Join us for our next Bioengineering Spring 2026 Seminar:

Wednesday, April 29
Noon – 1:00pm
177 Stanley Hall

“MicroED solution to the lens MP20 enigma”

Dr. Tamir Gonen
Professor of Biological Chemistry and Physiology, David Geffen School of Medicine
University of California, Los Angeles

Abstract:
My laboratory studies the structures of membrane proteins that are important in maintaining cellular homeostasis. Understanding structure requires an atomic structural model of the protein of interest captured in various functional states. We developed the method Microcrystal Electron Diffraction (MicroED) and demonstrated that it is feasible to determine protein structures by electron diffraction using vanishingly small crystals. I will describe our efforts in the MicroED field and illustrate how this technique allows us to determine structures for novel proteins that were beyond the reach of other methods. I will use the small membrane protein MP20 from the eye lens as a case study and reveal an unexpected role for this protein as a tight junction protein.