diff --git a/package/MDAnalysis/coordinates/MMCIF.py b/package/MDAnalysis/coordinates/MMCIF.py
index 2ebf752fd9..a97b8ad1d3 100644
--- a/package/MDAnalysis/coordinates/MMCIF.py
+++ b/package/MDAnalysis/coordinates/MMCIF.py
@@ -74,6 +74,7 @@
 import numpy as np
 
 from . import base
+from ..lib import util
 
 try:
     import gemmi
@@ -119,7 +120,7 @@ class MMCIFReader(base.SingleFrameReaderBase):
     units = {"time": None, "length": "Angstrom"}
 
     def _read_first_frame(self):
-        structure = gemmi.read_structure(self.filename)
+        structure = self._get_structure()
         cell_dims = np.array(
             [
                 getattr(structure.cell, name)
@@ -145,3 +146,36 @@ def _read_first_frame(self):
         else:
             self.ts.dimensions = cell_dims
         self.ts.frame = 0
+
+    def _get_structure(self):
+        # This method exists because of some lacking methods in the gemmi Python API.
+        # within gemmi in C++, one can call `read_structure` and in-memory, string, and filepath
+        # arguments will all be accepted:
+        # https://github.com/project-gemmi/gemmi/blob/4416e298f204b7b57bf5b3051d7efd4fe02957cf/include/gemmi/mmread.hpp#L86
+
+        # However, for MDA to similarly accept common input types like streams (open File-like objs and StringIO objs)
+        # as well as pathlib.Path() objects, we have to use the Python API methods available currently (as of 0.7.3)
+        # with a string as a common target for all input types
+        # For this, we call gemmi.cif.read_string (https://gemmi.readthedocs.io/en/latest/cif.html#reading) to handle CIF
+        # strings and gemmi.read_pdb to handle PDB strings (no one method can handle both formats currently Py-side)
+
+        # openany() is called instead of passing file paths (when available) differently from streams
+        # even though reading the file into a string is less efficient, this is easier to maintain
+
+        # if the gemmi Python API is extended, this method can be simplified/removed and replaced with something like
+        # gemmi.read_structure
+
+        with util.openany(self.filename) as f:
+            content_as_str = f.read()
+            try:
+                # String -> Doc -> Block -> Structure
+                # making Structure from first Block in Document as is done internally in gemmi:
+                # https://github.com/project-gemmi/gemmi/blob/4416e298f204b7b57bf5b3051d7efd4fe02957cf/include/gemmi/mmcif.hpp#L32
+                return gemmi.make_structure_from_block(
+                    gemmi.cif.read_string(content_as_str)[0]
+                )
+            except ValueError as e:
+                try:
+                    return gemmi.read_pdb_string(content_as_str)
+                except ValueError:
+                    raise e
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/package/MDAnalysis/topology/MMCIFParser.py b/package/MDAnalysis/topology/MMCIFParser.py
index ca19027cb2..547d44fe1e 100644
--- a/package/MDAnalysis/topology/MMCIFParser.py
+++ b/package/MDAnalysis/topology/MMCIFParser.py
@@ -70,6 +70,7 @@
     Tempfactors,
 )
 from .base import TopologyReaderBase, change_squash
+from ..lib import util
 
 
 class MMCIFParser(TopologyReaderBase):
@@ -108,7 +109,7 @@ def parse(self, **kwargs) -> Topology:
         -------
         MDAnalysis Topology object
         """
-        structure = gemmi.read_structure(self.filename)
+        structure = self._get_structure()
 
