histone Demethylase Inhibitors. Journal of Medicinal Chemistry 2016, 59(4), 1308-1329.