Laboratory scientist Thomas C. Terwilliger will talk about the Laboratory's structural genomics efforts at a Director’s Colloquium at 1:10 p.m., Tuesday in the Physics Building Auditorium at Technical Area 3.
Terwilliger’s talk titled “Structural Genomics: Technologies and Structures For Biology and Medicine” explores how structural genomics, the large-scale determination of protein structures – along with DNA sequencing and functional genomics – will provide a foundation for developing a fuller understanding of biology in the long term. Terwilliger also will discuss structural genomics as an effective short-term means of obtaining structural information on proteins of high medical, biological or biophysical interest, including proteins from pathogens or those involved in human disease.
Terwilliger leads a Los Alamos team that pioneered the field of structural genomics and assisted in founding the International Structural Genomics Organization. The Lab team focuses on development of technologies that allow rapid protein structure determination and on production of purified proteins and determination of their 3-dimensional structures. The team was instrumental in founding the Tuberculosis Structural Genomics Consortium and leads the Integrated Center for Structure and Function Innovation, both as part of the NIH Protein Structure Initiative.
Terwilliger, of Cell Biology, Structural Biology and Flow Cytometry (B-2), graduated from Harvard in 1978 with a magna cum laude bachelor's degree in physics. He received a doctorate in molecular biology from UCLA in 1981 and received postdoctoral training at the University of California, Berkeley from 1982 to 1985. He was an assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of Chicago from 1985 to 1990. Terwilliger joined Los Alamos in 1991, and became a Laboratory Fellow in 2001. His research activities range from studies on protein structure to the development of algorithms and software for X-ray diffraction data.
Prior to the colloquium, Terwilliger will lead a mini-symposium to highlight the progress Lab scientists and researchers have made in different areas of bioscience. The mini-symposium is from 9:30 a.m. to noon in the Health Research Laboratory-1 auditorium at Technical Area 43 (next to Los Alamos Medical Center).
The Director's Colloquium Advisory Board actively solicits nominations for speakers and suggestions for interesting, unclassified talks. Nominations for talks should be of outstanding scientific and technical merit or on an important policy issue.
To suggest possible speakers and topics of interest, go to the Director's Colloquium Web page and complete the speaker nomination form.
