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Membrane Protein Folding

Gordon Research Conference

Biology, Disease, Design and Theory

June 21 - 26, 2015
Chair Karen Fleming
Vice Chair James U. Bowie

Conference Description

An understanding of protein folding is essential for most of the major quests of structural biology, including learning how to predict structure, how proteins evolve, how mutations cause disease and how to design novel proteins. As a result, protein folding has been a major field of investigation for the past 50 years. In this effort, however, membrane proteins have been largely ignored. In-depth folding experiments on membrane proteins have lagged behind their soluble counterparts not because membrane proteins are unimportant, but because they are simply hard to study. This conference will bring together cellular, biophysical and computational investigations of membrane protein folding and design with the purpose of sharing expertise and solutions to this challenging problem.

Conference Program

Sunday
2:00 pm - 9:00 pmArrival and Check-in
6:00 pmDinner
7:30 pm - 7:40 pmWelcome / Introductory Comments by GRC Site Staff
7:40 pm - 9:30 pmHow Do Membrane Proteins Insert into the Membrane?
Discussion Leader: James Bowie (University of California, Los Angeles, USA)
7:40 pm - 8:05 pmThomas Miller (California Institute of Technology, USA)
"Long-Timescale Simulation of Sec-Facilitated Protein Translocation and Membrane Integration"
8:05 pm - 8:10 pmDiscussion
8:10 pm - 8:35 pmTomoya Tsukazaki (Nara Institute of Science and Technology, Japan)
"Structures of Membrane Protein Insertase YidC"
8:35 pm - 8:40 pmDiscussion
8:40 pm - 9:05 pmAlexey Ladokhin (University of Kansas Medical Center, USA)
"pH-Triggered Conformational Switching Along Membrane Insertion Pathways"
9:05 pm - 9:10 pmDiscussion
9:10 pm - 9:25 pmGavin King (Univeristy of Missouri-Columbia, USA)
"SecA-Lipid Interactions via Single Molecule Force Spectroscopy"
9:25 pm - 9:30 pmDiscussion
Monday
7:30 am - 8:30 amBreakfast
9:00 am - 12:30 pmBeta Barrel Folding
Discussion Leader: Clifford Sandlin (Johns Hopkins University, USA)
9:00 am - 9:05 amIntroduction by Discussion Leader
9:05 am - 9:30 amDavid Brockwell (The University of Leeds, United Kingdom)
"Folding and Remodeling of Outer Membrane Proteins in the Periplasm of E. coli"
9:30 am - 9:35 amDiscussion
9:35 am - 10:00 amXinsheng Zhao (Peking University, China)
"The Proper Prefolding Form of OMPs in the Periplasm Is Extended"
10:00 am - 10:05 amDiscussion
10:05 am - 10:20 amNatalia Carulla (IRB Barcelona, Spain)
"Micelles Promote Aβ42 Assembly into Pore-Forming Oligomers"
10:20 am - 10:25 amDiscussion
10:25 am - 10:50 amCoffee Break
10:50 am - 11:15 amMarcelo Sousa (University of Colorado, Boulder, USA)
"Structure and Function of the Beta-Barrel Assembly Machine and Its Associated Chaperones"
11:15 am - 11:20 amDiscussion
11:20 am - 11:45 amSebastian Hiller (University of Basel, Switzerland)
"Mechanistic Aspects of Beta-Barrel Membrane Protein Folding"
11:45 am - 11:50 amDiscussion
11:50 am - 12:05 pmSarah McDonald (Johns Hopkins University, USA)
"Aromatic Residues in Membrane Proteins: Living on the Edge of the Membrane and in the Face of Aromatic Nearest-Neighbor Interactions"
12:05 pm - 12:10 pmDiscussion
12:10 pm - 12:25 pmJohannes Thoma (ETH Zurich, Switzerland)
"Direct Observation of Chaperone Modulated Outer Membrane Protein Folding"
12:25 pm - 12:30 pmDiscussion
12:30 pmLunch
1:30 pm - 4:00 pmFree Time
4:00 pm - 6:00 pmPoster Session
6:00 pmDinner
7:30 pm - 9:30 pmPrinciples of Membrane Protein Design
Discussion Leader: Nicholas Woodall (University of California, Los Angeles, USA)
7:30 pm - 7:35 pmIntroduction by Discussion Leader
7:35 pm - 8:00 pmPatrick Barth (Baylor College of Medicine, USA)
"Uncovering and Reprogramming G Protein Coupled Receptor Signaling by Protein Design"
8:00 pm - 8:05 pmDiscussion
8:05 pm - 8:30 pmTobin Sosnick (University of Chicago, USA)
"Near-Atomic Level Membrane Protein Folding Simulations Using Depth- and Residue-Dependent Potentials"
8:30 pm - 8:35 pmDiscussion
