The Right Fit

Voltage-gated calcium channels selectively permeate calcium ions in their hydrated form
Wiggle Room

Understanding Helicobacter pylori shape with computational mapping
EM is IN!

Cryo-electron microscopy is changing how we view macromolecular structures.
Primed to Cleave

Structural insights into the allosteric activation of a human deubiquitinase by two propeller proteins.

Biophysical and Structural Biology

Working at the interface of biophysics and structural biology, MCB faculty seek to understand the fundamental principles governing protein and cellular functions as well as design principles that can be exploited for synthetic biology and next generation therapeutics.

Suggested Courses

Autumn

BIOC 530
Introduction to Structural Biology

MCB 536
Tools for Computational Biology

BSTR 590
Cryo-electron microscopy of biological macromolecules and complexes

winter

CONJ 544
Protein Structure, Modification and Regulation

spring

BSTR 590
Cryo-electron microscopy of biological macromolecules and complexes

NEURO 557, PBIO 557
Ion Channel Gating

Dr. David Baker, an HHMI investigator, displays a 3-D model of an engineered protein.

Modeling in Seattle

Seattle is a major center for protein structure/design and structural biology. Seattle MCB faculty are leaders in x-ray crystallography, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), electron microscopy (EM), and small angle x-ray scattering (SAXS). Seattle MCB faculty are also at the forefront in computational design to enhance or create new protein function, and computational methods to analyze complex data sets or model single cell behavior. Visit the Institute of Protein Design to learn more about 3D protein modeling from Dr. David Baker.

Area Of interest Faculty

Featured Research

Area Directors & Suggested Courses

Faculty Area Directors: Justin Kollman, Kelly Lee

Student Area Directors: Patrick Nugent, Pierce Eggan

Suggested Courses: 2021-2022 suggested courses

Lab Openings

Paredez Lab:
Spring, Summer, Winter, Permanent Position

Giardia, parasite, actin, rac, Rho GTPase, signaling, evolutionary cell biology, cysts, trafficking, cytokinesis, microscopy, biochemistry

Nourmohammad Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

adaptive immune system, computational immunology, population genetics, immune-pathogen coevolution, gene expression, machine learning, stochastic processes, control theory

Freedman Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

organoid, pluripotent, kidney, lung, signaling, epithelial

Asbury Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

mitosis, kinetochore, chromosome, motor protein, mechanobiology, optical tweezer, single molecule biophysics

Baker Lab:
All Quarters

Daggett Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

computational, protein dynamics, disease, amyloid, protein design, functional amyloid

Fowler Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

protein folding, medical genetics, genomics, technology development

Maly Lab:
Autumn, Spring, Winter, Permanent Position

maly dj

Veesler Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

Cryo-electron microscopy, viruses, viral fusion proteins, bacterial secretion systems, ion channels,vaccine design, structure-based drug design

Bhardwaj Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

Computational Design, High-throughput synthesis and Screening, Drug Discovery

Smith Lab:
All Quarters

DNA break repair, genetic recombination

Grundner Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

Global Health, Infectious Disease, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Latency, Genomics, Phosphosignaling

Gu Lab:
Autumn, Spring, Winter, Permanent Position

Protein-protein interaction, Protein Barcoding, In Situ Sequencing

Bai Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

Brain, neuron, synapse, neurotransmitter, endocytosis, exocytosis, C. elegans,

Kollman Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

Cryo-EM, structural biology, cytoskeleton, metabolism, X-ray crystallography, electron microscopy

Neitz Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

retina, vision,

Lee Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

Virus, membrane fusion, cryo-EM, glycoproteins, dynamics, structure, HIV, influenza, membranes, fusion proteins, vaccines, antibodies, immunology, transmission, mass spectrometry

Klevit Lab:
Spring, Permanent Position

protein ubiquitination, small heat shock proteins, intrinscially disordered proteins, NMR

McGuire Lab:
Autumn, Summer, Winter, Permanent Position

Antibodies, vaccines, HIV-1, EBV

Campbell Lab:
Spring, Summer, Winter, Permanent Position

Structural biology, cryoEM, cell signaling, immunology

Merz Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

membrane, cell, organelle, endosome, lysosome, golgi, fusion, SNARE, Rab, tether, biophysics, genetics, yeast, Saccharomyces

Mougous Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

bacteria, microbiome, pathogenesis, signaling, protein secretion, regulation

Guo Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

DNA supercoiling, replication, nucleoid structuring proteins, topoisomerase, Hi-C

King Lab:
Spring, Winter, Permanent Position

Subramaniam Lab:
Autumn, Spring, Winter, Permanent Position

computational biology, gene regulation, mrna translation

Bradley Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

RNA splicing, nonsense-mediated decay, myelodysplastic syndromes, leukemia, cancer, muscular dystrophy, FSHD

Strong Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

molecular immunology, vaccinology, biophysics, protein design, protein expression, x-ray crystallography, surface plasmon resonance, biacore

Biggins (she/her) Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

chromosomes, spindle checkpoint, centromere, microtubules, kinetochore, histone variants, tension, aneuploidy

Gordon Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

Membrane Biophysics, Ion Channels, Protein Dynamics and Energetics

Hahn Lab:
Spring, Summer, Winter, Permanent Position

transcription, gene regulation, genomics, structure, coactivator, RNA polymerase, biochemistry

Ong Lab:
Spring, Summer, Winter, Permanent Position

Proteomics, Cancer, Kinases, EMT

Shechner Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

Cellular architecture, Nuclear architecture, Noncoding RNAs, ncRNA, chromatin, nucleolus, RNA structure and function, RNA localization, technology development