SBME Research Seminar: The RNA folding problem remains open – Dr. Rhiju Das
The discovery and design of biologically important RNA molecules has lagged behind proteins, in part due to the general difficulty of three-dimensional RNA structural characterization. What are the prospects for an ‘AlphaFold moment’ for RNA? I’ll describe some recent progress in modeling RNA structure from old-fashioned and new machine learning, cryoelectron microscopy, and current and upcoming internet-scale competitions hosted on the Eterna, Kaggle, and CASP platforms.
SBME Research Seminar: The RNA folding problem remains open – Dr. Rhiju Das
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SBME Research Seminar: Towards quantitative and universal single molecule biophysics with mass photometry – Dr. Philipp Kukura
May 1, 2024 @ 11:00 am - 12:00 pm PDT
SBME Research Seminar: Towards quantitative and universal single molecule biophysics with mass photometry – Dr. Philipp Kukura
Seminar Abstract:
Biomolecular mechanisms and interactions provide the basis for the function and regulation of cellular processes. Elucidating the underlying processes traditionally relies on a combination of structural characterization and bulk studies aimed at revealing the associated energetics and kinetics. Both approaches, however, come with some intrinsic bias, such as towards the most stable species or the averaging of individual to ensemble behaviour. I will describe recent efforts to overcome these fundamental limitations using mass photometry, the mass measurement of single biomolecules in solution. Following a brief introduction to the technology and its capabilities, I will present recent results that focus on using the unique capabilities of mas photometry to decipher biomolecular mechanisms by quantifying all critical biomolecular interactions. I will focus on protein-DNA machines, such as cohesin and Ku70/80 involved in DNA storage and repair.
Dr. Philipp Kukura’s Biography:
Philipp Kukura is Professor of Chemistry and Fellow of Exeter College at the University of Oxford. He received an MChem from the University of Oxford (2002) and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley (2006). After postdoctoral work at ETH Zurich, he joined the Chemistry Department at the University of Oxford as Research Fellow (2010) before becoming a Lecturer (2011), and promotion to full Professor (2016). Honours and awards include the Klung- Wilhelmy Science award in Chemistry (2018), the Blavatnik Award for Young Scientists UK in Chemistry (2019), the Emil Thomas Kaiser Ward by the Protein Society (2022) and the Sackler International Prize in Biophysics (2023). He is the founder of Refeyn Ltd, which has commercialised and thereby enabled broad access to Mass Photometry. His current research focusses on the application of light microscopy combined with mass measurement at the single molecule level to study biomolecular structure and interactions.
Location:
LSC 1003 LT3