Staff Profile

Sergey is a Principal Investigator and Fellow of the Biosciences Institute at Newcastle University. Sergey is broadly interested in the phenomenon of evolution, especially in those evolutionary events that are driven primarily by genetic drifts (rather than by natural selection). Currently, Sergey employs structural biology, biochemistry, 3D bioinformatics, and experimental evolution to understand how continuous genetic drifts cause genome degeneration in parasitic forms of life.

Sergey’s life goals include: a weekly lunch appointment with Barak Obama, to be George Church’s “godson” and to create the world’s largest museum of 3D-models of proteins, nucleic acids and other macromolecular entities that comprise a living cell. If interested in the full list, please email sergey.melnikov@ncl.ac.uk.

Read more: www.melnikovlab.com

Research in my lab covers a broad range of topics unified by a single theme: the evolution of protein synthesis. Through structural biology, bioinformatics, biochemistry, and experimental evolution we study protein synthesis machinery in different species to understand how evolution happens in the world that Darwin never saw – the world of proteins and nucleic acids.

Read more: www.melnikovlab.com

Spring:

CMB3000 - Research Project

Fall:

BGM3056 - Evolution and Genomics

• Melnikov S, Kwok H-S, Manakongtreecheep K, Van Den Elzen A, Thoreen CC, Soll D. Archaeal Ribosomal Proteins Possess Nuclear Localization Signal-Type Motifs: Implications for the Origin of the Cell Nucleus. Molecular Biology and Evolution 2020, 37(1), 124-133.
• Melnikov SV, Khabibullina NF, Mairhofer E, Vargas-Rodriguez O, Reynolds NM, Micura R, Soll D, Polikanov YS. Mechanistic insights into the slow peptide bond formation with D-amino acids in the ribosomal active site. Nucleic Acids Research 2019, 47(4), 2089-2100.
• Melnikov SV, van den Elzen A, Stevens DL, Thoreen CC, Soll D. Loss of protein synthesis quality control in host-restricted organisms. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 2018, 115(49), E11505-E11512.
• Melnikov SV, Rivera KD, Ostapenko D, Makarenko A, Sanscrainte ND, Becnel JJ, Solomon MJ, Texier C, Pappin DJ, Soll D. Error-prone protein synthesis in parasites with the smallest eukaryotic genome. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 2018, 115(27), E6245-E6253.
• Melnikov SV, Manakongtreecheep K, Rivera KD, Makarenko A, Pappin DJ, Soll D. Muller’s Ratchet and ribosome degeneration in the obligate intracellular parasites Microsporidia. International Journal of Molecular Sciences 2018, 19(12), 4125.
• Melnikov SV, Soll D, Steitz TA, Polikanov YS. Insights into RNA binding by the anticancer drug cisplatin from the crystal structure of cisplatin-modified ribosome. Nucleic Acids Research 2016, 44(10), 4978-4987.
• Melnikov S, Mailliot J, Rigger L, Neuner S, Shin B-S, Yusupova G, Dever TE, Micura R, Yusupov M. Molecular insights into protein synthesis with proline residues. EMBO Reports 2016, 17(12), 1776-1784.
• Melnikov S, Mailliot J, Shin B-S, Rigger L, Yusupova G, Micura R, Dever TE, Yusupov M. Crystal Structure of Hypusine-Containing Translation Factor eIF5A Bound to a Rotated Eukaryotic Ribosome. Journal of Molecular Biology 2016, 428(18), 3570-3576.
• Melnikov S, Manakongtreecheep K, Soll D. Revising the structural diversity of ribosomal proteins across the three domains of life. Molecular Biology and Evolution 2018, 35(7), 1588-1598.
• Melnikov S, Ben-Shem A, Yusupova G, Yusupov M. Insights into the origin of the nuclear localization signals in conserved ribosomal proteins. Nature Communications 2015, 6, 7382.
• Polikanov YS, Melnikov SV, Soll D, Steitz TA. Structural insights into the role of rRNA modifications in protein synthesis and ribosome assembly. Nature Structural and Molecular Biology 2015, 22(4), 342-344.