Biomolecular machines seen by cryo-electron microscopy

Malik Chaker-Margot, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine
Université de Montréal
Montréal, QC, Canada 

This conference is hosted by Javier Di Noia, PhD. This conference is part of the 2025-2026 IRCM conference calendar.

About this conference
Enzymes have an amazing ability to integrate multiple molecular signals to adjust their activity. Through allosteric regulation, post-translational modifications and binding tertiary protein factors, enzymes can finely regulate their output to respond rapidly and specifically to changing environmental conditions. Cryo-electron microscopy is a structural biology technique that enables us to study the changes in conformation induced by these changing conditions within enzymes of interest. Using cryo-EM and other biophysical techniques, we study, among other things, cytoskeletal remodeling and metabolic regulation. Dysregulation of these cellular processes can lead to the emergence of cancers and diabetes. With two examples, we will discuss how studying the structure of enzymes in these processes reveals new insights into their regulation and how it may be affected in the development of pathologies.

About Malik Chaker-Margot
Malik was born and raised in Montreal. They obtained their Bachelors of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine from Université de Montréal in 2013. They then moved to New York City, at The Rockefeller University (Tri-Institutional PhD Program in Chemical Biology) where they performed his graduate work in the laboratory of Dr. Sebastian Klinge, on eukaryotic ribosome assembly and cryo-EM. They continued his training at Biozentrum of Universität Basel, working on the structure and function of large signaling proteins and complexes, before returning to Montreal in 2022. They enjoys running, cooking and playing music, as well as boring people with discussions of obscure movies and albums.

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