“From Integrative Structural Biology to Bioengineering“ Prof. Matteo Dal Peraro

“From Integrative Structural Biology to Bioengineering“
Prof. Matteo Dal Peraro, Head of the Laboratory for Biomolecular Modeling (LBM)

Monday, May 30, 2022

Abstract
Proteins are the major molecular building blocks of life, dictating the spatial and temporal occurrence of most biological functions. They ultimately encode the genetic information of every organism and translate it into the physical and chemical mechanisms at the basis of all the molecular processes sustaining living organisms. They have evolved to do so by specifically interacting with other proteins, nucleic acids, metabolites, membranes in order to form supramolecular complexes whose structural architecture is at basis of their biological function.

In my lab we study the emergence of macromolecular function from its structural organization and native dynamics by integrating experimental data with molecular models and simulations. Recently, leveraging advances in computer vision and artificial intelligence, we have developed methods to efficiently address the outstanding problems of fitting molecular models into low-resolution cryo-electron microscopy data and predicting protein interacting interfaces.

Eventually, the knowledge we gain at this fundamental level is used to exploit the properties of these molecular assemblies, like in the case of biological pores that we engineer with the purpose of characterizing the same biological matter they are made of.

Bio
Matteo Dal Peraro graduated in Physics at the University of Padua in 2000. He obtained his Ph.D. in Biophysics at the International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA, Trieste) in 2004. He then received postdoctoral training at the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia). He joined EPFL School of Life Sciences in late 2007. His research at the Laboratory for Biomolecular Modeling (LBM), within the Institute of Bioengineering (IBI), now focuses on integrative structural biology and nanopore sensing. He served as Director of the Doctoral Programs in Biotechnology and Bioengineering (EDBB) and in Computational and Quantitative Biology (EDCB) and currently is the Associate Director of the Institute of Bioengineering (IBI).