Email: mhiggins@chem.ubc.ca
B.Sc. (Honours) Biochemistry & Microbiology, University of Victoria
Ph.D. Biochemistry, University of Victoria
Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research Trainee Award Trainee Award, 2015
Current Position: Assistant Professor in the Division of Biological Sciences at the University of Alabama
Representative Publications:
Higgins MA, Ryan KS. Generating a fucose permease deletion mutant in Bifidobacterium longum subspecies infantis ATCC 15697. Anaerobe. DOI: 10.1016/j.anaerobe.2021.102320.
Du, Y.-L., Higgins, M.A., Zhao, G., Ryan K.S. (2019) Convergent biosynthetic transformations to a bacterial specialized metabolite. Nat. Chem. Biol. DOI: 10.1038/s41589-019-0331-5.
Guo, J., Higgins, M.A., Daniel-Ivad, P., Ryan K.S. (2019) An Asymmetric Reductase that Intercepts Acyclic Imino Acids Produced In Situ by a Partner Oxidase. J. Am. Chem. Soc. DOI: 10.1021/jacs.9b03307.
Du YL, He HY, Higgins MA, Ryan KS (2017) A heme-dependent enzyme forms the nitrogen-nitrogen bond in piperazate. Nat Chem Biol. 13(8):836-8.
Higgins MA, Suits MD, Marsters C, Boraston AB (2014) Structural and functional analysis of fucose-processing enzymes from Streptococcus pneumoniae. J Mol Biol. 426(7):1469-82.
Higgins MA, Ficko-Blean E, Meloncelli PJ, Lowary TL, Boraston AB (2011) The overall architecture and receptor binding of pneumococcal carbohydrate-antigen-hydrolyzing enzymes. J Mol Biol. 411(5):1017-36.
Higgins MA, Whitworth GE, El Warry N, Randriantsoa M, Samain E, Burke RD, Vocadlo DJ, Boraston AB. (2009) Differential recognition and hydrolysis of host carbohydrate antigens by Streptococcus pneumoniae family 98 glycoside hydrolases. J Biol Chem. 2009 Sep 18;284(38):26161-73.
Higgins MA, Abbott DW, Boulanger MJ, Boraston AB. (2009) Blood group antigen recognition by a solute- binding protein from a serotype 3 strain of Streptococcus pneumoniae. J Mol Biol. 2009 May 1;388(2):299-309.
Van Bueren AL, Higgins MA, Wang D, Burke RD, Boraston AB. (2007) Identification and structural basis of binding to host lung glycogen by streptococcal virulence factors. Nat Struct Mol Biol. 2007 Jan;14(1):76-84.