8:35 pm - 9:00 pmJie Liang (University of Illinois at Chicago, USA)
"Generalized Transfer Free Energy Scales and Building Blocks of Beta Barrel Membrane Proteins and Implications in Folding"
9:00 pm - 9:05 pmDiscussion
9:05 pm - 9:20 pmJulia Koehler Leman (Johns Hopkins University, USA)
"Development of RosettaMPdock: A Novel Computational Tool for Global Flexible Backbone Protein-Protein Docking in the Membrane Environment"
9:20 pm - 9:25 pmDiscussion
9:25 pm - 9:30 pmGeneral Discussion
Tuesday
7:30 am - 8:30 amBreakfast
8:30 amGroup Photo
9:00 am - 12:30 pmTopology Determination
Discussion Leader: Michael Sanders (Kings College London, United Kingdom)
9:00 am - 9:05 amIntroduction by Discussion Leader
9:05 am - 9:30 amWilliam Dowhan (University of Texas Medical School at Houston, USA)
"Lipid-Protein Interactions as a Determinant of Membrane Protein Dynamic Organization"
9:30 am - 9:35 amDiscussion
9:35 am - 10:00 amJoanna Slusky (University of Kansas, USA)
"Charge Asymmetry in Proteins of the Outer Membrane"
10:00 am - 10:05 amDiscussion
10:05 am - 10:20 amYuichiro Kida (University of Hyogo, Japan)
"Stability of Marginally Hydrophobic Segments Stalling at the ER Translocon"
10:20 am - 10:25 amDiscussion
10:25 am - 10:50 amCoffee Break
10:50 am - 11:15 amGunnar Von Heijne (Stockholm University, Sweden)
"Co-Translational Folding of Membrane Proteins Probed by Arrest-Peptide Mediated Force Measurements"
11:15 am - 11:20 amDiscussion
11:20 am - 11:45 amDouglas Theobald (Brandeis University, USA)
"The Plastic Rhodopsin Fold: Constraint, Convergence, and Common Ancestry in the Evolution of Protein Architecture"
11:45 am - 11:50 amDiscussion
11:50 am - 12:05 pmIsmael Mingarro (University of Valencia, Spain)
"Transmembrane Helix Design"
12:05 pm - 12:10 pmDiscussion
12:10 pm - 12:25 pmBil Clemons (California Institute of Technology, USA)
"A Machine Learning Approach to Heterologous Membrane Protein Overexpression"
12:25 pm - 12:30 pmDiscussion
12:30 pmLunch
1:30 pm - 4:00 pmFree Time
4:00 pm - 6:00 pmPoster Session
6:00 pmDinner
7:30 pm - 9:30 pmStructure Prediction of Membrane Proteins
Discussion Leader: Bryan Berger (Lehigh University, USA)
7:30 pm - 7:35 pmIntroduction by Discussion Leader
7:35 pm - 8:00 pmCharlotte Deane (University of Oxford, United Kingdom)
"What's Special About Homology Modeling for Membrane Proteins?"
8:00 pm - 8:05 pmDiscussion
8:05 pm - 8:30 pmAlessandro Senes (University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA)
"Analysis and Prediction of a Common Transmembrane Helix Interaction Motif"
8:30 pm - 8:35 pmDiscussion
8:35 pm - 9:00 pmDebora Marks (Harvard Medical School, USA) and Chris Sander (Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, USA)
"Evolutionary Couplings to Determine 3D Structures and Conformational Changes of Membrane Proteins"
9:00 pm - 9:05 pmDiscussion
9:05 pm - 9:20 pmMatthias Buck (Case Western Reserve University, USA)
"Protein Interactions in and at the Membrane: Computational Predictions and Their Validation for the Plexin Family of Single Transmembrane Receptors"
9:20 pm - 9:25 pmDiscussion
9:25 pm - 9:30 pmGeneral Discussion
Wednesday
7:30 am - 8:30 amBreakfast
9:00 am - 12:30 pmFolding and Dynamics
Discussion Leader: Antje Pokorny (University of North Carolina at Wilmington, USA)
9:00 am - 9:05 amIntroduction by Discussion Leader
9:05 am - 9:30 amWonpil Im (University of Kansas, USA)
"CHARMM-GUI Tools for Membrane Protein Folding Simulation Studies"
9:30 am - 9:35 amDiscussion
9:35 am - 10:00 amMartin Ulmschneider (Johns Hopkins University, USA)
"Peptide Folding onto and into Lipid Bilayers"
10:00 am - 10:05 amDiscussion
10:05 am - 10:20 amLynmarie Thompson (University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA)
"The Role of Subdomain Stabilization/Destabilization in Chemotaxis Receptor Signaling Mechanisms: Hydrogen Exchange Measurements"
10:20 am - 10:25 amDiscussion
10:25 am - 10:50 amCoffee Break
10:50 am - 11:15 amFrancis Valiyaveetil (Oregon Health and Science University, USA)
"Using In Vitro Folding to Investigate Membrane Proteins"
11:15 am - 11:20 amDiscussion
