Scott Blanchard Lab

To support life, biological molecules must rapidly transact with diverse cellular components and efficiently navigate functionally distinct native state conformations to carry out their physiological functions. Our team therefore seeks to develop methodological approaches to gain direct, quantitative insights into the timing and role of these compositional and conformational changes and how these events govern function and regulation.   

We explore structure-function relationships in biomolecules using genetic, biochemical, spectroscopic and structural techniques, where the focus is to develop a quantitative framework to explain function. A central endeavor is to bridge the gap between different static structures of biomolecules obtained through X-ray crystallography and cryo-electron microscopy and the dynamic transactions of individual biomolecules.  Research projects in our laboratory delve into the mechanisms of protein synthesis, signaling and transport across cellular membranes, and virus–host cell engagement at both the ensemble and single-molecule scales. Such efforts include collaborative studies on the mechanisms of fidelity during protein synthesis from messenger RNA; how directional transport of small-molecule ligands across membranes is achieved; conformational transitions in HIV-1 Env and SARS-CoV-2 spike and how they relate to engagement with host cells and recognition by antibodies; and physiological regulation of the conformational dynamics and oligomerization of G protein–coupled receptors (GPCRs).