Columbus Labs

The research aims of the Columbus laboratory are two-fold:

To address the challenges in membrane protein structural biology
To investigate the structural determinants of bacterial pathogen - host interactions mediated by membrane proteins.

Specifically, the structures of neisserial Opa proteins, which interact with host proteins and are directly involved in bacterial pathogenesis, are of interest.

However, in order to investigate the structure of these proteins, as well as the complexes with the host receptors, methods for accelerating structure determination are being developed. [Read more→]

Recent Headlines

Alison receives travel award» November 20, 2009
Columbus Lab receives NSF CAREER Award» July 29, 2009
Alison shares second place in 3rd year poster competition» April 28, 2009

Recent Publications

Mixing and Matching Detergents for Membrane Protein NMR Structure Determination»
Columbus L, Lipfert J, Jambunathan K, Fox DA, Sim AYL, Doniach S, and Lesley SA.
J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2009, 131 (21), pp 7320–7326
One major obstacle to membrane protein structure determination is the selection of a detergent micelle that mimics the native lipid bilayer. Currently, detergents are selected by exhaustive screening because the effects of protein−detergent […]