When it comes to biology, details matter. If a drug isn’t designed to perfectly hit its target, down to a single atom, it may utterly fail. That’s where structural biologists come in. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) has one of the world’s leading experts.
CSHL Professor & HHMI Investigator Leemor Joshua-Tor specializes in the use of cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM). This Nobel-prize-winning technology flash-freezes biological structures in action. The resulting images enable scientists to look at life at the atomic level. Cryo-EM is one of several shared resources empowering next-generation research at CSHL. So, it’s only right that each year next-gen scientists from across the globe come to CSHL for our Cryo-Electron Microscopy course.
Founded in 2018 by Justin Kollman and Gabriel Lander, this two-week course has become a hallmark of CSHL’s world-renowned Meetings & Courses Program. It covers the theory and practice of interpreting high-resolution single-particle cryo-EM structures. Students get access to state-of-the-art equipment along with hands-on training from instructors like Kollman and Lander. They also attend lectures by the field’s top experts.
Recently, cryo-EM technology enabled CSHL Professors Rob Martienssen and Leemor Joshua-Tor to pinpoint the mechanism that controls epigenetic inheritance in plants.
As for Joshua-Tor, her presence is virtually ubiquitous here on campus. In January, she was named CSHL Director of Research. And the director has some words of wisdom for any course attendee. Quoting the late Francis Crick, she says, “All approaches at a higher level are suspect until confirmed at the molecular level.” These words, she adds, “are the basis for all biology. They are the basis of my life—words I live by.”
Of course, as far as imaging goes, it doesn’t get much more molecular than cryo-EM. “The level of magnification we’re doing would be analogous to standing here on Earth, looking up, and reading a street sign on the Moon,” explains Lander. “It’s incredibly powerful.”
Written by: Luis Sandoval, Communications Specialist | sandova@cshl.edu | 516-367-6826