BIOCHEMISTRY

Previous Speakers

Biochemistry Seminar Series

Previous Speakers

2008-2009


Ming Guo, Brain Research Institute, University of California, Los Angeles School of Medicine
Molecular paths to Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease.

Rutilio Fratti, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Department of Biochemistry
A role for lipid flippases in membrane fusion.

Erica Ollmann Saphire, The Scripps Research Institute, Department of Immunology
Structure of the Ebola virus glycoprotein bound to an antibody from a human survivor.

Amy Davidson, Purdue University, Department of Chemistry
Structure and Mechanism of the maltose transporter from E. coli.

Katherine Jones, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, Regulatory Biology Laboratory
Transcription elongation connects to histone methylation and mRNA export.

Brian Crane, Cornell University, Chemistry and Chemical Biology
Coupling photochemistry to conformational change in circadian clock light sensors.

Susan Wente, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Department of Cell and Developmental Biology
Regulation of Nucleocytoplasmic Transport.

Mary Munson, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology
The Exocyst Complex: Molecular Architecture and Function in Exocytosis.

William J. Rutter, Chairman and CEO of Synergenics LLC
Biomedical Opportunities in the 21st Century. (2009 University of Utah Founders Day Award Recipient)

Reed Wickner, National Institutes of Diabetes Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), Laboratory of Biochemistry and Genetics
Yeast Prions: Structures Explain Biology.

Zhijian 'James' Chen, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Ubiquitin Signaling in Antiviral Innate Immune Response.

Robert Stroud, University of California San Francisco, Department of Biochemistry & Biophysics
Regulating ammonia and water transport across membranes; QED!

Sarah Woodson, Johns Hopkins University, T.C. Jenkins Department of Biophysics
The fidelity of RNA folding and ribosome assembly.

2007-2008


Audray Harris, NIH, NIAMSD, Laboratory of Structural Biology
Insights into influenza virus structure as revealed by cryo-electron tomography.

Joseph Sodroski, Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases
TRIM5alpha: Mediator of innate intracelular immunity to retroviruses.

Brian Kuhlman, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Computer-based design of protein-protein interactions.

Michael Kay, University of Utah, Department of Biochemistry
Do not enter: Keeping HIV out of cells.

Ning Zheng, University of Washington, Department of Pharmacology
Ubiquitin ligase machinery: From plant biology to human diseases.

Celia Schiffer, University of Massachusetts Medical Center, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology
Combating Drug Resistance: Lessons from substrate recognition in HIV-1 protease.

Richard Bruick, University of Texas-Southwestern
Iron- and 2-oxoglutarate--dependent dioxygenases: Cellular sensors and regulators jelly-rolled into one.

Andrej Sali, University of California at San Francisco, Departments of Biopharmaceutical Sciences and Pharmaceutical Chemistry
Integrating diverse data for structure determination of macromolecular assemblies.

Mark Hochstrasser, Yale University, Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology
Backbone-breaking work: Ubiquitin-proteasome function in the nucleus and ER. (Annual Pace Lecture)

Fred Hughson, Princeton University, Department of Molecular Biology
Directing traffic: Structural studies of tethers and SNAREs.

Itay Rousso, Weizmann Institute, Department of Structural Biology
Retrovirus replication studied using atomic force microscopy.

Brendan D. Manning, Harvard University, Department of Genetics and Complex Diseases
Molecular mechanisms underlying mTOR-mediated tumorigenesis and insulin resistance.

Adam Frost, Yale University, Department of of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry
Boomerangs, bananas and blimps: Structural insights into membrane deformation by BAR domains.

2006-2007


Rohit Kulkarni, Joslin Diabetes Center/Harvard Medical School
Disruption of insulin signaling impacts multiple pathways in islet beta-cells.

David Bernlohr, University of Minnesota, Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Biophysics
Lipid regulation of AMP kinase.

Carla Koehler, University of California, Los Angeles, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
Defects in mitochondrial biogenesis and disease.

Jasper Rine, University of California, Berkley
Looking for good news in the human genome sequence.

Wenqing Xu, University of Washington, Department of Biological Structure
From beta-catenin to PP2A: Structural and mechanistic studies of the Wnt signaling pathway.

Raymond Deshaies, California Institute of Technology, Department of Biology
Mechanisms of substrate targeting in the ubiquitin-proteasome system.

Ted Jardetzky, Northwestern University, Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Cell Biology
Snapshots of paramyxovirus F protein refolding coupled to membrane fusion and virus entry.

Kevin Gardner, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
PAS domains: A versatile class of biological sensors.

Renee Schroeder, University of Vienna, Department of Biochemistry
Selection of RNA polymerase binding RNAs from the human genome

Marion Schmidt, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Department of Biochemistry
A novel proteasome function in metabolic control.

Rachel Green, Johns Hopkins University, Molecular Biology and Genetics
Catalysis and communication in two active sites of the ribosome.

Michael Glickman, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology
A mason's approach to the 19S regulator complex of the proteasome.

Brian Kennedy, University of Wisconsin
Calorie restriction and aging: Cues from the invertebrate models.

Vinzez Unger, Yale University, Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry
Filling in the blanks: What does the structure of the human copper transporter hCTR1 tell us about the mechanism of copper uptake?

Carlos Barbas, III, The Scripps Research Institute
Zing finger transcription factors and enzymes: New tools for manipulating genomes.

Kakoli Mitra, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Wadsworth Center, Albany, New York
A new framework for translocation at the protein-conducting channel.

