Endowed Faculty Lecture: The Search for Structure: Visualizing the Molecular Machines of Life with Yan Kung, W. Alton Jones Professor in Chemistry

Yan Kung, W. Alton Jones Professor in Chemistry, will present a special lecture. A reception will be held immediately after the lecture in the Park Science Harris Atrium.

About the lecture: Life on Earth is enabled by enzymes, enormous biological molecules that catalyze the chemical reactions that comprise the living world. Enzymes perform their catalytic duties with incredible speed and remarkable specificity, their roles governed entirely by the intrinsic shapes and structures that they adopt. Therefore, the key to understanding how enzymes work at a molecular level is often to experimentally determine their three-dimensional structures at atomic resolution. In this presentation, Professor Kung provides insight into how enzyme structures are solved using the powerful technique of X-ray crystallography, focusing on recent research performed with students at Bryn Mawr College.