I’m a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Oxford. My research centers on the use of molecular simulations to study signal transduction within bacterial chemotaxis. I’m especially interested in the application of integrative modeling to characterize the structure and function of bacterial chemosensory arrays. My work is jointly advised by Professor Mark Sansom and Dr. Phill Stansfeld and funded by the BBSRC. Previously, I held a postdoctoral position with Professor Zan Luthey-Schulten at the NSF Center for the Physics of Living Cells at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In 2017, I received a Ph.D. in Physics from UIUC under the guidance of Professor Klaus Schulten. Contact Keith

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Publications

• Alternative architecture of the E. coli chemosensory array. *Burt A., *Cassidy C.K., Stansfeld P.J., Gutsche I., (2021), bioRxiv 2021.02.05.429929

  • Models of p2- and p6-symmetric array architecture: Coordinates

• A bacterial inflammation sensor regulates c-di-GMP signaling, adhesion, and biofilm formation. Perkins A., Tudorica, D.A., Teixeira, R.D., Schirmer T., Zumwalt, L., Ogba, O.M., Cassidy, C.K., Stansfeld, P.J., Guillemin, K., (2020), bioRxiv 2020.10.11.335190

• Concerted dynamics of an LPS translocon in the presence of substrate and an antimicrobial peptide. Fiorentino F., Sauer J., Qiu X., Corey R.A., Cassidy C.K., Mynors-Wallis B., Mehmood S., Bolla J., Stansfeld P.J., Robinson C.V., (2020), Nature Chemical Biology, 17:187–195 .

• The unconventional cytoplasmic sensing mechanism for ethanol chemotaxis in Bacillus subtilis. Tohidifar P., Bodhankar G.A., Pei S., Cassidy C.K., Walukiewicz H.E., Orodal G.W., Stansfeld P.J., Rao C., (2020), MBio, 11(5).

• Complete structure of the chemosensory array core signalling unit in an E. coli minicell strain. *Burt A., *Cassidy C.K., Ames P., Bacia-Verloop M., Baulard M., Huard K., Luthey-Schulten Z., Desfosses A., Stansfeld P.J., Margolin W., Parkinson J.S., Gutsche I., (2020), Nature Communications, 11(743).

  • EMDB: 10160

• Structure and dynamics of the E. coli chemotaxis core signaling complex by cryo-electron tomography and molecular simulations. Cassidy C.K., Himes B.A., Sun D., Ma J., Zhao G., Parkinson J.S., Stansfeld P.J., Luthey-Schulten Z., Zhang P., (2020), Communications Biology, 3(1):1-10.

  • PDB: 6S1K; EMDB: 10050

• In situ conformational changes of the Escherichia coli serine chemoreceptor in different signaling states. Yang W., Cassidy C.K., Ames P., Diebolder C.A., Schulten K., Luthey-Schulten Z., Parkinson J.S., Briegel A., (2019), MBio, 10(4).

• CryoEM-based hybrid modeling approaches for structure determination. Cassidy C.K., Himes B.A., Luthey-Schulten Z., Zhang P., (2018), Current Opinion in Microbiology, 43:14-23.

• GPU-accelerated molecular dynamics clustering analysis with openACC. Stone J.E., Perilla J.R., Cassidy C.K., Schulten K., (2016). In Parallel Programming with openACC, Elsevier.

• CryoEM and computer simulations reveal a novel kinase conformational switch in bacterial chemotaxis signaling. *Cassidy C.K., *Himes B.A., *Alvarez J.A., Ma J., Zhao G., Perilla J.R., Schulten K., Zhang P., (2015), Elife, 4:e08419.

  • In the news: Researchers resolve structure of a key component of bacterial decision-making

  • PDB: 3JA6; EMDB: 6319, 6320

• Computational methodologies for real-space structural refinement of large macromolecular complexes. Goh B.C., Hadden J.A., Bernardi R.C., Singharoy A., McGreevy R., Rudack T., Cassidy C.K., Schulten K., (2016), Annual Review of Biophysics, 45:253-278.

• Molecular dynamics simulations of large macromolecular complexes. Perilla J.R., Goh B.C., Cassidy C.K., Liu B., Bernardi R.C., Rudack T., Yu H., Wu Z., and Schulten K., (2015), Current Opinion in Structural Biology, 31:64-74.

• CheY’s acetylation sites responsible for generating clockwise flagellar rotation in Escherichia coli. Fraiberg M., Afanzar O., Cassidy C.K., Gabashvili A., Schulten K., Levin Y., Eisenbach M., (2015), Molecular Microbiology, 95(2):231-244.

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Presentations