BioED webinar 5 - Andrea Markelz - The biological impact of protein structurally defined dynamics

Описание: The biological impact of protein structurally defined dynamics
Abstract
Long‐range structural vibrations within proteins have been associated with efficient function. It has been suggested that these vibrations assist in structural changes necessary for enzymatic cycling, as well as possible efficient energy dissipation for electronic excitation shuttling for light harvesting proteins. It has been a challenge to experimentally measure these vibrations and determine their biological impact. In this talk I will review how various experimental techniques address this challenge, and in particular show how anisotropic terahertz microspectroscopy (ATM) provides spectral fingerprints of these long range collective vibrations. Our latest ATM system (Stationary Sample Anisotropic Terahertz Microspectroscopy) establishes the anisotropic absorbance of proteins is robust, and provides a measure of crystal contact forces that may effect time resolved protein crystallography. Finally I will discuss recent results in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Rochester that show the surprising result that even when one accounts for the variation in dynamics for structures sampling the rugged energy landscape, certain vibrational displacements persist and are concentrated in relatively narrow energy bands.
Speaker's profile
Andrea Markelz is the Moti Lal Rustgi Professor of Physics at the University at Buffalo, SUNY. Her Bachelor’s degree was in Physics and Applied Math from University of California at Berkeley with undergraduate research on oxide superconductors. She did a Masters at Columbia University in Applied Physics then transferred to University of California, Santa Barbara for a PhD in Physics. Her PhD was on the nonlinear optical properties of III‐V semiconductor heterostructures at terahertz frequencies. She was awarded an National Research Council fellowship to initiate a terahertz program at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg, Maryland. Afterwards she was an National Science Foundation GOALI postdoctoral fellow at Bell Labs, Murray Hill, NJ. She began her appointment at University at Buffalo in the Fall of 1999. She has since worked at developing terahertz techniques to characterize picosecond dynamics of proteins and polynucleotides. She is currently funded by the NSF, DOE and NIH. Previous recognitions include an NSF CAREER award in 2004 and a SUNY Exceptional Scholar and Teaching Innovation Award in 2014. She was the Chair of the 45th International Conference on Infrared Millimeter and Terahertz Waves.