The Eduard Kellenberger Medal
Dr. Alasdair Steven
Laboratory of Structural Biology, National Institute for Arthritis, Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases NIH, Bethesda, MD, USA
Macromolecules in Motion: Visualization by 4-Dimensional CRYO-EM
Date: Friday, 12 September 2014, 11:10–12:00
Room: Congress Hall
Present Position
Chief – Laboratory of Structural Biology Research, NIAMS/NIH, 9000 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20892,USA
Higher Education
1965–1969 Edinburgh University, U.K. – M.A. – 1st Class Honours, Summa cum Laude (6/69).
1969–1970 St. John's College, Cambridge University, U.K. – Part III of Mathematical Tripos (6/70), General relativity, cosmology, advanced quantum theory. Thesis: "Gravitational Collapse"
1970–1973 Cambridge University, U.K. – Ph.D. (9/73) : Theoretical elementary particle physics. Supervisor: Dr. R.J. Eden, Cavendish Laboratory. Thesis: "Limiting High-Energy Behaviour of Hadronic Total Cross-sections and Production Phenomena"
Postdoctoral Training
1973–78 Biozentrum, Basel University, Switzerland, SKMB Certif icate in Molecular Biology (9/75). Supervisor: Prof. E. Kellenberger, Dept. of Microbiology. Thesis: "Form Determination and Proteolytic Transformation of the P23 Surface Shell of the Polyheads of Bacteriophage T4"
Honors
Senior Scholar – Humboldt Foundation, Germany (2000–2005)
Fellow – American Academy for Microbiology (1999–present)
Adjunct Professor – Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Maryland, College Park, MD (2004–2009)
Medal of First Medical Faculty, Charles University, Prague (11/2005)
Pace lecturer, Department of Biochemistry, University of Utah (3/2007)
Distinguished Scientist (Biology), Microscopy Society of America (7/2008)
Research Interests
Structure, assembly, regulation and dynamics of macromolecular assemblies: primarily, viruses, cytoskeletal f ilaments, ATPase-assisted proteases, prions and amyloids. Biological electron microscopy, specimen preparation, digital image processing. Hybrid methods of structural analysis integrating EM with other biophysical techniques.
Total publications
309 (peer-reviewed primary research papers, 83%). Total citations: 14,750 H-index : 70
List of publications (selected):
A.C. Steven, E. Couture, U. Aebi & M.K. Showe. A Pathway of Polyhead Transformations as a Model for T4 Capsid Maturation. J. Mol. Biol. 106:187-221 (1976).
A.C. Steven, J.F. Hainfeld, B.L. Trus, J.S. Wall & P.M. Steinert. Epidermal Keratin Filaments Assembled in vitro have Masses-per-Unit-Length that Scale According to Average Subunit Mass: Structural Basis for Homologous Packing of Subunits in Intermediate Filaments. J. Cell Biol. 97:1939-1944 (1983).
F.P. Booy, W.W. Newcomb, B.L. Trus, J.C. Brown, T.S. Baker & A.C. Steven. Liquid-crystalline, Phage-like, Packing of Encapsidated DNA in Herpes Simplex Virus. Cell 64:1007-1015 (1991).
B.L. Trus, F.P. Booy, W.W. Newcomb, J.C. Brown, F.L. Homa, D.R. Thomsen & A.C. Steven. The Herpes Simplex Virus Procapsid: Structure, Conformational Changes upon Maturation, and Roles of the Triplex Proteins VP19c and VP23 in Assembly. J. Mol. Biol. 263:447-462 (1996).
J.F. Conway, N. Cheng, A. Zlotnick, P.T. Wingfield, S.J. Stahl & A.C. Steven. Visualization of a 4-Helix Bundle in the Hepatitis B Virus Capsid by Cryo-electron Microscopy. Nature 386:91-94 (1997).
F. Beuron, M.R. Maurizi, D.M. Belnap, E. Kocsis, F.P. Booy, M. Kessel & A.C. Steven. At Sixes and Sevens: Characterization of the Symmetry Mismatch of the ClpAP Chaperone-assisted Protease. J. Struct. Biol. 123, 248-259 (1998).
T. Ishikawa, F. Beuron, M. Kessel, S. Wickner, M.R. Maurizi & A.C. Steven. Translocation Pathway of Protein Substrates in ClpAP Protease. Proc. Nat'l. Acad. Sci. USA 98: 4328-4333 (2001).
J.F. Conway, W.R. Wikoff, N. Cheng, R.L. Duda, R.W. Hendrix,
J.E. Johnson & A.C. Steven. Virus Maturation via a Conformational Change Involving Large Subunit Rotations and Local Refolding. Science 292: 744-748 (2001).
J.B. Heymann, N. Cheng, W.W. Newcomb, B.L.Trus, J.C. Brown & A.C. Steven. Dynamics of Herpes Simplex Virus Capsid Maturation Visualized by Time-Lapsed Cryo-EM. Nature Struct. Biol. 10, 334-341 (2003)
A.V. Kajava, U. Baxa, R.B. Wickner & A.C. Steven. A Model for Ure2p Prion Filaments and Other Amyloids: The Parallel Super-pleated -Structure. Proc. Nat'l. Acad. Sci. USA 101, 7885-7890 (2004).