The Structure Initiative of the CMC integrates X-ray crystallography, NMR and electron microscopy methodologies to determine the atomic structures and spatial organization of migration structures. The Initiative integrates 'top-down' approaches, i.e. light and electron microscopy, with 'bottom-up' approaches, i.e. X-ray and NMR, to reach this goal. The structure initiative is made up of the following investigators, organized in order of increasing resolution of their experimental technique.
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Dr. Benjamin Geiger |
Weizmann Institute |
light microscopy |
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Dr. David Critchley |
Leicester University |
Structure and function of adhesion proteins |
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Dr. Gary Borisy |
Northwestern University |
correlative light and electron microscopy |
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Dr. Tatyana M. Svitkina |
correlative light and electron microscopy |
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Dr. Kenneth Taylor |
Florida State University |
cryoEM and electron tomography |
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Dr. Dorit Hanein |
The Burnham Institute |
cryoEM and electron tomography |
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Dr. Niels Volkmann |
The Burnham Institute |
computer analysis of light and electron micrographs |
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Dr. Iain Campbell |
Oxford University |
NMR |
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Dr. Robert Liddington |
The Burnham Institute |
X-ray crystallography |
Electron microscopy holds the unique position of being capable of bridging the 'top-down' approaches with the 'bottom-up' approaches and as such, has a heavy emphasis within the initiative. Supporting the structure initiative is a protein expression facility at the Burnham Institute run by Dr. Robert Liddington.
Our laboratory brings to the Structure Initiative 4 techniques with which we have become highly proficient. These include electron tomography, lipid monolayer 2-D crystallization, assembly of complexes on lipid monolayers, and electron crystallography. The 2-D crystallization and electron crystallography are our contributions to the 'bottom-up' aspects of the initiative while the electron tomography and complex assembly are our contribution to 'top-down' efforts.