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Workshops & seminars

"Membrane Protein Complexes"
Dr. James Coulton (McGill)


Date & time
Friday, November 6, 2015
2:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Speaker(s)

Dr. James Coulton

Cost

This event is free

Website

Contact

Dajana Vuckovic

Where

Richard J. Renaud Science Complex
7141 Sherbrooke W.
Room SP-S110

Wheel chair accessible

Yes

The Coulton research group studies membrane proteins that are required for transport of iron, an essential nutrient, across the bacterial cell envelope. Our on-going research collaborations with colleagues world-wide emphasize structural determinants of membrane proteins that are required for transport, including solving their 3-D structures by X-ray crystallography.

For import of iron-siderophore complexes, seven proteins in the cell envelope of Escherichia coli are essential. We use FhuA from E. coli as a model bacterial outer MP. TonB, partner protein of FhuA, is one of three proteins from the energy-transducing complex TonB–ExbB–ExbD that is embedded in the cytoplasmic membrane. Initial studies of the TonB interactome began with our X-ray structure 2GRX for the co-crystal of TonB–FhuA. We recently adopted complementary strategies to generate models for the 3-D organization of the TonB interactome.

When we fully understand the structure and function of TonB, ExbB, and ExbD, then we will know a critical mechanism whereby Gram-negative bacteria acquire iron. Knowledge advanced by outcomes from our research will enable the design of antibacterial compounds that block iron import, thus markedly slowing bacterial growth.

Dr Coulton did his undergraduate work at UofT, a Master’s degree at Calgary and a Ph.D. at Western. All three degrees were in biology-like departments. He published his first paper in about 1973. It was classical biochemistry. By about 1975 it was clear that for him, classical biochemistry was incomplete without a firm grounding in structural biology. A postdoc in Tübingen was the introduction to the beauty of X-ray crystallography. In 1979 he started a McGill and has been a scientific force to be reckoned with ever since.

He is the guest of Dr. Jack Kornblatt.

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