Meet Hossein Davarinejad of the University of Ottawa. The second-year PhD student is a member of Dr. Dr. Jean-François Couture’s lab within the Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology, and Immunology, and he recently wrapped up his training at the annual three-week course on X-Ray Methods in Structural Biology.

What are your research interests? What are you working on?
I am interested in studying enzymes that modify the interaction of DNA with DNA-packaging proteins as these important processes affect gene expression.

How did you decide to make this the focus of your research?
When I began my undergraduate studies, epigenetics had gained a spotlight in cellular and molecular biology. The field was relatively new and introduced the histone code with many enzymatic modifications with unmapped individual or combinatory effects on gene expression. It was an attractive puzzle with a lot of room for identifying new pieces.

How did your scientific journey begin?
I enrolled in the biology program with an interest in dentistry or medicine at first. I was not performing well during my first year as courses were very broad and I learn better with more depth and needed to have a good understanding of the applications to engage. During my undergrad second year, my biochemistry and cell biology professor really raised my interest in how life works at the molecular level. I was fascinated with the understanding of how mutations cause changes in the structure and function of macromolecules which contribute to disease. That course paved my path in molecular biology leading to epigenetic studies for MSc and eventually to structural biology in my PhD program.

Was there something specific about the X-Ray Methods in Structural Biology course that drew you to apply?
My PhD studies rely substantially on understanding the structure of the protein complexes which I study in order to understand how they assemble and initiate or inhibit their functions. We have an X-ray source at my home lab which is used extensively by our group for solving protein structure using X-ray crystallography. The X-ray course at CSHL is the most extensive program to my knowledge that covers a wide variety of topic related to this technique including biochemical and lab techniques and strategies for obtaining high quality protein crystals, methods in sample preparation and mounting of the instrument, mathematics and physics at play behind the scenes while using an X-ray source to collect crystallographic refraction data, data processing and analysis using variety of popular software, and information for validation of data for publication. All of the topics covered are directly beneficial to structural biologists using X-rays.  

What is your takeaway from the Course?
There is no single key takeaway from this course. The course covers a large volume of material on very related topics. The majority of topics were important, indispensable, and taught us things to consider ranging from chemical reagents and lab work to instrument function and data processing. In this field, there are many pieces that need to fall into place for obtaining a high-resolution structure and the course teaches you how to optimize the work at each step.

What and/or how will you apply what you’ve picked up from the Course to your work?
Before attending the course, I thought I had an idea of what I didn’t know and what I needed to learn. This course introduced me a lot of new material conceptually and technically. Having attended the course, I have filled in many gaps in my knowledge and my list of things to continue to learn has grown substantially. The sections on laboratory work are readily understandable, relatable, and translatable to my own work such as techniques on better understanding the stability of the protein that I work with and ways to re-evaluate whether my preps can negatively impact my sample before data collection stage. We had training on using many software and this course helped me understand what the application parameters really do, and this can enhance my data processing.

If someone curious in attending this course asked you for feedback or advice on it, what would you tell him/her?
I would say the volume and the difficulty of the material would make it suitable for a 4-credit university course which would normally be covered in a full semester (at least by Canadian standards). The 15-day period makes this course very intensive and it could be challenging as lectures are back to back. For a junior researcher, with little time to take them in, it can be exhausting. I think the best strategy to keep up is to keep good track of what you don’t understand and use the short coffee breaks, food breaks, Q/A sessions, and any other time you find to go up to the instructors and resolve the ambiguities as soon as you can since the lectures build on each other to a good extent. If allowed, maybe recording the lectures could be useful as you’d definitely need to come back to the material. The great thing about the course is that there are many instructors and experts around at all times. The instructors are fun, approachable, and genuinely like to be “bothered” with your questions. There were many instructors who are major contributors to the field, and some are the actual developers of the computational software used or leading structural biologists so you will be talking to the best sources. Being able to network with the instructors is invaluable.

It is great to come here with structure problems from your own work and consult the instructors on how to improve your data.

What did you like most about your time at CSHL?
This is a beautiful campus and unlike any laboratory campus I had ever seen. The course directors and instructors were really fun, you can talk to them about anything in science or beyond. Being in the same rooms as all the instructors and other students for a long period made it feel warm and friendly as you get to know each other. The stray cat roaming the campus made it even better.

Thank you to Hossein for being this week's featured visitor. To meet other featured scientists - and discover the wide range of science that takes part in a CSHL meeting or course - go here.