Physics & Astronomy Colloquium

3:30 PM, Friday, April 13, 2007
Room 155, Chem-Phys Building

Dr. Robert E. Thorne
Department of Physics
Cornell University

"Physics Problems in Structural Genomics''

The genomic revolution is driven by the availability of high-resolution structures of proteins and other biological macromolecules. These structures provide insight into molecular function and a basis for rational approaches to the design of new medicines. The bottleneck in determining macromolecular structures by X-ray crystallography is the difficulty of obtaining high-quality macromolecular crystals and of maintaining this quality throughout the data collection process. Following an overview of how protein structures are determined, I will discuss a series of problems related to crystal growth, cryopreservation and X-ray data collection where the tools of the physicist have led to fundamental insights and new methodologies.

Refreshments will be served in CP 179 at 3:15 PM