91亚色传媒

Annual Meeting

Our coolest superpower: Seeing all the atoms

Jose A. Rodriguez Hosea Nelson
By Jose A. Rodriguez and Hosea Nelson
Sept. 19, 2023

Wouldn't it be great if we could just see all the atoms of all the molecules, any time we wanted?

If we were able to sample something — anything — and just tell what it's made of? Where all its atoms were? Which ones were connected or ready to react?

In about the span of a century, scientists have learned more about molecules and their components than we ever thought possible. In some cases, we can already pick up a bit of dust or a tiny droplet and see where the atoms of its resident molecules are. Or we can calculate predicted structures that are so accurate they can be used to predict function.

In old comic books, this kind of X-ray vision was the stuff of superheroes. Someday, in the not-too-distant future, we might all have it.

Submit an abstract

Abstract submission begins Sept. 14. If you submit by Oct. 12, you'll get a decision by Nov. 1. The regular submission deadline is Nov. 30.

Join us for a glimpse into the challenges and opportunities of building that future, so we can all scrutinize, predict, build, target and react to all the molecules.

Keywords: Structure, cryo-electron microscopy, microcrystal electron diffraction, alpha fold, tomography, artificial intelligence.

Who should attend: Absolutely everyone should attend. Who doesn't want a superpower?

Theme song: “” by Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers

This session is literally powered by electrons and photons.

New frontiers in structural biology

The rise of molecular assemblies

Chair: Rebecca Vorhees

Sarah ShahmoradianUniversity of Texas Southwestern Medical Center

Lorena SaelicesUniversity of Texas Southwestern Medical Center

New approaches enabling structural science

Chair: Jose Rodriguez

Roger Castells–GraellsUniversity of California, Los Angeles

Hosea NelsonCalifornia Institute of Technology

Hong ZhouUniversity of California, Los Angeles

Seeing the chemistry of life

Chair: Hosea Nelson

Lindsey R. F. Backman, Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research

Douglas Rees, California Institute of Technology

Enjoy reading 91亚色传媒 Today?

Become a member to receive the print edition four times a year and the digital edition monthly.

Learn more
Jose A. Rodriguez
Jose A. Rodriguez

Jose A Rodriguez is an associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry at UCLA.

Hosea Nelson
Hosea Nelson

Hosea Nelson is a professor of chemistry at the California Institute of Technology. His group focuses on new synthetic methods and structural elucidation tools.

Get the latest from 91亚色传媒 Today

Enter your email address, and we鈥檒l send you a weekly email with recent articles, interviews and more.

Latest in Science

Science highlights or most popular articles

Targeting toxins to treat whooping cough
Journal News

Targeting toxins to treat whooping cough

May 1, 2025

Scientists find that liver protein inhibits of pertussis toxin, offering a potential new treatment for bacterial respiratory disease. Read more about this recent study from the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

Elusive zebrafish enzyme in lipid secretion
Journal News

Elusive zebrafish enzyme in lipid secretion

May 1, 2025

Scientists discover that triacylglycerol synthesis enzyme drives lipoproteins secretion rather than lipid droplet storage. Read more about this recent study from the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

Scientists identify pan-cancer biomarkers
Journal News

Scientists identify pan-cancer biomarkers

April 30, 2025

Researchers analyze protein and RNA data across 13 cancer types to find similarities that could improve cancer staging, prognosis and treatment strategies. Read about this recent article published in Molecular & Cellular Proteomics.

New mass spectrometry tool accurately identifies bacteria
Journal News

New mass spectrometry tool accurately identifies bacteria

April 30, 2025

Scientists develop a software tool to categorize microbe species and antibiotic resistance markers to aid clinical and environmental research. Read about this recent article published in Molecular & Cellular Proteomics.

New tool matches microbial and metabolic metaproteomic data
Journal News

New tool matches microbial and metabolic metaproteomic data

April 30, 2025

Scientists develop a bioinformatics program that maps omics data to metabolic pathways. Read about this recent article published in Molecular & Cellular Proteomics

Meet Paul Shapiro
Interview

Meet Paul Shapiro

April 29, 2025

Learn how the JBC associate editor went from milking cows on a dairy farm to analyzing kinases in the lab.