Conveners
From Membranes to Kinetics and Dynamics
- Margarita Kruteva
- Christopher Garvey (MLZ)
Myelin is a natural and dynamic multilamellar membrane structure that continues to be of significant biological and neurological interest, especially with respect to its biosynthesis and assembly during its normal formation, maintenance, and pathological breakdown. To explore the usefulness of neutron diffraction in the structural analysis of myelin, we investigated the use of in vivo labeling...
In cyanobacteria, photosynthesis is initiated by light absorption in protein complexes referred to as phycobilisomes (PBs). In excess light, photodamage to the photosynthetic apparatus is prevented by non-photochemical quenching (NPQ). This adaptive process responsible for high light tolerance is realized by the interplay between the light-harvesting PBs, a light-sensitive effector of NPQ...
Cells, the basic units of living organisms, are well delineated and separated from the external environment by membranes. Capable of both enclosing the cellular constituents and allowing exchanges with the outside world, these membranes are only a few nanometers thick. To study the dynamics and function of these amazing objects, physicists first seek to understand their structure. This...
A multitude of structural biology techniques, including crystallography, NMR and cryo-EM, as well as single molecule experiments, have recently provided new and exciting mechanistic insight into protein substrate degradation by AAA+ ATPases and the proteasome. However, direct structural information on the conformational changes of the working complex and on the respective substrate state(s)...
The fusion of viral and host cell membranes is a pivotal step in the infection and life cycle of any virus. Despite the massive global research interest in SARS-CoV-2 many aspects of the fusion process are still only rudimentarily understood. Biological fusion assays are widely applied to study different steps of viral-host membrane fusion, however, multidisciplinary approaches offer a broader...
