How electron cryo-microscopy aids the design of new medicines: Bringing proteins into focus

Official Opening of the Eleanor and Guy Dodson Building

Join us for the official opening of the Eleanor and Guy Dodson Building, the University's state-of-the-art research space in structural biochemistry, built to provide an advanced electron cryo-microscopy facility as well as providing a home to cutting-edge equipment for the complementary techniques of protein crystallography and high-field NMR spectroscopy. Electron microscopes allow scientists to visualise the proteins and other biological molecules that sustain life. Understanding the structure of these molecules aids the design of new medicines, for example antibiotics or vaccines.

We are delighted to host Nobel Prize winner for Chemistry, Dr Richard Henderson, who will share with us his award-winning research, developing electron cryo-microscopy for the high-resolution structure determination of biomolecules at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology. Joining Richard, will be academic lead on the cryo-microscopy facility, Dr Jamie Blaza, who will provide a summary of realisation of the Dodson Building, introduce the work taking place there, and outline future plans for the facility.

The building is named to pay tribute to the pivotal role played by Eleanor and the late Guy Dodson in establishing the world-renowned York Structural Biology Laboratory (YSBL) within the Department of Chemistry, which was recognised recently by the conferment of a 2019 Queen’s Anniversary Prize. The facility enables YSBL's world-leading research into the molecular structure of biomolecules by providing optimal conditions for electron cryo-microscopy.

Please note: Attendees are invited to join us for a pre-event reception at 6.15pm. 

About the speakers

Richard Henderson: Richard was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2017 for developing cryo-electron microscopy for the high-resolution structure determination of biomolecules in solution. Richard Henderson was born in Edinburgh. After studies at the University of Edinburgh, he received his doctor’s degree at the University of Cambridge, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, in 1969. After a stay in the US at Yale University, New Haven, he returned to the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in 1973. He has been working there ever since.

Jamie Blaza: Jamie is the academic lead on the cryoEM facility, being responsible for long-term scientific planning and offering advice to develop new projects. His lab works on the large, multi-subunit, membrane-bound enzymes that make up bacterial electron transport chains, for which cryoEM has been transformational. He is a UKRI Future Leader Fellow in the Department of Chemistry.

Book your place