Cryo-electron Microscopy of Macromolecular Complexes
Associate Professor
Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Texas A&M University
Location: Rudder Tower - Room 504
Time: December 3, 2018 - 2:00-3:00pm
Abstract
Advances in instrumentation and methods have revolutionized applications of cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) to determine atomic-resolution structures of biological specimens that are currently beyond the reach of other structural biology techniques. Examples include large macromolecular complexes, membrane proteins, and samples with compositional and conformational heterogeneity. These advances have also led to new possibilities for structure determination in nanocrystals and cellular components. Given this, cryo-EM was named the Methods of the Year 2015 by Nature Methods; and the 2017 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was given to the inventors of the cryo-EM technique. In this talk, I will introduce several cryo-EM projects in my lab and how we combine the image processing and computational modeling methods to understand the structure and function of macromolecular complexes that are related to human health.
Speaker's Bio
Dr. Junjie Zhang is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the Texas A&M University. Dr. Zhang’s lab is interested in understanding host-interaction and inhibition of several pathogens, including the Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the Clostridium difficile and the single-stranded RNA viruses. Junjie’s work combines the approaches of biochemistry, cryo-electron microscopy and computational molecular modeling to provide structural insights into the molecular assembly of several essential machineries and virulence factors from these pathogens.