Alasdair C. Steven, NIAMS, Laboratory of Structural Biology
Turning off and turning on prion proteins: basis in amyloidogenesis.   (Annual Pace Lecture)

Karolin Luger, HHMI/Colorado State University, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Histone chaperones and chromatin dynamics.

Vytas A. Bankaitis, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Department of Cell and Developmental Biology
Phosphatidylinositol transfer proteins: Novel regulators in the signaling landscape of eukaryotic cells.

Steven Gygi, Harvard Medical School, Department of Cell Biology
Profiling DNA damage-induced phosphorylation events in yeast and man.

2005-2006


Jordon Gerton, University of Utah, Physics Department
Molecular-scale fluorescence microscopy.

Jennifer Wilson, Giffith University (Australia), Institute for Glycomics
Molecular glycomics of lipo-oligosaccharides of an aerobic human pathogen.

Guillaume Chanfreau, University of California, Los Angeles, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
RNA recognition and gene expression control by S. cerevisiae RNase III.

Susan Michaelis, Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine
From A to Z: Yeast a-factor, mammalian lamin A, and a premature aging disorder (HGPS)-the Zmpste24 protease connection.

Adrian R. Ferre-D'Amare, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Basic Sciences Division
Rigidity and plasticity of RNA: Structural studies of ribozymes and RNA-modifying enzymes.

Yifan Cheng, Harvard Medical School, Department of Cell Biology
Cryo-electron microscopy of transferrin receptor-transferrin complex, clathrin coats and clathrin coated vesicles.

Brenda A. Schulman, St. Jude Children¿s Research Hospital, Structural Biology and Genetics/Tumor Cell Biology
Specificity of ubiquitin-like protein conjugation.

Melanie Ohi, Harvard Medical School, Department of Cell Biology
Structural analysis of the spliceosome and the APC/C by cryo-electron microscopy.

David Bentley, University of Colorado, Health Sciences Center
Co-transcriptional mRNA processing and chromatin modification.

Costa Georgopoulos, University of Geneva, Department of Medical Biochemistry
Functional interplay among the major chaperone machines of Escherichia coli.

Tom Kirchhausen, Harvard Medical School
How clathrin coated vesicles form: From molecular snapshot to live cell imaging.

Magda Konarska, Rockefeller University
A two-state model for spliceosome function: More lessons from the ribosome.

Stewart Loh, SUNY Upstate
Design of a molecular switch based on coupled protein folding and unfolding.

David Chan, California Institute of Technology
Mitochondrial dynamics in mammals.

Amy Pasquinelli, University of California, San Diego
MicroRNAs: A small contribution from worms.

Alba Guarne, McMaster University, Toronto
The use of x-ray crystallography to understand bacterial chromosome topology.

Joaquin Ortega, McMaster University, Toronto
Mechanisms of proteasome activation by the PA200 family of proteins: The microscopist¿s side of the story.

Sandra Schmid, The Scripps Research Institute, Department of Cell Biology
Mechanisms governing clathrin-mediated endocytosis.

Wolfgang Dubiel, Charité ¿ Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Department of Surgery
Role of the COP9 signalosome in the ubiquitin system.

2004-2005


Amy Keating, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Biology
Combinatorial interactions of the human bZIP transcription factors.

Reuben Shaw, Harvard Medical School, Department of Systems Biology
The LKB1 tumor suppressor kinase: connecting cancer to metabolism.

Thomas D. Fox, Cornell University, Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics
Coordinated translation of mitochondrially coded mRNAs within the organelle promotes efficient assembly of cytochrome c oxidase in yeast.

Zhong-Yin Zhang, Albert Einstein Medical School, Departments of Molecular Pharmacology and Biochemistry
Chemical approaches to dissect the function of protein tyrosine phosphatase.

Peter Rosenthal, MRC-Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, England
Cryomicroscopy of macromolecular complexes.

Grant Jensen, California Institute of Technology, Department of Structural Molecular and Cell Biology
Recent advances in imaging proteins, viruses, and whole cells by electron cryotomography.

Richard G. Brennan, Oregon Health and Science University, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Structural mechanisms of bacterial mdr gene regulation and multidrug recognition.

Erin O'Shea, University of California, San Francisco
Noise in eukaryotic gene expression.

Michael H. Glickman, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology
The proteasome portal and regulation of proteolysis.

David Ron, NYU School of Medicine, Skirball Institute
Cellular adaptations to malfolded proteins.

Roy Parker, University of Arizona/HHMI, Departments of Molecular and Cellular Biology and Biochemistry
Life, death and midlife crisis of mRNA in simple eukaryotic cells.

Mark Johnston, Washington University, Department of Genetics
Feasting, fasting and fermenting: Glucose sensing and signaling in yeast.

Tamir Gonen, Harvard Medical School, Department of Cell Biology
Structure of the aquaporin-0 membrane junction.

Michael F. Summers, University of Maryland/HHMI, Baltimore County, Departments of Chemistry and Biochemistry
New insights into retroviral genome packaging and assembly from NMR.

Robert Liddington, Burnham Institute
Anthrax toxin: Friend and foe.

James M. Berger, University of California, Berkeley, Department of Molecular and Cell Biology
Structural excursions with nature's chromosome-untangling machines: evolving and coupling ATPase and DNA transport activities in type II topoisomerases.

Laszlo G. Boros, SIDMAP, LLC
Targeted drugs and the tracer labeled metabolome of tumor cells: How to predict resistance and develop intervention strategies.