OEB Seminar Series: Josefina del Mármol

Josefina del Mármol
Assistant Professor of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology
Harvard Medical School
Harvard University

A  structural perspective on the evolution of insect odorant receptors

Abstract: To sense the chemical world, animals evolved large families of olfactory receptors (ORs) with a wide range of odorant sensitivities and diversified functional properties. Understanding how these proteins evolved to sense millions of chemical stimuli has been hampered by challenges in their isolation and structural characterization. Using cryogenic electron microscopy (cryoEM), electrophysiology and comparative studies, we undertook the structural and functional characterization of ORs from various insect species, shedding light on the molecular bases of odorant tuning and the evolution of the insect olfactory system.

Host: OEB Graduate Students