Seminars

Yong Zeng, PhD, Department of Chemistry, University of Kansas

Host: Dr. Huiwang Ai

Dr. Zeng currently is an Associate Professor at the University of Kansas in the Department of Chemistry, the Bioengineering Graduate Program, and KU Cancer Center.  He received his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Alberta, Canada with Jed Harrison in 2007.  His postdoctoral research with Richard Mathies at the University of California, Berkeley was focused on single cell analysis of early-stage carcinogenic mutations in blood cancer.  Dr. Zeng joined KU as assistant professor of chemistry in 2012.  Working at the interface of chemistry and biology, a primary aim of his research is to develop new enabling tools for liquid biopsy-based cancer diagnosis and precision medicine.  Dr. Zeng is also interested in translational research to move technology innovations from laboratory benchtop into clinical practices to facilitate the advance of human health.  He received the J.R. & Inez Jay Award in 2014, and was named as prestigious Docking Family Faculty Scholar in 2017.  His research has been supported by a number of grants from National Institute of Health (NIH) and other funding agencies.

Gregory Melikian, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Infectious Diseases, Emory University

Host: Dr. Lukas Tamm

Dr. Luis Fernando Santana, Professor, UC Davis.

Host: Dr. Swapnil Sonkusare

Dr. Luis Fernando Santana from UC Davis. Fernando is the Chair of Physiology at UC Davis, and has been a pioneer in imaging and electrophysiology of ion channels in blood vessels and cardiac myocytes.

Dr. Robert Tampé

ERC Investigator Life Sciences

Institute of Biochemistry, Biocenter, Goethe University Frankfurt
Research Center CRC 807 – Membrane Transport and Communication

Host: Dr. Lukas Tamm

Identifying and eliminating infected or malignantly transformed cells are fundamental tasks of our adaptive immune system. For immune surveillance, the cell’s metastable proteome is displayed as broken bits (peptides) on major histocompatibility complex class I (MHC I) molecules to cytotoxic T-lymphocytes. Our knowledge about the track from the cellular proteome to the presentation of peptides has greatly expanded, leading to a quite comprehensive understanding of the antigen processing pathway. The seminar will report on the mechanism of antigen translocation, chaperoning, editing, and ER quality control. Following on an integrative approach, the contribution of individual proteins as well as the architecture of the MHC I peptide-loading complex (PLC) and other MHC I chaperone complexes, also in the context of viral immune evasion, will be addressed. The work provides the framework for understanding the quality control of antigen selection and unveils the molecular details underlying the onset of an adaptive immune response.

Robert Tampé is a biochemist at the Biocenter of Goethe University Frankfurt, known for his contributions in the mechanistic understanding of antigen processing and viral immune evasion. He also discovered the molecular machinery of ribosome recycling and provided structural and mechanistic insights into ribosome splitting and mRNA surveillance. His major passions are macromolecular complexes, membrane biology, control of mRNA translation, as well as chemical and synthetic biology.

Robert Tampé is full professor at Goethe University Frankfurt and director of the Institute of Biochemistry and the Research Center SFB 807 Membrane Transport and Communication. He initiated the Cluster of Excellence Macromolecular Complexes. Before assuming his position in Frankfurt, he was director of the Institute of Physiological Chemistry, Medical School at the University of Marburg, independent group leader at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry Martinsried, and assistant professor at the Technical University Munich. As Max Kade Fellow, he worked with Harden M. McConnell at Stanford University. He was awarded with an honorary professorship from Kyoto University and was Visiting Research Fellow at Merton College and Department of Biochemistry, Oxford.

Yong Zeng, Ph.D., Associate Professor

Department of Chemistry, KU Bioengineering Graduate Program, and KU Cancer Center. University of Kansas

Host: Dr. Huiwang Ai

Dr. Zeng currently is an Associate Professor at the University of Kansas in the Department of Chemistry, the Bioengineering Graduate Program, and KU Cancer Center.  He received his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Alberta, Canada with Jed Harrison in 2007.  His postdoctoral research with Richard Mathies at the University of California, Berkeley was focused on single cell analysis of early-stage carcinogenic mutations in blood cancer.  Dr. Zeng joined KU as assistant professor of chemistry in 2012.  Working at the interface of chemistry and biology, a primary aim of his research is to develop new enabling tools for liquid biopsy-based cancer diagnosis and precision medicine.  Dr. Zeng is also interested in translational research to move technology innovations from laboratory benchtop into clinical practices to facilitate the advance of human health.  He received the J.R. & Inez Jay Award in 2014, and was named as prestigious Docking Family Faculty Scholar in 2017.  His research has been supported by a number of grants from National Institute of Health (NIH) and other funding agencies.

Dr. Ludger Johannes, Director, Chemical Biology of Membranes and Therapeutic Delivery, Institut Curie

Host: Dr. Anne Kenworthy

Francesca M. Marassi, PhD

Cell Death and Survival Networks Research Program, Sanford Burnham Prebys Institute

Host: Anne Kenworthy