Author: peterbayguinov

Six investigators from the Departments of Genetics and Neuroscience at the School of Medicine will make use of this imaging platform to enable a wide-range of studies aimed at investigating the genetic regulation of synapse-localized translation, the molecular mechanisms of gene regulation as well as the discovery and characterization of genetic etiological factors involved in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), how mGluR5 mediated signal transduction is implicated in anxiety and depression and how loss of hippocampal activity leads to learning and memory deficits in cognitive disease.

Dr. Fitzpatrick will work to innovate novel approaches and resources for training and educating users and will facilitate outreach efforts in order to train the next generation of imaging scientists.

In this project, we will use cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) to determine atomic resolution structures of Asyn fibrils in Lewy body dementia, in conjunction with solid-state NMR (SSNMR) for refinement of structures.

This microscope system will allow innovative nanomanipulation of vitrified cells and tissues into thin lamellae (~300 nm thickness) for Cryo-Electron Tomography (Cryo-ET), and will facilitate the in situ elucidation of three-dimensional structures of cellular organelles and macromolecular complexes at nanometer resolution.