Laboratory of molecular electron microscopy
The laboratory of molecular electron microscopy, headed by Tamir Gonen, is located at the David Geffen Medical School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles.
Our laboratory studies the structures of membrane proteins. Based on structure we try to understand function and what goes wrong in disease. We focus primarily on proteins in the blood-brain barrier. The long-standing question in our laboratory is how the thousands of membrane channels and transporters that exist in the cell membrane work together to help cells maintain homeostasis. With that question in mind, we study membrane proteins that are involved in nutrient, ion, and water uptake, waste removal, signaling, and communication.
Our laboratory is multidisciplinary. Over the last decade we have employed structural biology techniques such as electron cryo-microscopy (cryo-EM), X-ray crystallography, NMR, molecular dynamics simulations, and used membrane biochemistry and biophysics to understand the function of the proteins of interest. Within electron microscopy we have published papers using electron tomography, single particle reconstructions, and electron crystallography. However, our specialty lies in electron diffraction.
Part of our laboratory is also devoted to method development in cryo-EM. In recent years we have developed two important methods in electron diffraction, namely fragment-based phase extension and MicroED.
Tamir Gonen
News
- Chemistry World highlights MicroEDBritish news magazine Chemistry World traces the history of MicroED from its beginnings with aquaporin to its promising future, where dedicated instruments streamline the method even further.
- Johan Unge to chair ACA MicroED special interest groupJohan Unge was elected chair of the MicroED special interest group. He will transition to chair The Structural Science Society’s interest group in 2025.
- Johan Hattne chair elect of ACA Best Practices special interest groupJohan Hattne is the new chair elect for the Best Practices special interest group of the ACA: The Structural Science Society. He is slated to chair the group next year.
- Maymay Mu awarded an Audree Fowler fellowshipMaymay Mu is one of the 2024 Audree Fowler fellows. She is awarded the fellowship for her work on the structure of SLC38A9.
- Tamir Gonen receives the 2024 Carl Brändén AwardTamir Gonen is the recipient of the 2024 Carl Brändén Award from The Protein Society. The award is presented for his exceptional contributions to education and the study of membrane proteins. Tamir Gonen has led the development of novel methods in structural biology, particularly MicroED, and trained thousands of biochemists and structural biologists around the more…
- Callie Saeher awarded a Ruth L. Kirschstein fellowshipCallie Saeher is awarded a postdoctoral national research service award fellowship from the National Institutes of Health for her work on mTORC1 activation. The purpose of the fellowship is to train promising candidates to become productive, independent investigators in scientific health-related research fields.
- Emma Danelius and Xuelang Mu to deliver keynote talks at ACA 2023Emma Danelius and Xuelang Mu have been selected to deliver keynote talks in the transactions symposium at this year’s annual meeting of the American Crystallographic Association. The meeting will be held in Baltimore, MD in July 2023.
- Cody Gillman wins Etter awardCody Gillman was awarded the Margaret C. Etter Student Lecturer Award by the American Crystallographic Association for his work on the Design and Implementation of Suspended Drop Crystallization.
- Cody Gillman awarded an Audree Fowler fellowshipCody Gillman is one of five 2022 Audree Fowler fellows. The fellowship was awarded for his excellent work on determining the structure of a toxin‐antibody complex by MicroED.
- Michael Martynowycz receives the Sidhu AwardMichael Martynowycz is the recipient of the 2022 Sidhu Award from the Pittsburgh Diffraction Society for the scientific impact of his work on methods development and his dedication to advancing the field of crystallography through MicroED. The award, in memory of Professor Surhain S. Sidhu, honors significant contributions to the science of crystallography and/or diffraction more…
- A. L. Patterson Award
Tamir Gonen is awarded the 2023 A. L. Patterson Award from the ACA: The Structural Science Society for his pioneering work on the cryo-EM method MicroED. RefleXions published an essay on two decades of MicroED development. - Hermina Wieske awarded three travel scholarshipsHermina Wieske is awarded travel scholarships from Liljewalchs stipendiestiftelse, G. Bergmarks stiftelse, and Stiftelsen Bengt Lundqvists minne to visit the Gonen laboratory.
- Cody Gillman obtains NIH T32 fellowshipCody Gillman was awarded an NIH T32 fellowship in Muscle Cell Biology, Pathophysiology and Therapeutics at UCLA for his research on using MicroED to analyze membrane proteins in lipids.
- Emma Danelius wins the 2022 Suzanne Eaton Memorial PrizeThe prize is intended to recognize a scientist who displays the traits characterized by Dr. Suzanne Eaton, PhD: excellence in their work, passion for their discipline, and a caring personality for their colleagues.
- Brent Nannenga receives the 2022 Margaret C. Etter Award
The application and development of the method continues to be major research focus for Brent Nannenga at ASU, who is the recipient of the 2022 Magret C. Etter Early Career Award. - Sara Weaver awarded a Ruth L. Kirschstein fellowshipSara Weaver wins a Kirschstein individual national research service award from the NIH. The fellowship is awarded to promising postdoctoral candidates who have the potential to become productive, independent investigators.
- Lisa Clark awarded training grantLisa Clark was awarded a UCLA Tumor Immunology Institutional Training Grant (NIH T32).
- Xuelang (Maymay) Mu awarded a Jennifer S. Buchwald graduate fellowship in physiologyXuelang (Maymay) Mu is the only recipient of the 2020 Jennifer S. Buchwald graduate fellowship in physiology. The fellowship was awarded for her outstanding work on studying the function and structure of the drSLC38A9 protein in the mTORC pathway.
