QBI is presenting a seminar with Brenda Schulman, director of Molecular Machines and Signaling at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry. Her lab is recognized for illuminating mechanisms of ubiquitin and ubiquitin-like protein ligation, and for using a distinctive biochemical reconstitution approach to identify novel in vivo regulatory pathways. This seminar will provide an overview and show their latest data investigating dynamic mechanisms underlying regulation of and by cullin-RING E3 ubiquitin ligases. The largest family of E3 ubiquitin ligases - the multisubunit Cullin-RING ligases (CRLs) – regulate a vast array of protein properties (e.g. half-life, subcellular localization, enzymatic activity, conformation, and intermolecular interactions) to regulate virtually all eukaryotic processes. The vast reach of CRL regulation is clear from major roles in controlling the cell cycle, transcription, DNA repair, stress responses, signaling, immunity, plant growth, embryogenesis, circadian rhythms, and a plethora of other pathways. As such, CRLs also serve as major targets in the development of novel therapeutics.  

Schulman received her Ph.D. from M.I.T. and did postdoctoral training at MGH Cancer Center and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. She started her lab at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in 2001, where she was an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and the Joseph Simone Chair in Basic Research, and retains an adjunct faculty position. She became a full-time Director and Scientific Member at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in 2017. Schulman was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2012, the National Academy of Sciences in 2014, EMBO in 2018, the German Academy Leopoldina in 2019, and recently received the 2019 Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize and Ernst Jung Prize for Medicine.