Microsecond Time-Resolved Cryo-EM and Water in No Man's Land
Event details
| Date | 05.09.2023 |
| Hour | 10:00 |
| Speaker | Ulrich Lorenz |
| Location | |
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
| Event Language | English |
Prof. Ulrich Lorenz
Laboratory of Molecular Nanodynamics (LND)
Proteins provide the machinery of life; however, our understanding of their function has remained fundamentally incomplete, as observing them in action has largely remained elusive. Recently, my group has introduced microsecond time-resolved cryo-EM, a novel technique enabling such observations, with near-atomic spatial and microsecond temporal resolution. I will discuss the features our method and present observations of the motions of the capsid of CCMV, a plant virus, which illustrate the potential of our technique to fundamentally advance our understanding of proteins. Additionally, I will discuss our closely related research on water in so-called “no man's land”, a temperature range in the deeply supercooled regime that cryo samples have to traverse safely during vitrification. We have probed the complete structural evolution of water during this process, a feat that researchers had pursued unsuccessfully for over 40 years and that sheds new light on the origin of the water anomalies.
Laboratory of Molecular Nanodynamics (LND)
Proteins provide the machinery of life; however, our understanding of their function has remained fundamentally incomplete, as observing them in action has largely remained elusive. Recently, my group has introduced microsecond time-resolved cryo-EM, a novel technique enabling such observations, with near-atomic spatial and microsecond temporal resolution. I will discuss the features our method and present observations of the motions of the capsid of CCMV, a plant virus, which illustrate the potential of our technique to fundamentally advance our understanding of proteins. Additionally, I will discuss our closely related research on water in so-called “no man's land”, a temperature range in the deeply supercooled regime that cryo samples have to traverse safely during vitrification. We have probed the complete structural evolution of water during this process, a feat that researchers had pursued unsuccessfully for over 40 years and that sheds new light on the origin of the water anomalies.
Practical information
- Informed public
- Free