Events

Dr. Saurav Mallik, Prof. Emmanuel Levy's lab Dept. of Chemical & Structural Biology WIS

Dr. Rina Rosenzweig, Department of Chemical & Structural Biology, Faculty of Chemistry, WIS

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.

Dr. Tanaya Bose, Yonath Lab, Dept. of Chemical and Structural Biology, Weizmann Institute

Dr. Shifra Lansky, Cornell University, New York

Transient receptor potential (TRP) channels are a large, eukaryotic ion-channel superfamily that control diverse physiological functions. To date, more than 210 structures from over 20 TRP-channels have been determined, all are tetramers. Using high-speed atomic force microscopy (HS-AFM), a pioneering technique capable of “filming” single-molecule proteins, we discovered a rare and transient pentameric state for TRPV3, and determined the pentamer structure using single-particle cryo-EM. Our results suggest that the pentamer relates to the pore-dilated state, a structurally-elusive state characterized by increased conductance and permeability to small molecules. These findings lay the foundation for many new directions in ion-channel research, and demonstrate the strength of HS-AFM in discovering transient and rare states of proteins.

Dr. Frida Belinky, Virus Persistence and Dynamics Section Immunology Laboratory Vaccine Research Center National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases National Institutes of Health

Prof. Eyal Arbely, Department of Chemistry Ben Gurion University

Dr. Ingo Hartung, Head of Medicinal Chemistry & Drug Design Global Research & Development Merck Healthcare KGaA

Prof. Xiaoguang Lei, Peking University

Prof. Karl Gademann, Department of Chemistry University of Zurich

Prof. Daniel Minor, Departments of Biochemistry & Biophysics University of California San Francisco

Dr. Milana Frenkel-Morgenstern, Azrieli Faculty of Medicine Bar-Ilan University

Prof. John Moult, Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology Research Department of Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics University of Maryland

Guy Zoltsman, Dept. of Chemical & Structural Biology Weizmann Institute

Prof. Wladek Minor, Department of Molecular Physiology and Biological Physics University of Virginia

Prof. Yitzhak Tor, University of California San Diego

Nava Reznik, Fass Lab Dept. of Chemical & Structural Biology Weizmann Institute

Prof. Rouslan Efremov, VIB-VUB Center for Structural Biology Belgium

Prof. Barry Honig, Columbia University

Prof. Eyal Nir, Department of Chemistry Ben-Gurion University

Dr. Moran Frenkel-Pinter , Institute of Chemistry The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Dr. Eitan Lerner, The Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences The Hebrew University

Dr. Aubry Miller, Cancer Drug Development German Cancer Research Center DKFZ, Germany

Prof. Oliver P. Ernst, University of Toronto Canada

Prof. Shuguang Zhang, MIT Media Lab USA