WEHI Director’s Seminar hosted by Associate Professor Bernhard Lechtenberg

Brenda A. Schulman

Director – Molecular Machines and Signaling, Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, Germany

 

Signaling through the ubiquitin system

 

Davis Auditorium

Join via SLIDO enter code #WEHIseminar

Including Q&A session

Please note this presentation will not be recorded

The ubiquitin system is governed by the transient assembly of conformationally dynamic complexes. We are fascinated by how these molecular machines form and function in response to stimuli ranging from endogenous signals to degrader drugs mediating targeted protein degradation. We employ an integrated multidisciplinary approach to investigate crosstalk between cellular perturbations and the ubiquitin system—ranging from the development of chemical biology probes and proteomic profiling techniques, to in situ visualization of assemblies using cryo-electron tomography. We then aim to reconstitute these systems to uncover the underlying biochemical and high-resolution structural mechanisms. In this talk, I will present our latest findings on the visualization of dynamic assemblies involved in ubiquitin-mediated regulation.

Brenda Schulman is a Director at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry.  She is broadly interested in regulation by the ubiquitin system.  Her lab discovers and defines ubiquitylation pathways and mechanisms.  Structures from the Schulman lab have defined the fundamental enzymology of the major classes of ubiquitylating enzymes, and their regulation from assembly, to activation and inhibition, and ultimate decommissioning.  A current focus is using the lab’s in-depth structural knowledge to develop new tools to probe dynamic cellular signaling through the ubiquitin system.

Schulman began her faculty appointment at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in 2001, where she retains an adjunct faculty position.  She was an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and the Joseph Simone Chair in Basic Research at St. Jude until 2017, when she became a full-time Director at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry.  Schulman received a number of early career awards, and more recently has been recognized by ERC Advanced Grants, the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize, an Ernst Jung Prize for Medicine, and a Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine.  Schulman was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2012, the National Academy of Sciences in 2014 (USA), EMBO in 2018, and the German National Academy of Sciences in 2019.

All welcome!