Helena Watson
Thesis Title: Advances in cryo-electron tomography approaches for in situ structural biology
Primary Theme: Structural Biology
Franklin supervisor: Dr Michael Grange
University: University of Glasgow
University supervisors: Professor James Naismith, Dr Laura Spagnolo and Professor Malcolm White
Helena is a PhD student at the Rosalind Franklin Institute, focusing on advancing cryo-electron tomography through the development of new approaches for plasma FIB milling and cryo-ET data acquisition. She has applied these developments to a range of biological systems, including understanding the in situ mechanisms of bacterial anti-phage immune responses.
She holds an MBiochem (Hons) in Biochemistry from the University of Oxford, where she performed her Master’s research on ubiquitin signalling regulation proteins using NMR and biophysical techniques.
Large Volume Tomography
High resolution large volume tomography with electron microscopy has the potential to transform our understanding of life, by linking the atomic and molecular structure of protein complexes in their biological context – the cell.
Structural Neurobiology
Developing cutting edge techniques to image structures in the brain on the molecular scale so we can identify early structural changes leading to disease onset.