Cryo EM Core

Lab Technician Emily Robinson Attends CryoEM Workshop

Emily Robinson — Wed, 21 Jun 2023 19:33:33 +0000

The Cryo-EM Core’s research technician Emily Robinson was recently accepted to and attended the “I Have My Dataset – Now What?” cryo-EM data processing workshop hosted by the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. Workshop participants were led through hands-on tutorials in data and image processing softwares RELION, CryoDRGN, CryoSPARC, Coot, and Phenix, with guidance from experts in the field. Emily’s new data processing skills will help the Core stay on the leading edge of cryo-EM practices and provide more services to Core users. ��

For anyone interested in attending next summer, the link below contains pertinent information about the workshop.��

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Scientists Take Another Step Toward Creating Better Pain Medications

Joshua Strauss — Thu, 13 Apr 2023 21:18:50 +0000

CHAPEL HILL, NC – In the continuing effort to improve upon opioid pain relievers, American and Chinese scientists used cryoEM technology to solve the detailed structures of the entire family of opioid receptors bound to their naturally occurring peptides. Subsequent structure-guided biochemical studies were then performed to better understand the mechanisms of peptide-receptor selectivity and signaling drugs.

This work,��, provides a comprehensive structural framework that should help drug developers rationally design safer drugs to relieve severe pain.

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Scientists Elucidate How DREADD Technology Highjacks Neuronal Activity

Joshua Strauss — Wed, 30 Nov 2022 21:47:36 +0000

The �� lab of Bryan L. Roth, MD, PhD, solved the high-resolution, complex structures of drug-like compounds bound to designer brain cell receptors, paving the way for the creation of next-generation chemogenetic tools. Postdoc Shicheng Zhang, PhD, led this research published in Nature.

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Scientists unravel new details for entry into cells

Joshua Strauss — Fri, 01 Apr 2022 20:48:16 +0000

Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the �� Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center have uncovered a new checkpoint that cells use to control what molecules they internalize. Understanding the determinants for entry into cells could lead to the design of better therapeutics that must enter through this gatekeeping mechanism.

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��’s Cryo-EM Core facility develops new methodology for high-speed, high-resolution cryogenic electron microscopy technology

Tue, 08 Feb 2022 18:28:40 +0000

Dr. Jonathan Fay, in collaboration with Jared Peck and Dr. Joshua Strauss of the�� CH CryoEM Core, published a��(International Union of Crystallography Journal) outlining their success in optimizing the function of a microscope for cryogenic electron microscopy (CryoEM). CryoEM is an imaging technique that yields 3D structures of large macromolecular complexes, viruses, and cells in order to provide atomic insight into the biological processes underlying life itself.

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Researchers Reveal Structure of Itch Receptors on Cells

Wed, 17 Nov 2021 18:24:54 +0000

Ever wonder what’s going on when you get itchy skin, whether from a rash or medication or some other bodily reaction? And why do some strong anti-itching medications make us nauseous, dry-mouthed zombies? Scientists at the �� and the University of California at San Francisco conducted research showing in precise detail how chemicals bind to mast cells to cause itch, and the scientists figured out the detailed structure of receptor proteins on the surface of these cells when a compound is bound to those proteins.

This work,��, was led by the labs of Bryan L. Roth, MD, PhD and Jonathan Fay, PhD at ��-Chapel Hill, and Brian Shoichet, PhD, at UC San Francisco, co-senior authors who have collaborated on previous studies of important cell receptors – protein complexes that chemicals (including drugs) bind to cause or stop a reaction inside cells.

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Graduate Student Cathy Spangler in McGinty lab uses cryo-EM to determine structure of cGAS

Tue, 06 Oct 2020 17:22:30 +0000

Biochemistry and biophysics PhD student, Cathy Spangler, researches in��and recently published a paper in collaboration with Joshua Boyer, Joshua Strauss, Andrew Cesmat, Pengda Liu, Robert McGinty, and Qi Zhang, titled��.��This article addresses the use of cryo-electron microscopy to determine the high-resolution structure of a DNA-sensing protein called cGAS��bound to the nucleosome – the fundamental repeating unit of chromatin.

Duke, �� and NIEHS host first ever Triangle Area Cryo-Symposium

Thu, 19 Dec 2019 18:19:43 +0000

For two days (December 16-17, 2019) Structural Biologists, from across the Piedmont, attended the first ever 2019 Triangle Area Cryo-EM Symposium in Durham, NC. The event, funded in part by an Interdisciplinary Colloquium Grant from the Duke School of Medicine, allowed researchers from Duke University, North Carolina University at Chapel Hill and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences to share scientific data and discoveries in the field of Cryo-EM technology.

You’re Invited: CryoEM Facility Open House

Thu, 07 Nov 2019 18:16:39 +0000

The School of Medicine is hosting an open house for the �� CryoEM core facility on Friday, November 8th from 3pm-5pm in Glaxo Room 008.

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Researcher Kathryn Gunn relies on Research Computing

Thu, 08 Aug 2019 17:14:31 +0000

Kathryn Gunn is a post-doctoral researcher in the Neher Lab of the Biochemistry and Biophysics Department within the ��-Chapel Hill School of Medicine. She is a new client of ITS Research Computing.