Physical Chemistry Seminar: Professor Gabriela Schlau-Cohen, MIT

Physical Chemistry Seminar: Professor Gabriela Schlau-Cohen, MIT (Host: W. E. Moerner)

**This seminar is only available for virtual attendance.**

"Action at the nanoscale:  Single-molecule studies of protein motion"

About the Seminar

Biological systems respond to environmental and chemical perturbations with sophisticated processes that often involve conformational motions of their protein building blocks. These motions have been difficult to resolve due to limitations in sensitivity, specificity, and time resolution. We address these limitations with single-molecule methods, including advances in data analysis that resolve multiple microsecond dynamics occurring in parallel within individual proteins. We explore two processes: (1) photoprotective quenching in oxygenic photosynthesis, uncovering parallel processes that respond to slow and fast changes in sunlight; and (2) the molecular-level motions of a cancer drug target, identifying previously hidden conformational coupling between the extracellular and intracellular domains via a single transmembrane alpha-helix.

About the Speaker

Gabriela Schlau-Cohen is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry at MIT. She received a B.S. in Chemical Physics from Brown University in 2003 and a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley in 2011, where she was an AAUW American Fellow. She was then a CMAD Postdoctoral Fellow at Stanford University. In 2015, she joined the faculty of MIT. Her research group uses single-molecule spectroscopy and ultrafast spectroscopy to explore the energetic and structural dynamics of biological and bio-inspired systems, particularly photosynthetic light harvesting. Dr. Schlau-Cohen’s work has been recognized with awards including the AAAS Marion Milligan Mason Award, the ACS Pure Chemistry Award, and the BPS Margaret Oakley Dayhoff Award.

Photo courtesy of Justin Knight.