IBMB Seminar, Friday, June 17th. 3:00 PM | EVA NOGALES, PHD

Date / Time: Friday, June 17th, 3:00 PM | ZOOM Online | 17|06|2022

Speaker: Eva Nogales, PhD.

Professor of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Structural Biology
Molecular and Cell Biology Department, UC Berkeley
Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Senior Faculty Scientist, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab

Title: “Molecular Basis for the Regulation of PRC2 in Gene Silencing”

Online seminar via Zoom. Please, members of IBMB, check your mailbox.

Keywords: epigenetics, cryo-EM, allostery, Polycomb

Abstract: Polycomb repressive complex 2 (PRC2) is an epigenetic regulator that modifies histone H3 by trimethylation of lysine 27 (H3K27me3). Spreading of the H3K27me3 mark ultimately results in chromatin compaction and leads to the repression of the underlying genes. PRC2 activity is essential during embryonic development and to maintain cell identity in adulthood, with misregulation of PRC2 leading to cancer.  We have studied the molecular principles underlying regulation of the core PRC2 by cofactors and by histone modifications. Recently, it has been shown that PRC2 undergoes auto-methylation within its catalytic SET domain, which results in stimulation of its function by an unknown mechanism. Using cryo-electron microscopy, optimized for fragile complexes, we have been able to obtain structural information that leads to a novel mechanism of auto-regulation by an epigenetic factor.

Bio: Born in Spain, Eva studied Physics in the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and carried her PhD work under the supervison of Joan Bordas at the Synchrotron Radiation Source in the UK. She moved to the USA to do her postdoctoral studies with Ken Downing at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) where she solved the first structure of tubulin using electron crystallography. Eva is presently a Distinguished Professor in the department of Molecular Cell Biology at UC Berkeley, a Senior Faculty Scientist at LBNL, and has been a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator since 2000. Her lab uses cryo-EM to visualize large macromolecular assemblies with the goal of understanding their structure, dynamics and regulatory interactions. She is a fellow of ASCB and of the Biophysical Society, a member of the National Academy of Sciences of the US and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a foreign member of EMBO and of the Spanish Royal Science Academy.