Nobel Laureate in chemistry Joachim Frank will visit Kenyon for several presentations on September 17. The first of these presentations will be on time-resolved cryo-EM and its impact on structural biology.
The standard protocol of cryo-EM does not allow visualization of reactions since the time for sample deposition on the grid and blotting is in the range of several seconds. To study the process of a reaction, as it goes through one or more short-lived intermediates, we have developed a method of time-resolved cryo-EM. Here two reactants are mixed in a microfluidic channel, allowed to react for a defined time (between 10 and 1000 milliseconds), and the reaction product sprayed onto the EM grid as the latter is being plunged into the cryogen. Novel PDMS-based microfluidic chips prove to give exceptional reproducible results.
With this approach we have been able to visualize short-lived states of the ribosome in different stages of its work cycle making proteins. Applications in the study of many other molecular machines are possible.
The Natural Sciences Division invites you to join us in the Higley Auditorium from 11:10 a.m. - noon for one of two presentations from Nobel Laureate in chemistry Joachim Frank. We hope to see you there for this exciting presentation!