International GCE Webinar

The International GCE Webinar is a monthly webinar series, open to all, featuring talks on cutting-edge applications of genetic code expansion (GCE) technologies as well as advances in the GCE field. It is organized by the Oregon State University GCE4All Research Center and hosted by Rick Cooley and John Lueck. The webinar is meant to be of value to both developers and users of GCE, as well as anyone interested in learning more about it. Speakers will be from around the globe, and we invite speaker and topic suggestions.

Upcoming Webinars

June 20^th, 2024

Studying structural and functional consequences of site-specific phosphorylation in Ubiquitin and NEDD8 by using unnatural amino acids

Katrin Stuber (University of Copenhagen, Denmark)

Post-translational modifications (PTMs) of ubiquitin (Ub) and Ub-like proteins like NEDD8 have become more and more the focus of attention in recent years, since they add a new layer of complexity to the ubiquitin code. In our work we established and optimized the genetic code expansion method for the incorporation of phosphoserine (pSer) and its non-hydrolyzable analog (^nhpSer) into Ub and NEDD8. This allowed us to study the influence of this site-specific phosphorylation on structure, function and interactome. Furthermore, we could showcase the use of ^nhpSer as a superior phosphomimic compared to the widely used phosphomimic amino acids aspartate and glutamate.

Investigating site-specific acetylation of ubiquitin and the suitability of surrogates for acetylation by genetic code expansion

Simon Kienle (University of Konstanz, Germany)

Covalent attachment of ubiquitin (Ub) to proteins is a highly versatile posttranslational modification. Moreover, Ub is not only a modifier but itself is modified by e.g. phosphorylation and lysine acetylation. However, the functional consequences of Ub acetylation are poorly understood. In this work we comprehensive characterized all seven possible mono-acetylated Ub variants on a biochemical, structural and interactome level. This study also allowed us to assess the suitability of acetylation surrogates in their ability to mimic all aspects of lysine acetylation.

2023-2024 Webinar Recordings

October 19^th, 2023

Expanding the non-canonical amino acid toolbox for mammalian cells

Simon Elsässer (Karolinska Institutet, Sweden)

November 16^th, 2023

The cX-Zyme: A Halogen Bond Catalyzed DNA Nuclease

P. Shing Ho (Colorado State University, USA)

January 18^th, 2024

Engineering post-translationally modified selenoproteins in E. coli

Natalie Krahn (University of Georgia, USA)

Chemically expanded antibody engineering on the yeast surface: covalent antibodies and more

Jim van Deventer (Tuffs University, USA)

February 15^th, 2024

Applications of Genetic Code Expansion and Bioorthogonal Chemistry to Study Membrane Proteins

Tom Sakmar (The Rockefeller University, USA)

Novel molecular insights into the Orai1 channel dynamics using photocrosslinking

Isabella Derler (University Linz, Austria)

March 21^th, 2024

Genetically Encoded Bioorthogonal Chemistry in Living Systems

Peng Chen (Peking University, China)

April 18^th, 2024

Non-canonical amino acids as building blocks for recombinant proteins and peptides

Birgit Wiltschi (University Vienna, Austria)

A mammalian cell-based directed evolution platform to enhance the efficiency of ncAA incorporation systems

Abhishek Chatterjee (Boston University, USA)

May 16^th, 2024

Minimal invasive labeling of HIV using genetic code expansion and click chemistry

Barbara Mueller (University of Heidelberg, Germany)

Protein editing beyond alpha-amino acids

Alanna Schepartz (UC Berkeley, USA)

2022-2023 Webinar Recordings

October 20^th, 2022

PermaPhos: Revealing New Functions of Phosphorylated Proteins

Rick Cooley (Oregon State University)

November 17^th, 2022

Genetically encoded chemical tools for protein studies in the live cell

Irene Coin (Leipzig)

Design and Evolution of Enzymes with Non-Canonical Catalytic Mechanisms

Anthony Green (Manchester, UK)

December 15th, 2022

Investigations of multi-domain DNA/RNA binding protein machines using FEncAA

Edwin Antony (Saint Louis University, School of Medicine)

Decoding the Language of Aromatic Side-Chains in Ion Channels and Receptors

Chris Ahern (University of Iowa)

January 19th, 2023

Methodological challenges of an expanded genetic code

Nediljko Budisa (University of Manitoba, Canada)

February 16th, 2023

Engineering Biomaterials Bearing Non-Canonical Amino Acids

Jin Kim Montclare (New York University)

Expanded genetic code for live-cell fluorescent protein labeling in (neuro)biology

Ivana Nikic-Spiegel (Tuebingen)

March 16th, 2023

Identification of neuropeptide and toxin binding sites on a membrane-embedded receptor through crosslinking

Stephan Pless (University of Copenhagen)

April 20^th, 2023

Split aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases for proximity-induced stop codon suppression

Jeffery M. Tharp (Indiana University School of Medicine)

May 18th, 2023

Protein chemistry: an unnatural approach to unravelling the mystery of allostery

Sharona Gordon (University of Washington)

Applications of the Fluorescent Amino Acid Acridonylalanine

James Petersson (University of Pennsylvania)

June 15th, 2023

NMR isotope-labelled, serine-16 phosphorylated, amelogenin – the key to brighter smiles and understanding biomineralization (Recording)

Garry Buchko (PNNL)