The Department of Chemical and Systems Biology Presents

Taekjip Ha, PhD
Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Johns Hopkins University
Investigator of HHMI

Talk Title: “Conformational control: from single molecules to biotechnologies”

Abstract: It has been known over forty years that proteins have multiple conformations. How these conformations are related to function and how to exploit our understanding of conformational control to create novel behaviors and biotechnologies is an active area of research. I will illustrate two examples, CRISPR Cas9 and helicases, where biophysical understanding of regulatory mechanisms led to the creation of new biotechnologies through chemically or light-induced conformational control.

Reading Material:
Very fast CRISPR on demand. Liu Y, Zou RS, He S, Nihongaki Y, Li X, Razavi S, Wu B, Ha T. Science. 2020 Jun 12;368(6496):1265-1269. doi: 10.1126/science.aay8204. PMID: 32527834.

Engineering of a superhelicase through conformational control. Arslan S, Khafizov R, Thomas CD, Chemla YR, Ha T. 2015 Apr 17;348(6232):344-7. doi: 10.1126/science.aaa0445. PMID: 25883358; PMCID: PMC4417355.

For Zoom link, please contact ycervant@stanford.edu.