I am delighted to announce the formation of a new Structural Biology Program established in the Perelman School of Medicine (PSOM) led by Dr. Vera Moiseenkova-Bell, Professor at the Department of Systems Pharmacology and Translational Therapeutics. Formation of this new Program at PSOM reflects the convergence of technological advances in instrumentation and approaches to solve structures of biological molecules, an increased appreciation for structural biology in fundamental and translational biomedical science, and a growing community of users of these technologies at Penn.  This Program, a joint effort of the Departments of Biochemistry and Biophysics and Systems Pharmacology and Translational Therapeutics together with PSOM will highlight the use of cryo electron microscopy (cryo-EM) and other cutting-edge approaches and provide accessible technology and intellectual support to the broader Penn community. This new Program will catalyze novel advances in the areas of structural biology and will meet structural biology needs on the UPenn campus. 

Dr. Moiseenkova-Bell has been the Faculty Director of the Beckman Cryo-EM Center and Electron Microscopy Resource Laboratory since 2018, and has helped nucleate the PSOM structural biology community. We are delighted that she will be leading this new Program.  Dr. Moiseenkova-Bell is a membrane protein biochemist and a structural biologist with expertise in cryo-EM. Her research is focused on structure-function analysis of Transient Receptor Potential (TRP) channels and their interaction with agonists/antagonists to enhance our understanding of their function at the molecular level. In addition, her laboratory research program seeks to understand how TRP channels regulate cellular functions and the role of their dysregulation in human disease. Her expertise in these areas will be a major asset to the Program and community.  Please join me in congratulating Dr. Moiseenkova-Bell on this well-deserved promotion and wishing her continued success in her new role as the Director of the new Structural Biology Program.

For more information on instrumentation that will be available in the Structural Biology Program, please see information on this website: https://www.med.upenn.edu/electronmicroscopyresourcelab/.

Announcements about future activities of the Structural Biology Program will follow soon and please do not hesitate to contact Dr. Moiseenkova-Bell about this new initiative.