Join us in the IAS STEM Graduate Colloquium on 15 Nov 2024 (Tue), 2pm at The Arc LHN-LT by our distinguished speaker, Dr Elizabeth Kellogg from St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.
About the talk
CRISPR-associated transposition systems allow guide RNA-directed integration of a single DNA insertion in one orientation at a fixed distance from a programmable target sequence. These transposition systems are highly complex, with multiple components interacting to carry out a highly coordinated sequence of events to select target-sites and subsequently integrate cargo DNA.
The Kellogg lab seeks to understand the underlying mechanisms of programmable DNA-insertion by using high-resolution single-particle Cryo-EM to characterise the structure of these and related transposition systems. The Kellogg lab further seeks to harness their mechanistic insights for engineering novel transposon systems for genome-editing applications.
Our Distinguished Speaker
Dr Elizabeth Kellogg did her undergraduate studies at UC Berkeley and received her PhD in computational biology from the University of Washington under Nobel Laureate Prof David Baker. She then did her postdoctoral research in Eva Nogales' lab at UC Berkeley, focusing on cryo-electron microscopy, which won the Nobel prize in Chemistry in 2017. Her scientific background results in a scientific approach that seeks to understand biology with a quantitative perspective, relying on biological structure determination and design.
Since establishing her group at Cornell University in 2019, Dr Kellogg has explored how transposons reshape genomes and their potential for genome editing, particularly through programmable CRISPR-associated transposons (CASTs). Her work combines biochemical, structural, single-molecule, and genetic approaches. She has been recognised as a Pew Biomedical Scholar (2021) and received the 2023 Margaret Oakley Dayhoff Award from the Biophysical Society. She joined St. Jude as an Associate Member in 2023.
Organisers
IAS@NTU and the Graduate Students' Clubs of SBS and CCEB
