4th CryoEM Seminar @ ITQB NOVA

Professor Richard Henderson 

MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (Cambridge - UK)

Webinar link

Note: please use the youtube channel, if you cannot connect via the webinar link

This series of Seminars are within the scope of IMpaCT and are part of our strategy to bring to ITQB NOVA world-wide renowned scientists in the field of cryo-electron microscopy, sharing with us their vast experience, and helping us to build a network of connections and knowledge within this area.

It is with great honour and expectation that we welcome Professor Richard Henderson to "IMpaCT" and to ITQB NOVA.

Due to the current limitations caused by the CoViD-19 pandemic, the seminar will be held by Zoom webinar.

"The cryoEM revolution in structural biology"

In the last 7 years, single particle electron cryomicroscopy (cryoEM) has experienced rapid growth in its capability, due to improved electron microscopes, better detectors and better software, and this is revolutionising structural biology. I will describe some recent results and discuss remaining barriers to progress. CryoEM is already a very powerful method, but there are still many improvements that can be made before the approach reaches its theoretical limits.

Professor Richard Henderson is the Head of the "High resolution 3D structures by electron cryo-microscopy" Lab at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (Cambridge - UK). Although originally a physicist from Edinburgh University, Professor Henderson switched into molecular biology at the age 21. Since 1973 he began to collaborate with Nigel Unwin and together they developed electron microscopy into a tool for the direct determination of the structure of proteins. This led to the successful determination of the first atomic structure of a membrane protein, bacteriorhodopsin, by using electron microscopy and diffraction. Together with Jacques Dubochet and Joachim Frank, Professor Richard Henderson was given the 2017 Nobel Prize in Chemistry “for developing cryo-electron microscopy for the high-resolution structure determination of biomolecules in solution”, leading the "resolution revolution" that the structural biology field is experiencing.