Charlie DeFreest

Chem 401 – Seminar paragraph summary

Richard Henderson: “From Electron Crystallography to Single Particle cryoEM” 2017. From:
NobelPrize.org

CryoEM is a field which has grown extremely fast over the past 5 years, with increasing numbers of
cryoEM structures deposited in the protein databank (PDB). Dr. Henderson’s work which was presented
in this seminar was focused on Bacteriorhodopsin membrane protein. Using X-Ray Crystallography, they
were able to see these membrane proteins and subsequently created a 2D crystal with these membrane
proteins within it. The technique of X-Ray powder diffraction was used to analyze 2D structure of
Bacteriorhodopsin in 3-4 Angstrom resolution, and it was observed that the protein was highly ordered
and good for further structural analysis. Using electron diffraction to look at amplitudes and phases
describing distribution of matter in the crystals, Dr Henderson and colleagues could map 2D and 3D
structures in 7 Angstrom resolution. But in order to visualize the amino acid side chains, higher
resolution was needed (3.5 angstroms). This was motivator to get into electron diffraction
cryomicroscopy, and using this technique, Dr Henderson’s group was able to successfully model 3D
maps of Bacteriorhodopsin in a sufficient resolution where side chins are clearly seen. Single particle
cryoEM is an exciting field as there is no need to synthesize crystals (2D or 3D) for analysis.

Relative free energies of AQ derivatives with added sulfonate groups