Cryoelectron Microscopy Course

Visitor of the Week: Kaavya Krishna Kumar

VOTW.png

Meet Kaavya Krishna Kumar of Stanford University. A member in Brian Kobilka’s lab, the postdoctoral fellow made her maiden voyage to CSHL to take part in the Cryoelectron Microscopy course (CryoEM). A grid freezing competition was held during the course and Kaavya was part of the winning team, returning to Stanford with bragging rights.

What are your research interests? What are you working on?
I am interested in how integral membrane proteins at the cell surface serve as a major communication interface between the external environment and internal milieu. Specifically, I study the largest family of membrane proteins: G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs). My research focuses on understanding the molecular details of the changes GPCRs undergo and the proteins they interact with in order to transmit signals across the cell membrane. 

How did you decide to make this the focus of your research?
My interest in protein structures and protein-protein interactions grew out of my graduate work. During my PhD, I worked on bacterial proteins that interacted with iron-containing protein hosts in order to utilize them as a source of iron.

How did your scientific journey begin?
My parents being scientist, my interest in science really began at home listening to dinner table conversations. I started as a chemistry major in college and became fascinated with protein structures when I took a biochemistry class. This was when I realized that the lines between the different branches of science is blurred.

Was there something specific about the Cryoelectron Microscopy course that drew you to apply?
I wanted to learn the basics of cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) to apply to some areas of my research. There were several unique features of the CryoEM course that drew me to apply, including a good mix of lectures and lab training.

Winning team members of the Cryoelectron Microscopy course’s grid freezing competition. L to R: Katerina Meze of CSHL, Kaavya Krishna Kumar, Yuichiro Takagi of Indiana University School of Medicine Image: Yuichiro Takagi

Winning team members of the Cryoelectron Microscopy course’s grid freezing competition.
L to R: Katerina Meze of CSHL, Kaavya Krishna Kumar, Yuichiro Takagi of Indiana University School of Medicine
Image: Yuichiro Takagi

What and/or how will you apply what you’ve learned from the workshop to your work?
This course has given me the necessary tools to better design and approach my experiments. I am also hoping that the knowledge I have gained during the course will be helpful to other projects in the lab.

What is your key takeaway from the course?
Don’t touch the microscope alignment! But seriously, there are lots of things to try and optimize while performing a cryoEM experiment and there are no shortcuts to success.

If someone curious in attending this course asked you for feedback or advice on it, what would you tell him/her?
The CSHL CryoEM course is probably the best course out there to learn the basics and gain practical experience. The lectures were very well chosen and spanned from basic physics to the future of cryo-EM. We got to set up our data collection on the microscope with the samples we prepared. So really, if anyone wants to go to a course on cryo-EM they should definitely apply to this one!

What did you like most about your time at CSHL?
The instructors and TAs were absolutely brilliant! My fellow students were from different stages of their careers (professors, postdoc, graduate students) and spending time with them talking about cryo-EM and generally science was a lot of fun!

Kaavya received a scholarship from the Helmsley Charitable Trust and support from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) to cover a portion of her course tuition. On behalf of Kaavya, thank you to the Helmsley Charitable Trust and NIMH for supporting and enabling our young scientists to attend a CSHL course where they expand their skills, knowledge, and network.

Thank you to Kaavya 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.

Visitor of the Week: Dan Kober

2018-cshl-visitor-daniel-kober

Meet Dan Kober of the UT Southwestern Medical Branch in Dallas, TX. Dan is a postdoc with a joint fellowship with Dan Rosenbaum and Arun Radhakrishnan. He made his debut visit to the Lab to train at the first-ever Cryoelectron Microscopy course, which coincided with not one but two late winter nor'easters. 

What are your research interests? What are you working on?
I’m interested in understanding how proteins sense and respond to changes in membrane cholesterol and lipid composition. I want to use structural and functional methods to understand the protein-membrane and protein-protein interactions that accomplish this. 

How did you decide to make this the focus of your research? 
The interest grew out of my thesis work studying protein-ligand interactions of immune receptors. A portion of that project looked at protein-phospholipid interactions, which this led to my current interest.

How did your scientific journey begin? 
As an undergraduate, I started as a chemistry major but became very interested in structural biology when I took a biochemistry and an immunology course and gained exposure to protein structures. I was really enamored with seeing how chemistry and biology intersect in protein structures. 

Was there something specific about the Cryoelectron Microscopy course that drew you to apply?
I had a background in structural biology and wanted to get a formal, comprehensive training in cryo-EM methods while I'm still relatively early in my postdoc training. 

What is your key takeaway from the Course?
Have a plan for power outages! But seriously, my main lesson from this course is that there are a lot of different options and methods to try with cryo-EM. But none of these options and methods will be a "magic bullet" because the most important thing is the biochemistry of your protein. 

What and/or how will you apply what you've learned from the course to your work? 
I am in the initial stages of my project and this course will help me improve how I'll approach my experiments. I think (and hope) that what I've learned will help me avoid a lot of pitfalls. Also, I'm hopeful that these ideas and tools will be useful to my lab and institution as well!

If someone curious in attending a future iteration of this course asked you for feedback or advice on it, what would you tell him/her?
I would definitely recommend this course to anyone! It covers a wide range of information that would be useful to someone at any level. We discussed everything from the basics to aspects of physics that are still not understood. We also got exposed to tools and ideas that are in development. 

What do you like most about your time at CSHL?
I’ve really enjoyed interacting with the other trainees and instructors. By just talking with people about their experiences in cryo-EM and science in general, I think I already learned a lot. 

Dan received a scholarship from the Helmsley Charitable Trust to cover a portion of his course tuition. On behalf of Dan, thank you to the Helmsley Charitable Trust for supporting and enabling our young scientists to attend a CSHL course where they expand their skills, knowledge, and network.

Thank you to Dan 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. Also, in relation to the nor'easter storms and power outage mentioned above, here is a great picture (and thread) of how the Lab handles surprise power outages.