Departmental Focus
The primary goal of the Department of Structural Biology at St. Jude is to understand life and disease at atomic detail. We use sophisticated biophysical techniques such as Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, X-ray crystallography, cryo-Electron Microscopy and Tomography, Single Molecule spectroscopy and Mass Spectrometry to determine the three-dimensional structures of biological molecules. Such studies provide a precious glimpse into the cellular activity and increase our understanding of life’s most fundamental processes and the diseases that result when these processes malfunction. Because proteins are very dynamic molecules, we are also using experimental and computational tools to investigate how proteins adjust rapidly their structures to carry out their biological function.
Researchers in our department are working to decipher the molecular details of key biological processes such as cell signaling, cell death, DNA repair, protein folding and misfolding, and cell transport. The detailed structures of proteins involved in these processes can be leveraged to help design new medicines, materials and diagnostic procedures. Availability of atomic-level structures of proteins and their complexes enables the rational design of small molecules that manipulate their function and can thus have powerful therapeutic potential.
Contact Us
Department of Structural Biology
MS 311, Room D1024
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
262 Danny Thomas Place
Memphis, TN 38105-3678
Email: lynette.nelson@stjude.org
Phone: (901) 595-2917
Fax: (901) 595-3032
Preferred contact method: email
-
Data science for discovery and personalized medicine
-
Scott C. Blanchard, PhD
Blanchard
Examining structure-function relationships in macromolecular assemblies
-
Marcus Fischer, PhD
Fischer
Exploiting the protein conformational landscape for ligand discovery
-
Mario Halic, PhD
Halic
Regulation of genome expression
-
Charalampos Kalodimos, PhD
Kalodimos
Functional mechanisms of protein machineries
-
Elizabeth H. Kellogg, PhD
Kellogg
Genome engineering, organization, and architecture
-
Richard W. Kriwacki, PhD
Kriwacki
Structural basis of tumor suppressor function
-
Molecular mechanisms of membrane signaling complexes
-
Tanja Mittag, PhD
Mittag
Dynamic protein complexes in signal transduction
-
Junmin Peng, PhD
Peng
Proteomics to ubiquitin biology and human disease
-
Ji Sun, PhD
Sun
Structural and pharmacological studies of membrane proteins
-
-
Brenda A. Schulman, PhD
Schulman
Cellular regulation by ubiquitin-like proteins
-
-
-
Sara Alston
Alston
- Executive Assistant
-
Elisabetta Bini
Bini
- Director of Structural Biology Lab Operations
-
Lynette Nelson
Nelson
- Administrative Director of Structural Biology
-
Angie Williams
Williams
- Administrative Specialist
-