         if len(structure) > 1:
             warnings.warn(
@@ -224,3 +225,36 @@ def parse(self, **kwargs) -> Topology:
             atom_resindex=residx,
             residue_segindex=segidx,
         )
+
+    def _get_structure(self):
+        # This method exists because of some lacking methods in the gemmi Python API.
+        # within gemmi in C++, one can call `read_structure` and in-memory, string, and filepath
+        # arguments will all be accepted:
+        # https://github.com/project-gemmi/gemmi/blob/4416e298f204b7b57bf5b3051d7efd4fe02957cf/include/gemmi/mmread.hpp#L86
+
+        # However, for MDA to similarly accept common input types like streams (open File-like objs and StringIO objs)
+        # as well as pathlib.Path() objects, we have to use the Python API methods available currently (as of 0.7.3)
+        # with a string as a common target for all input types
+        # For this, we call gemmi.cif.read_string (https://gemmi.readthedocs.io/en/latest/cif.html#reading) to handle CIF
+        # strings and gemmi.read_pdb to handle PDB strings (no one method can handle both formats currently Py-side)
+
+        # openany() is called instead of passing file paths (when available) differently from streams
+        # even though reading the file into a string is less efficient, this is easier to maintain
+
+        # if the gemmi Python API is extended, this method can be simplified/removed and replaced with something like
+        # gemmi.read_structure
+
+        with util.openany(self.filename) as f:
+            content_as_str = f.read()
+            try:
+                # String -> Doc -> Block -> Structure
+                # making Structure from first Block in Document as is done internally in gemmi:
+                # https://github.com/project-gemmi/gemmi/blob/4416e298f204b7b57bf5b3051d7efd4fe02957cf/include/gemmi/mmcif.hpp#L32
+                return gemmi.make_structure_from_block(
+                    gemmi.cif.read_string(content_as_str)[0]
+                )
+            except ValueError as e:
+                try:
+                    return gemmi.read_pdb_string(content_as_str)
+                except ValueError:
+                    raise e
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/testsuite/MDAnalysisTests/topology/test_mmcif.py b/testsuite/MDAnalysisTests/topology/test_mmcif.py
index 453df4b0ef..72fa24cb98 100644
--- a/testsuite/MDAnalysisTests/topology/test_mmcif.py
+++ b/testsuite/MDAnalysisTests/topology/test_mmcif.py
@@ -1,5 +1,9 @@
 import MDAnalysis as mda
 import pytest
+from pathlib import Path
+from io import StringIO
+import gzip
+from MDAnalysis.lib import util
 from MDAnalysis.coordinates.MMCIF import HAS_GEMMI
 
 from MDAnalysisTests.datafiles import MMCIF as MMCIF_FOLDER
@@ -105,3 +109,48 @@ def test_multimodel_warning_msg():
         mda.topology.MMCIFParser.MMCIFParser(
             f"{MMCIF_FOLDER}/multimodel_warning.cif"
         ).parse()
+
+
+@pytest.mark.skipif(not HAS_GEMMI, reason="gemmi not installed")
+@pytest.mark.parametrize(
+    "filename,fmt",
+    [
+        (f"{MMCIF_FOLDER}/1BD2_short.cif.gz", None),
+        (Path(f"{MMCIF_FOLDER}/1BD2_short.cif.gz"), None),
+        (
+            StringIO(util.anyopen(f"{MMCIF_FOLDER}/1BD2_short.cif.gz").read()),
+            "CIF",
+        ),
+        (gzip.open(f"{MMCIF_FOLDER}/1BD2_short.cif.gz"), "CIF"),
+        (
+            util.NamedStream(
+                StringIO(
+                    util.anyopen(f"{MMCIF_FOLDER}/1BD2_short.cif.gz").read()
+                ),
+                "some_name.cif",
+            ),
+            "CIF",
+        ),
+        (f"{MMCIF_FOLDER}/1BD2_short.pdb.gz", None),
+        (Path(f"{MMCIF_FOLDER}/1BD2_short.pdb.gz"), None),
+        (
+            StringIO(util.anyopen(f"{MMCIF_FOLDER}/1BD2_short.pdb.gz").read()),
+            "CIF",
+        ),
+        (
+            util.anyopen(f"{MMCIF_FOLDER}/1BD2_short.pdb.gz"),
+            "CIF",
+        ),
+        (
+            util.NamedStream(
+                StringIO(
+                    util.anyopen(f"{MMCIF_FOLDER}/1BD2_short.pdb.gz").read()
+                ),
+                "some_name.pdb",
+            ),
+            "CIF",
+        ),
+    ],
+)
+def test_input_methods(filename, fmt):
+    mda.Universe(filename, topology_format=fmt)