Biophysical Society Newsletter - July 2016

14

BIOPHYSICAL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER

2016

JULY

Subgroups

BIV Our subgroup is invested in understanding the behavior of large biomolecules in cells. A lot of ex- citing work has been going on, and here we high- light an impressive study by Julia Mahamid et al. from the Baumeister laboratory at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Germany. 1 They used cutting-edge technology in cryo-electron tomogra- phy and single-particle reconstruction to study the nuclear peripheries of individual HeLa cells. The authors not only provided a beautiful tomo- graphic image of the nuclear periphery acquired with molecular detail, but also showed in-situ single-particle reconstruction of individual ribo- somes and nuclear pore complexes. Reconstruc- tions revealed the locations of polysomes and free ribosomes, as well as the width of the nuclear pore complex, which is important for gene expression regulation. All this information was provided within the context of the cellular ultrastructure, including membranes, microtubules, and the endoplasmic reticulum. The authors obtained sufficient contrast from individual protein complexes in situ by using a Volta phase plate, which improves contrast by interfering the dark field and bright field radia- tion, much like a Zernicke phase plate would in optical phase contrast microscopy. They over- came the challenge of obtaining a signal from a difficult-to-access region inside the cell by using a focused ion beam to machine a thin lamella from cells preserved under cryogenic conditions. These improvements in contrast and resolution were only possible in conjunction with modern single-parti- cle reconstruction algorithms and state-of-the-art direct electron detectors. As computational and imaging technologies con- tinue to improve, increasingly less averaging will be necessary to acquire high-resolution, three-dimen- sional reconstructions of cells that reveal individual protein complexes. We are excited to see how the field progresses and the knowledge it will continue to provide on the inner workings of the cell.

— Rayna Addabbo , Biopolymers in Vivo Graduate Student Representative — Maxim Prigozhin , Biopolymers in Vivo Postdoc- toral Fellow Representative 1 Julia Mahamid , Stefan Pfeffer , Miroslava Schaffer , Elizabeth Villa , Radostin Danev , Luis Kuhn Cuel- lar , Friedrich Förster , Anthony A. Hyman , Jürgen M. Plitzko , Wolfgang Baumeister , 2016, Visualizing the molecular sociology at the HeLa cell nuclear periphery. Science. 351(6276): 969–972, doi: 10.1126/science.aad8857

Student Center

Rayna Addabbo Biophysics Graduate Program

University of Wisconsin-Madison

Rayna Addabbo

Q: What made you decide to study biophysics? I became interested in biophysics as an under- graduate at Rutgers University where I had the opportunity to work in Jean Baum’s research group. There, I was first introduced to important biophysical topics like protein folding and gained a deep appreciation for the beautiful complex- ity of biology. My undergraduate studies made me realize how much I was drawn to techniques that offer high-resolution information. Because of this, I decided to pursue my PhD under the guidance of Silvia Cavagnero at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where I am using fluores- cence spectroscopy to study protein folding of ribosome-bound nascent chains.

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