ARRTI Speaker Series - Dr. Oliver Ernst

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The Alberta RNA Research and Training Institute presents Dr. Oliver Ernst, professor in the Departments of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics at the University of Toronto. His talk is titled Structure and Dynamics of GPCRs at work: Insights from the visual system.

The ARRTI Speaker Series is open to the public and was established to bring leading researchers to the University of Lethbridge for lectures on a broad range of topics relating to RNA research.

All are welcome!

 

Abstract:

G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) are the largest family of cell surface receptors in the human body and regulate nearly all of our physiology. The inner working of these receptors and understanding signal transfer to the G protein is therefore of immense interest. The combination of structural and biophysical approaches yields mechanistic insight into the signaling process. The last decade has seen more than 50 GPCR crystal structures and information on GPCR dynamics emerge from NMR, EPR and fluorescence studies. However, a bottleneck is still structure analysis of GPCRs in different functional states as well as of GPCRs upon interaction with signaling proteins. We use rhodopsin, the photoreceptor protein in vision, as a model system to understand the molecular mechanism of GPCR signaling. Site-directed spin labeling of rhodopsin and Double Electron-Electron Resonance (DEER) / EPR spectroscopy can help to fill in gaps in understanding rhodopsin conformational states. DEER spectroscopy and cryo-EM provide insight into the interaction between rhodopsin and its binding partners.

About Dr. Ernst:

Oliver P. Ernst received his doctoral degree (Dr. rer. nat., Chemistry/Biochemistry) from the University of Freiburg, Germany, in 1994. After research training at Rockefeller University, he joined the Charité–Universitätsmedizin Berlin, where he became a group leader and made his Habilitation in Biophysics in 2003. Since 2011, he has been a full professor in the Departments of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics at the University of Toronto. He is the Max and Anne Tanenbaum Chair in Neuroscience and Canada Excellence Research Chair Laureate in Structural Neurobiology. He is a co-director of the “Molecular Architecture of Life” research program of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR). His research focuses on rhodopsin and visual signal transduction as well as other GPCRs.

 

Room or Area: 
B660

Contact:

Emily Wilton | emily.wilton@uleth.ca