This special Physics department colloquium is scheduled for Thursday 5/14/15 at 3:30 pm in Room 135. Coffee, tea and cookies are served at 3:15 pm in the same room. Anyone is welcome.

Mutant Ribosomes and the Action of Antibiotics
Dr. Hasan Demirci, Research Associate, Stanford PULSE Institute; Research Associate, Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lighthouse, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, CA

High-resolution ribosome structures determined by X-ray crystallography have provided important insights into the mechanism of translation and antibiotic action. Such studies thus far have relied on large ribosome crystals kept at cryogenic temperatures to reduce radiation damage. I will first describe my work on mechanisms of streptomycin action, streptomycin resistance and streptomycin dependence carried out at synchrotron light sources. then I will discuss the application of Serial Femtosecond X-ray crystallography (SFX) using an X-ray free-electron laser (XFEL) to obtain diffraction data from ribosome microcrystals in liquid suspension at ambient temperature. 30S ribosomal subunit microcrystals diffracted to beyond 3.5 Å resolution in preliminary experiments, demonstrating the feasibility of using SFX for structural studies of ribosomes. The ability to collect diffraction data at near-physiological temperatures promises to provide new fundamental insights into the structural dynamics of ribosome complexes.