The Rosalind Franklin Institute is welcoming Dr Christos Pliotas on Thursday 12th February from 10:30 – 11:30.

Talk title:

Applications of pulsed EPR spectroscopy to understand membrane protein structure and dynamics

Abstract:

Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR) spectroscopy has emerged as a powerful tool over the last decade for assessing protein conformation, folding, oligomerisation, and dynamics. EPR distance measurements provide high-resolution quantitative information on protein equilibria, dovetailing well with techniques such as X-ray crystallography, HDX mass spectrometry, cryoEM, and computational approaches such as molecular dynamics simulations, as a key part of integrative structural biology.

An inherent limitation in membrane protein studies is the need to remove the protein from its natural membrane environment. However, recent developments have provided lipid scaffolds that mimic this environment and offer flexibility in lipid composition, while EPR measurements on membrane proteins can also be performed in cells.

Here, I will focus on the application of pulsed EPR spectroscopy (PELDOR, or DEER) to the study of integral membrane proteins, highlighting recent case studies from my lab. I will explore folding in human potassium K2P channels (1), an allosteric mechanism that regulates mechanosensitive ion channels (2,3), inhibition asymmetry in membrane Pyrophosphatases (4), pH dependence in secondary transporters (5), drug binding in human TRPC channels (6), and the effect of antibiotics on the conformation of the BAM complex, with measurements performed in intact cells (7).

Biography:

Christos Pliotas obtained a BSc in Physics and an MSc in Medical Physics. He then pursued a PhD under Ian R. Booth’s supervision on membrane ion channels at the Institute of Medical Sciences, University of Aberdeen. He then completed a postdoc at the University of St Andrews with James H. Naismith FRS and was subsequently awarded a Royal Society of Edinburgh Fellowship to become a principal investigator at the Biomedical Sciences Research Complex, University of St Andrews.

Christos moved to the Astbury Centre for Structural Molecular Biology at the University of Leeds in October 2018, where he was an Assistant Professor in Integrative Membrane Biology until May 2023. During his time in Leeds, he received a BBSRC New Investigator Award (2019) and the Sir Robin MacLellan Award from Tenovus (2022).

As of June 2023, Christos has moved to the School of Biological Sciences, University of Manchester, to take up a post as a Reader in Structural Biology, where he leads the BBSRC-funded BioEmPiRe initiative for Structural Biological EPR Spectroscopy.

To watch the seminar online, please sign up via the link below.

RAL site pass holders are welcome to attend in person (no registration required) in the Franklin’s first floor Hub. To join in person, please arrive in the R113 Franklin foyer at least 5 minutes before the start of the seminar and a member of the team will let you into the building.