Gabriel Waksman
Birkbeck College , University of London. He is the director of the Institute of Structural and Molecular Biology (ISMB) at UCL and Birkbeck, head of the Department of Structural and Molecular Biology at UCL, and head of the Department of Biological Sciences at Birkbeck.
ResearchWaksman's laboratory studies the structures and mechanisms of large nanomachines involved in bacterial secretion with particular emphasis on pilus biogenesis by the Chaperone-Usher pathway and on Type IV Secretion (T4S) Systems. The Waksman laboratory primarily uses Electron Microscopy to determine 3D structures as well as biochemical and biophysical techniques to uncover the mechanisms used by these nanomachines.[citation needed ]
T4S systemsThese systems are present in both Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria. They form multi-megadalton machines embedded in membranes and are responsible for the secretion of both proteins and nucleic acid substrates. They play major roles in pathogenicity of, for example, Pilus biogenesisBacterial pili are hair-like surface-exposed organelles. They are responsible for recognition of and attachment to the host and thus, are also crucial virulence factors. Pili are polymer of protein subunits, the assembly of which requires accessory proteins. The Waksman lab engages in research on pili assembled by the Chaperone-Usher (CU) pathway. (CU) pili have clear relevance in the pathogenicity of uropathogenic Escherichia coli, where CU pili mediate bacterial tropism to the bladder to cause cystitis or to the kidney to cause pyolenephritis. CU pili require two accessory proteins for biogenesis: a chaperone that stabilises pilus subunits and ferries them to an assembly platform, the usher, the second accessory protein required in this system. The usher is an extraordinary molecular nanomachine embedded in the outer membrane. It drives subunit recruitment, polymerisation and secretion.[5][6][7][8][9][10] Education and careerWaksman obtained his PhD in Fundamental Biochemistry at the Bristol University and the University of Sheffield, and in 1991, moved to the USA to work as a postdoctoral associate in the laboratory of Professor John Kuriyan .
In 1993, Waksman set up his independent laboratory at Washington University School of Medicine in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics where, in 2000, he was appointed the first Roy and Diana Vagelos endowed Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics. In 2002, he moved to London to set up the Institute of Structural and Molecular Biology. Recognition
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