11:20 am - 11:45 amTae-Young Yoon (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, South Korea)
"Mapping the Energy Landscape for Second Stage Folding of a Single Membrane Protein"
11:45 am - 11:50 amDiscussion
11:50 am - 12:05 pmKvido Strisovsky (Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry (IOCB), Czech Republic)
"Substrate Recognition and Reaction Mechanism of Rhomboid Intramembrane Protease GlpG"
12:05 pm - 12:10 pmDiscussion
12:10 pm - 12:25 pmYongli Zhang (Yale University School of Medicine, USA)
"Folding Intermediates, Energies, and Kinetics of Synaptic SNARE Complexes"
12:25 pm - 12:30 pmDiscussion
12:30 pmLunch
1:30 pm - 4:00 pmFree Time
4:00 pm - 6:00 pmPoster Session
6:00 pmDinner
7:00 pm - 7:30 pmBusiness Meeting
Nominations for the Next Vice Chair; Fill in Conference Evaluation Forms; Discuss Future Site and Scheduling Preferences; Election of the Next Vice Chair
7:30 pm - 9:30 pmPaths of Membrane Protein Folding
Discussion Leader: Tobin Sosnick (University of Chicago, USA)
7:30 pm - 7:35 pmIntroduction by Discussion Leader
7:35 pm - 8:00 pmAnn Dixon (University of Warwick, United Kingdom)
"Membrane Proteins by Any Means Necessary"
8:00 pm - 8:05 pmDiscussion
8:05 pm - 8:30 pmDaniel Otzen (Aarhus University, Denmark)
"Folding of the Bacterial Membrane Protein GlpG In Vitro and In Silico: A Compact Nucleus and Frustrated Loops"
8:30 pm - 8:35 pmDiscussion
8:35 pm - 9:00 pmShu-Ou Shan (California Institute of Technology, USA)
"Mechanism of a Novel Membrane Protein Chaperone"
9:00 pm - 9:05 pmDiscussion
9:05 pm - 9:20 pmRobert Best (National Institutes of Health, USA)
"Equilibrium Folding of Transmembrane Peptides via Enhanced Sampling"
9:20 pm - 9:25 pmDiscussion
9:25 pm - 9:30 pmGeneral Discussion
Thursday
7:30 am - 8:30 amBreakfast
9:00 am - 12:30 pmMembrane Protein Structural Stability Determinants
Discussion Leader: Yinan Wei (University of Kentucky, USA)
9:00 am - 9:05 amIntroduction by Discussion Leader
9:05 am - 9:30 amJanice Robertson (University of Iowa, USA)
"Measuring the Free Energy of Dimerization of a CLC Cl-/H+ Antiporter in Membranes"
9:30 am - 9:35 amDiscussion
9:35 am - 10:00 amDieter Langosch (Technical University Munich, Germany)
"The Conformational Dynamics of Transmembrane Helices"
10:00 am - 10:05 amDiscussion
10:05 am - 10:20 amHeedeok Hong (Michigan State University, USA)
"General Steric Trapping Strategy Reveals an Intricate Cooperativity Network in the Intramembrane Protease GlpG Under Native Conditions"
10:20 am - 10:25 amDiscussion
10:25 am - 10:50 amCoffee Break
10:50 am - 11:15 amIsaiah Arkin (Hebrew University, Israel)
"Why Are Transmembrane Proteins So Hydrophobic?"
11:15 am - 11:20 amDiscussion
11:20 am - 11:45 amPeter Tieleman (University of Calgary, Canada)
"New Tools for Membrane Protein Simulations"
11:45 am - 11:50 amDiscussion
11:50 am - 12:05 pmFrancisco Barrera (University of Tennessee, USA)
"Protein-Lipid Interactions Control the Membrane Insertion of the pH-Low Insertion Peptide"
12:05 pm - 12:10 pmDiscussion
12:10 pm - 12:25 pmAndrew Miranker (Yale University, USA)
"Molecular Origins of Membrane Poration"
12:25 pm - 12:30 pmDiscussion
12:30 pmLunch
1:30 pm - 4:00 pmFree Time
4:00 pm - 6:00 pmPoster Session
6:00 pmDinner
7:30 pm - 9:30 pmMembrane Protein Folding and Disease
Discussion Leader: Karen Fleming (Johns Hopkins University, USA)
7:30 pm - 7:35 pmIntroduction by Discussion Leader
7:35 pm - 8:00 pmAmitabha Chattopadhyay (Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology, India)
"GPCR-Cholesterol Interaction: Novel Insight in Health and Disease"
8:00 pm - 8:05 pmDiscussion
8:05 pm - 8:30 pmJohn Riordan (University of North Carolina, USA)
"CFTR Folding and Assembly"
8:30 pm - 8:35 pmDiscussion
8:35 pm - 9:00 pmCharles Sanders (Vanderbilt University, USA)
"The Scarlet Letter: Membrane Protein Instability and Human Disease"
9:00 pm - 9:05 pmDiscussion
9:05 pm - 9:25 pmGeneral Discussion
9:25 pm - 9:30 pmClosing Remarks
Friday
7:30 am - 8:30 amBreakfast
9:00 amDeparture

Contributors

Conference Links

Conference History
Additional Fee Info

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