Eva Nogales
University of California, Berkeley
Visualizing Structure, Dynamics and Interactions of Complex Macromolecular Assemblies
Friday, February 26, 11:00 AM, USA Eastern
Being named the 2021 Biophysical Society Lecturer is the highest annual award bestowed by the Biophysical Society. In addition to presenting the Annual Biophysical Society Lecture, the recipient provides a molecule or figure that depicts his/her research. That figure is used in the background design for that year’s Annual Meeting print and web announcements.
Eva Nogales, Professor of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Structural Biology at the University of California, Berkeley and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, has been selected as the 2021 BPS Lecturer for the Biophysical Society 65th Annual Meeting. Dr. Nogales is a pioneer in using electron microscopy for the structural and functional characterization of macromolecular complexes. She used electron crystallography to obtain the first structure of tubulin and identify the binding site of the important anti-cancer drug taxol, and cryo-electron microscopy to describe the structure of the whole microtubule in partnership with many associated proteins. Her studies have also uncovered the molecular principles behind the assembly of the human transcription pre-initiation complex at core DNA promoters, and action of the epigenetic gene silencing complex PRC2. Her work has uncovered aspects of cellular function that are relevant to the treatment of cancer and other diseases.
The Image: Structure of human transcription factor IID (TFID) bound to core promoter DNA obtained using cryo-EM