27 October 2022 KOÇ UNIVERSITY MBGE & n²STAR JOINT SEMINAR

KOÇ UNIVERSITY MBGE & n²STAR JOINT SEMINAR

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Speaker          : Jin Hae Kim, Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science & Technology (DGIST)

Title                 : NMR investigation of the complex interaction network of proteins involved in iron-sulfur cluster assembly

Date                : Thursday, October 27, 2022

Time                : 14:30-15:30

Place                : SCIE103

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Abstract:  

Proteins containing iron-sulfur (Fe-S) clusters arose early in evolution and are essential to life. Organisms have evolved machinery consisting of specialized proteins that operate together to assemble Fe-S clusters efficiently so as to minimize cellular exposure to their toxic constituents: iron and sulfide ions. To date, the best studied system is the iron sulfur cluster (ISC) operon of Escherichia coli, and the eight ISC proteins it encodes. We employed nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, a powerful technique of elucidating structural and dynamic features of proteins and protein-protein interactions, and have characterized (1) two functional conformational states of the Fe-S cluster assembly protein (IscU), (2) the complex interaction network among the ISC proteins, and (3) the intriguing preferences of some ISC proteins that interact more with one conformational state of IscU over the other. In the upcoming seminar, along with these experimental observations, I will show our up-to-date model for Fe-S cluster assembly and delivery, of which physiological implication and relevance to the higher organisms, such as humans, are to be discussed.

Short Bio:

Dr. Jin Hae Kim received his Ph.D. degree under the supervision of Dr. John L. Markley of University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA. His work in this institution was focused on NMR spectroscopic investigations on a metamorphic protein, called IscU, and its complex interaction network in the iron-sulfur cluster biogenesis mechanism. For the subsequent postdoctoral work, he moved to the group of Dr. Markus Zweckstetter of German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, where he worked for the NMR-based structural characterization of transthyretin. Currently, he is an assistant professor of DGIST, South Korea, and now his main research topic is to investigate aging-related structural deformation of various proteins and to reveal how these structural changes are related with physiological and pathological processes.