Center For Structural Biology

A recent study from the labs of Lars Plate and Jens Meiler, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, analyzed both selectively responsive and poorly responsive variants of cystic fibrosis and revealed the molecular determinants of drug response. Read More

Yi Ren’s most recent paper, published in eLife, describes the structure of a protein complex involved in mRNA export that sheds light on the underlying molecular mechanism of mRNA export and the role it plays during infection by herpes viruses. Read More

Carterra Inc. and the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine Basic Sciences announced the addition of the Carterra LSAXT label-free interaction analysis platform to the Center for Structural Biology. Vanderbilt and Vanderbilt University Medical Center researchers will be able to discover and characterize large molecules including antibodies. Read More

Research from Teru Nakagawa, professor of molecular physiology and biophysics, describes intricacies of normal brain function with implications for our understanding of brain injury and recovery: A decrease in pH can modify a neurotransmitter receptor’s structure, thereby modulating its location and kinetics. Read More

Vanderbilt Environmental Health, Safety and Sustainability is launching the Vanderbilt Sustainable Labs program, which provides guidance for laboratory members to reduce the environmental impact of their lab activities. Read More

Brandt Eichman and Walter Chazin, professors of biochemistry, have worked together to provide a better understanding of how exactly DNA replication is initiated in eukaryotes. Using Vanderbilt’s state-of-the-art instrumentation in the Center for Structural Biology’s Cryo-Electron Microscopy Facility, Eichman, Chazin and their colleagues provided detailed visualizations of a multi-functional protein in action, which sheds light on how DNA replication is initiated in humans. Read More

Led by Terunaga Nakagawa, an international collaboration describes for the first time the fundamental mechanism underpinning cellular processes that lead to learning and memory. Read More

A new cellular biology study reports the first visualization of a unique shape-shifting structure in the human body which plays an important role in the timely delivery of fats and proteins.  Read More