Inferring Protein Function by Structural Homology: A Case Example with Microsporidia

Join the Department of Food Science and Nutrition for this seminar series event featuring guest speaker Jean-Francois Pombert, an associate professor of biology at Illinois Tech.

To understand what a pathogen is truly capable of from a biological perspective, an in-depth knowledge of its genetic makeup and the proteins it encodes is required. Because protein structures and their biological roles are intertwined, protein function can be inferred by searching for structural homology. Pombert will share how he and his research team developed a structural homology-based pipeline to help identify highly divergent proteins from Microsporidia, a foodborne/waterborne NIAID Category B human pathogens. He will also provide a quick overview of how structural homology can be used to identify proteins that are otherwise unrecognizable by sequence-based approaches.