Structural Biology and Biophysics Seminar (SBBS)
D6: Structural Biology and Biophysics I – 79575 (Fall 2026)
D7: Structural Biology and Biophysics II – 76287 (Spring 2026)
(2 hrs/week; 1 CP)
Sebastian Hiller, Rod Lim, Timm Maier
The Structural Biology and Biophysics Seminar series (SBBS) is organized by PhD students of the Biozentrum, University of Basel since 2009. World-leading scientists are invited to present their current work to an audience of students, researchers and PIs. Typical lectures in this series describe applications of advanced structural biology and biophysics methods to solve biological problems. Methods include NMR spectroscopy, X-ray crystallography, cryo-electron microscopy, surface plasmon resonance and atomic force microscopy, but not only. The list of the past SBBS speakers is accessible here.
The talks take place on Tuesdays at 12:15, room U1.197
Unless mentioned, attendance is open to all interested people, without registration. The program for the spring semester 2026 is as follows:
February 17th, 2025 at 12:15, room U1.197
SBBS introductory meeting for students
Zoom link: unibas.zoom.us/j/66435328468
Meeting ID: 664 3532 8468
Passcode: 454325
If you missed the introduction meeting, feel free to contact one of the organizers by email or at the first seminar.
March 24th, 2026 at 12:15, room U1.197
‘To be or not to be structured’
Structural biology is firmly rooted in Anfinsen’s thermodynamic hypothesis, which stipulates that sequence encodes a deep minimum of the energy hypersurface and thus a single conformer of a protein. Critical assessment of structure prediction and thus AlphaFold are based on this hypothesis. However, analysis of disorder predictions for the about 241 million proteins in AlphaFold Protein Structure Database reveals that disorder is ubiquitous, structure decays on average surprisingly fast with sequence distance, and that disorder increased in the evolutionary transition to eukaryota and is correlated with function. Proteome order-disorder plots illustrate this. An overwhelming majority of proteins is heterogeneously structured due to evolutionary adaptation. Where does this leave us?
Most approaches to experimental structural characterization of proteins work well either for intrinsically folded regions (IFRs) or for intrinsically disordered regions (IDRs), but not for both. Largely, this also applies to approaches for structure and ensemble prediction. I discuss why distance distribution information on the nanometre length scale, as it can be obtained by site-directed spin labelling and EPR spectroscopy, is useful for overcoming this bottleneck and why it requires integration with other experimental approaches. These concepts are illustrated on two RNA-binding proteins that act as antagonists in regulation of splicing, heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein A1 (hnRNP A1) and serine/arginine-rich splicing factor 1 (SRSF1). Ensemble models of the dispersed state of these protein, for SRSF1 also for two complexes with short RNAs, illustrate the width and plasticity of ensemble structure. Distance distributions reveal shifts in the ensembles by phosphorylation of the C-terminal IDR of SRSF1 and by liquid-liquid phase separation.
Prof. Dr. Gunnar Jeschke
ETHZ, Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences
Zürich, Switzerland
March 31st, 2026 at 12:15, room U1.197
'Molecular choreography of bacterial membranes'
Astonishingly, while the components of bacterial membranes are fairly well-characterised, the details of their spatial organisation remain unclear. Which proteins interact with each other? How close do they get? Are the interactions between them long-lived or transient? We are using all-atom and coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations initiated from multiple sources of experimental data, to address the questions posed above. Furthermore, we explore the impact of antibiotics on the outer membrane. Some recent successes, limitations and open questions will be discussed.
Prof. Syma Khalid
University of Oxford, Department of Biochemistry
Oxford, UK
April 28th, 2026 at 12:15, room U1.197
THE SEMINAR IS CANCELLED
The speaker is unable to attend due to unforeseen circumstances. We apologize for any inconvenience caused.
May 05th, 2026 at 12:15, room U1.197
THE SEMINAR IS CANCELLED
The speaker is unable to attend due to unforeseen circumstances. We apologize for any inconvenience caused.
TBA, 2026 at 12:15, room U1.197
TBA
TBA
TBA, 2026 at 12:15, room U1.197
TBA
TBA
TBA, 2026 at 12:15, room U1.197
TBA
TBA
Important information for students enrolled at the University of Basel:
- You can earn one credit point (CP) by registering to the course.
- To get the CP for this course, all of the proposed seminars have to be attended from start to finish and a written exam in the form of an essay must be passed.
- It is your responsibility to check this website for eventual updates/changes to the program.
- Each in-person seminar is followed by a lunch with the speaker. Contact the host if you are interested in participating.
Links:
- List of the past SBBS speakers
- Members of the SBBS organizing committee
- Twitter: @SBBS_Biozentrum
- Zoom: TBA
