It has been 25 years since the first demonstration that frozen hydrated specimens could be used to study the structure of labile biological macromolecules using the electron microscope. This Symposium will examine the present state of the field and its future directions. In the past 25 years, the technique has been applied to 3-D imaging of specimens ranging in size from single protein molecules to large macromolecular complexes including viruses, helical filaments and 2-D and 3-D crystals. The impact of cryoelectron microscopy on biology will be surveyed by authorities in the field who have pioneered this technique. Recent advances in the structural and functional organization of molecular motors, cytoskeleton, ribosomes, viruses and membranes will be discussed by distinguished leaders and younger investigators who are opening new frontiers in cryoelectron microscopy.

In the session on molecular motors and the cytoskeleton, analysis of conformational substates in microtubule and actin associated motors, as well as actin complexed with specific binding proteins will be presented. The high resolution structure of tubulin, which will be described, is a dramatic recent achievement in electron crystallography. The session on single particles will explore application of new techniques, including tomography, to determine the structure and interactions of ribosomes, mitochondrial membrane proteins, and icosahedrally symmetric virus particles. Images of ribosomes at 15Å resolution complexes with tRNA are providing insights into mechanisms of protein synthesis, and the 7Å resolution achieved with complex icosahedral viruses that have not been crystallized is illuminating higher levels of viral organization. The cryomicroscopy of two-dimensional crystals, in particular assemblies of membrane proteins, has been a major success story. In this session, new structural analyses nearing completion will be reported and prospects of further advances in 2-D electron crystallography will be discussed.

Friday, January 8, 1999 8:00 a.m. - Registration Sign In 8:00 a.m. - Coffee and Refreshments 9:00 a.m. Introduction, Welcome and Expression of Appreciation to the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation for support of the Philips 300 kV Field Emission Gun EM facility Dr. Susan D. Allen Vice President for Research Florida State University 9:15 a.m. - Opening Remarks: Donald L. D. Caspar Session I - Impact of CryoEM on Biology Robert M. Glaeser, Chair 9:30 a.m. "An Introduction: Impact and Uniqueness of the EM Technique" Prof. Wah Chiu Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 10:00 a.m. "Vitrification and Vitreous Water" Prof. Jaques Dubochet Universite de Lausanne, Switzerland 10:30 a.m. - Break 11:00 a.m. "Electron Tomography of Molecules and Cells" Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Baumeister Max-Planck-Institut für Biochemie, Martinsried, Germany 11:30 a.m. "Cryo-EM of Virues Big and Small, Round and Not So Round, From Beginning to End" Prof. Timothy S. Baker Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 12:00 p.m. - Lunch Session II - Molecular Motors and Cytoskeleton Kenneth A. Taylor, Chair 1:00 p.m. "Structural Studies of Molecular Motors by Cryo-EM" Dr. Ronald Milligan Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 1:30 p.m. "Coordinated Time-resolved X-ray Diffraction, Mechanics and Three-dimensional Electron Microscopy of Fast-frozen Contracting Insect Flight Muscle" Prof. Michael Reedy Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 2:00 p.m. "Electron Cryomicroscopical Studies of Conformational States of Actomyosin" Dr. Dorit Hanein Brandeis University, Waltham, MA 2:30 p.m. "Electron Cryomicroscopy of Cofilin/F-actin: More Twists and Turns" Dr. Amy McGough Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 3:00 p.m. - Break 3:30 p.m. "Tubulin Structure: Insights on Microtubule Functions and Properties" Dr. Kenneth H. Downing Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 4:00 p.m. "Nucleotide-dependent Structural Changes in Kinesin and Related Proteins Complexed to Microtubules" Dr. Keiko Hirose National Institute for Advanced Interdisciplinary Research, Ibaraki, Japan Refreshments and Poster Presentations [MORE]

Saturday, January 9, 1999 8:00 a.m. - Coffee and Refreshments 9:00 a.m. - Keynote Address: Introduction: Kenneth A. Taylor "Opportunities in 3-D EM of Macromolecules" Professor Robert M. Glaeser University of California at Berkeley Session III - Single Particles - Viruses Donald L. D. Caspar, Chair 10:00 a.m. "Insight into the Ribosome Elongation Cycle by Means of Cryo-electron Microscopy" Dr. Joachim Frank Wadsworth Center, Albany, NY 10:30 a.m. - Break 11:00 a.m. "Electron Microscopy of Mitochondrial Complex I" Dr. Niko Grigorieff MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, UK 11:30 a.m. "Cold Fusion" Dr. Stephen Fuller Supercomputing Resource for Molecular Biology, Heidelberg, Germany 12:00 p.m. "High Resolution Cryo-microscopy of Hepatitis B Virus Core Protein Shells" Dr. R. Anthony Crowther MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, UK 12:30 p.m. - Lunch Session IV - 2-D Crystals Wah Chiu, Chair 1:30 p.m. "Observation of Membrane Protein Structure and Dynamics by Microscopy" Prof. Andreas Engel University of Basel, Switzerland 2:00 p.m. "Projection Structure oh NhaA, a Secondary Transporter from E. coli at 8Å" Dr. Karen Williams Max-Planck-Institut für Biophysik Frankfurt, Germany 2:30 p.m. "Structure of the Gap Junction Intercellular Channel at 7Å Resoultion - From Maps to Models" Dr. Vinzenz M. Unger Max-Planck-Institut für Biophysik Frankfurt, Germany 3:00 p.m. - Break 3:30 p.m. "Three-dimensional Map of the P-type Ion Pump H+-ATPase at 8Å Resolution" Dr. Manfred Auer New York University Medical Center, NY 4:00 p.m. "Binding of Annexins to Membranes: The Contribution of Cryo-EM" Prof. Alain Brisson University of Groningen, The Netherlands 4:30 p.m. "The Use of Lipid Monolayers for Two-dimensional Crystallization of Cytoskeleton Proteins and for Two-dimensional Assembly of Cytoskeleton Complexes" Prof. Kenneth A. Taylor Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 5:00 p.m. - Closing Remarks Prof. Kenneth A. Taylor

POSTER ABSTRACTS

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Cryo-EM Symposium
Florida State University
Institute of Molecular Biophysics
Tallahassee, FL 32306-4380

The Philips 300 kV FEG EM at
Florida State University

Original: 13 January 1999Updated: June 18, 2008 by TS