Lectures and seminars GUT seminar series: Synergies in Structural Biology: Cryo-EM and Alphafold – unmasked

Speaker

Marta Carroni, PhD, Principal Investigator and Platform Director, SciLifeLab, Cellular and Molecular Imaging, Cryo-EM Platform, Stockholm University, Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics.

Title

Synergies in Structural Biology: Cryo-EM and Alphafold – unmasked

Abstract

The resolution revolution in cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM), soon approaching a decade of age and still going on at a steady pace, has opened the possibility to obtain structural information about a large number of dynamic macromolecular complexes, previously unknown. This lecture focuses on the type of structural details and information about motion that we can obtain from cryo-EM single particle analysis. We are now entering a new area for cryo-EM biology, characterized by the structural determination of protein machineries in their cellular environment or in reconstituted systems that better approximate the physiological native state. In this phase, cryogenic electron tomography (cryo-ET) and sub-tomogram averaging will likely be playing an important role, probably regardless of the still-limited achievable resolution.

In parallel, mainly thanks to the leap forward of methods such as AlphaFold and Rosetta, a new revolution is happening in the field of protein folding prediction, which opens new possibilities for the cryo-EM community in the interpretation and treatment of cryo-EM structures. Similarly, cryoEM could help the development of prediction methods for large multimeric complexes. We will walk through some cryo-EM maps at different resolutions and of different protein systems to see 
what we can learn and how we can use novel prediction methods to help our understanding.

Host

Docent Peter Swoboda, GUT, MedH, KI.

Before the seminar, a limited number of sandwiches and drinks will be served on a “First come – first served” basis.