Prof. Holger Stark: How to visualize large biological macromolecules at work using cryo EM?

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Cryo-electron microscopy has developed into a powerful technique to solve the 3D structure of large macromolecular complexes at an ever increasing level of resolution. Our interest is to develop tools to make this technology even more powerful and apply it to interesting biological targets. Recently we were able to determine the first true atomic resolution structure of a protein by applying single particle cryo-EM. Our biological focus is on structure determination of large macromolecular assemblies such as ribosomes, spliceosomes, proteasomes and fatty acid synthases.  By using cryo-EM we are not only able to determine the high-resolution structure of those complexes but also their dynamic behavior and how they change conformations during their active cycle which provides important functional information.

After the talk the speaker will be available for one-to-one chats. If you would like to exchange some scientific thoughts with him, please contact directly the host Maria Alejandra Ramirez Martinez.

Please find detailed event information on the organizer's website.

5 most important recent publications:

1. Fischer, N.;  Neumann, P.;  Konevega, A. L.;  Bock, L. V.;  Ficner, R.;  Rodnina, M. V.; Stark, H., Structure of the E. coli ribosome-EF-Tu complex at <3 A resolution by Cs-corrected cryo-EM. Nature2015, 520 (7548), 567-70.

2. Haselbach, D.;  Komarov, I.;  Agafonov, D. E.;  Hartmuth, K.;  Graf, B.;  Dybkov, O.;  Urlaub, H.;  Kastner, B.;  Luhrmann, R.; Stark, H., Structure and Conformational Dynamics of the Human Spliceosomal B(act) Complex. Cell2018, 172 (3), 454-464 e11.

3. Yip, K. M.;  Fischer, N.;  Paknia, E.;  Chari, A.; Stark, H., Atomic-resolution protein structure determination by cryo-EM. Nature2020, 587 (7832), 157-161.

4. Zhang, Z.;  Will, C. L.;  Bertram, K.;  Dybkov, O.;  Hartmuth, K.;  Agafonov, D. E.;  Hofele, R.;  Urlaub, H.;  Kastner, B.;  Luhrmann, R.; Stark, H., Molecular architecture of the human 17S U2 snRNP. Nature2020, 583 (7815), 310-313.

5. Townsend, C.;  Leelaram, M. N.;  Agafonov, D. E.;  Dybkov, O.;  Will, C. L.;  Bertram, K.;  Urlaub, H.;  Kastner, B.;  Stark, H.; Luhrmann, R., Mechanism of protein-guided folding of the active site U2/U6 RNA during spliceosome activation. Science2020, 370 (6523).