BBMB Research Seminars

January 11
Phillipp Selenko
Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology
Harvard Medical School
"Peeking Into Eukaryotic Cells with High-Resolution in-cell NMR Spectroscopy"
1414 Molecular Biology Buidling
4:10 p.m.

What do proteins look like inside living cells? Clearly, the intracellular space represents a highly complex medium, which exerts pronounced effects on protein structure and function. So how does this crowded environment modulate biological activities in structural terms? Until recently, we had no means of ‘looking’ into cells with high enough resolution to address this question. The advent of in-cell NMR spectroscopy has changed this notion. Comparable to an atomic-resolution microscope, this method provides high-resolution structural and functional information on proteins inside living cells. I will review our recent in-cell NMR applications in Xenopus laevis oocytes and provide an outlook towards future in-cell NMR measurements in other eukaryotic cells.