From worms to water and everything in between

In his talk, Professor Jason Schnell explores the complex mechanisms driving structural biology. Contextualising his work, he highlights the field’s intersection with other specialisms such as genetics, cell biology and immunology. He then focuses more specifically on the building blocks of life, outlining how genetic code is transferred into proteins via the Central Dogma. Through this process amino acid sequences are converted into protein structures which then serve distinct functions. In order to illustrate this, Professor Schnell then situates this within his own research assessing the protein structures of the influenza virus. As part of this research, Professor Schnell and his colleagues have assessed the role of the crystal-like M1 structure found within the influenza virus. Interestingly, these findings suggest that the M1 structure may aid the process of protein polymerization, with exciting     for our understanding of information flow within a cell.

Professor Jason Schnell<br>
Professor Jason Schnell

Professor Schnell joined St. John’s College as the Tutorial Fellow in Biochemistry in Michaelmas Term 2009. In addition to tutoring Biochemists, he provides tutorials in biochemistry to the first year Biologists, Biomedical Scientists, and pre-clinical Medics at St. John’s. For the Department of Biochemistry Professor Schnell provides a lecture series in Protein Structure and Chemistry to all first year Biochemists and Biomedical Scientists and another series on Biomolecular NMR to third year Biochemists. You can read more about Professor Schnell and his research and teaching here.

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