Events
-
Date:16
Monday
October 2023
Hour: 11:00 - 12:15,Location: Gerhard M.J. Schmidt Lecture HallEvent name: The Southern Lights — Rhodopsin Complexes Discovered in an Algae Near Antarctica Can Help Unravel the Secrets of the Brainadd event The Southern Lights — Rhodopsin Complexes Discovered in an Algae Near Antarctica Can Help Unravel the Secrets of the Brain to your calendarcolloquium
Dr. Moran Shalev-Benami, Department of Chemical & Structural Biology, Faculty of Chemistry, WIS
Rhodopsins are a ubiquitous family of light sensing/signaling proteins. In recent work, our group discovered an intriguing family of rhodopsins in algae: the bestrhodopsins. Through cryo-EM and comprehensive biochemical and electrophysiological studies, we showed that bestrhodopsins are fusions of rhodopsins and ion channels which assemble as mega-complexes to enable light-controlled passage of ions across membranes. Regulation of a classical ion channel by an attached photoreceptor has never been found before in nature, and previous attempts to engineer light-regulated fused channels have yielded limited success. The discovery and characterization of bestrhodopsins thus provide a new template for designing proteins with light-sensing and ion-conducting activities, as well as represent a platform for regulating cellular signaling in living organisms using light. These findings are therefore not only important as a basic scientific discovery but also for the field of optogenetics where neural activity is controlled by light. In the present talk, I will present the discovery of the bestrhodopsins, and explain how we use our cryo-EM work for structure-based design of dramatically improved tools to manipulate signaling cascades in cells by light control, paving the way for the next generation of optogenetics tools to study brain function in vivo.
Read moreClose -
Date:30
Monday
October 2023
Hour: 11:00 - 12:15,Location: Gerhard M.J. Schmidt Lecture HallEvent name: title tbdadd event title tbd to your calendarcolloquium
Dr. Rina Rosenzweig, Department of Chemical & Structural Biology, Faculty of Chemistry, WIS
-
Date:07
Tuesday
November 2023
Hour: 14:00 - 15:00,Location: Gerhard M.J. Schmidt Lecture HallEvent name: TBAadd event TBA to your calendarlecture
Prof. Robert Konrat, Computational Biology and Biomolecular NMR Spectroscopy University of Vienna
-
Date:09
Thursday
November 2023
Hour: 14:00 - 15:00,Location: Gerhard M.J. Schmidt Lecture HallEvent name: TBAadd event TBA to your calendarlecture
Prof. Thomas Kiefhaber, Martin-Luther University Halle Germany
-
Date:14
Tuesday
November 2023
Hour: 14:00 - 15:00,Location: Gerhard M.J. Schmidt Lecture HallEvent name: TBAadd event TBA to your calendarlecture
Prof. Ben Davis, Department of Pharmacology Medical Sciences Division University of Oxford
-
Date:19
Sunday
November 2023
Hour: 14:00 - 15:00,Location: Gerhard M.J. Schmidt Lecture HallEvent name: Amyloids of Parkinson’s disease protein -synuclein: mechanisms and reactivityadd event Amyloids of Parkinson’s disease protein -synuclein: mechanisms and reactivity to your calendarlecture
Prof. Pernilla Wittung-Stafshede, Division of Chemical Biology Department of Life Sciences Chalmers University of Technology Gothenburg, Sweden
-
Date:21
Tuesday
November 2023
Hour: 14:00 - 15:00,Location: Gerhard M.J. Schmidt Lecture HallEvent name: TBAadd event TBA to your calendarlecture
Prof. Kirill Alexandrov, Queensland University of Technology Australia
-
Date:31
Monday
March 2025
Hour: 11:00 - 12:15,Location: Gerhard M.J. Schmidt Lecture HallEvent name: title tbdadd event title tbd to your calendarcolloquium
Prof. Cynthia Wolberger, Department of Biophysics and Biophysical Chemistry, The Johns Hopkins University
-
Date:23
Monday
June 2025
Hour: 11:00 - 12:15,Location: Gerhard M.J. Schmidt Lecture HallEvent name: title tbdadd event title tbd to your calendarcolloquium
Prof. Danna Freedman, Chemistry, MIT