Dr Eve Weatherill

King's College London, UK

In the study of membrane protein dynamics, the ability to probe structural changes at the single molecule level, and correlate them with a direct functional readout, is a powerful tool for investigating membrane protein dynamics. Droplet-interface bilayers (DIBs), coupled with single-molecule fluorescence microscopy, present a versatile platform for conducting such experiments. This seminar will discuss the application of such simultaneous measurements to understanding the assembly kinetics of a bacterial pore-forming toxin, PFO, and the gating mechanism of a bacterial mechanosensitive channel, MscS.  

Biography

Eve Weatherill studied Biochemistry as an undergraduate at Bristol University, including a year working in industry, developing bi-specific antibody formats. She completed her PhD in Chemical Biology at Oxford University in the lab of Mark Wallace, where she remained as a post-doc after the lab moved to King's College London. Her research focuses on the folding and assembly of pore-forming proteins in artificial membranes.