Seminar: Gabe Lander PhD (Scripps)

GABE LANDER, PHD, Professor, Department of Integrative Structural and Computational Biology, Scripps Research Institute                                                                     Host: Rob McGinty

“The highs and lows of cryo-EM and its use in studying molecular machines of mass destruction”

Abstract:Technical and methodological advances in single-particle cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) have expanded the technique into a resolution regime that was previously only attainable by X-ray crystallography. We demonstrate that it is possible to obtain cryo-EM reconstructions of macromolecular complexes that are smaller than 100 kDa to better than 3 Å resolution using a 200 keV TEM. We also also use this technique to study AAA+ quality control proteases that regulate diverse aspects of cellular biology through specialized protein degradation. Through structure determination and biochemistry, we have established a structural framework to understand how different members of the AAA+ superfamily achieve specialized, diverse biological functions.