Facultad de Ciencias

SEMINARIO Profesora Evangelina Nogales de la Morena

Abstract: Understanding the molecular basis of the cellular processes essential to life requires the visualization of the macromolecular assemblies that carry out these cellular functions in as close to atomic detail as possible. While only the electron microscope can do this, radiation damage imposes serious limitations for its use on biological samples. The development of cryogenic methodologies (cryo-EM, the study of frozen-hydrated samples) and computations analysis of the images opened the door to the application of electron microscopy as a structural biology technique. I will summarize the principles behind cryo-EM, and illustrate its power with example studies from my own lab concerning molecular machines involved in the regulation of gene expression. How cells gain access to the genomic information they need to produce the components that give them their unique identity and functionality involves complex macromolecular assemblies that interact with our chromosomes in a highly regulated manner. Cryo-EM is playing an important role in the effort to understand of how they function and their “disfunction” in disease, with important biomedical implications