We are interested in understanding the physiological processes that occur across the cell, particularly at the membrane interface. We use Cryo-EM as a main technique and work on various interesting and challenging biological problems studying multiple macromolecular complexes. Determining the structures of membrane proteins and other labile complexes was challenging couple of decades ago.
However, technical advances in Cryo-EM, a novel detergent and lipid mimetic and with endowments paved the way for rapid structure determination of these complexes. These structures can now be obtained at high resolution and potentially used in drug discovery. In single particle Cryo-EM, challenges include acquiring stable and homogeneous sample, embedding the sample in random orientation in thin ice, processing a large number of images with low signal to noise ratio, and accurately determining the angular orientation and classification during 3D reconstruction.
Identifying and modeling small molecules in cryo-EM maps of ligand protein complexes is challenging due to inherent noise in the data and isotropic and low map resolution, sample heterogeneity, and ligand flexibility. This protocol is a step-by-step guide for identifying and modeling ligands and solvent molecules in low to medium resolution Cryo-EM.
