Joachim Frank
Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics
and Department of Biology
Columbia University
Distinguished Scientist in Structural Biology, Wadsworth Center
Distinguished Professor, Department of Biomedical Sciences
School of Public Health, SUNY Albany
HHMI Investigator
Research Interests
We investigate the mechanism of translation on the ribosome by using cryo-electron microscopy and single-particle
reconstruction. Using these methods, and flexible fitting of X-ray structures, the dynamics of the decoding and
translocation mechanisms are revealed.
More information on:
Columbia page (link to Frank lab);
HHMI page
Selected Publications
Structural insights into cognate vs. near-cognate discrimination during decoding (2011),
X. Agirrezabala, E. Schreiner, L. G. Trabuco, J. Lei, R. F. Ortiz-Meoz, K. Schulten, R. Green, and J. Frank,
EMBO J, 30, 1497-1507.
(more ...)
Visualizing the transfer-messenger RNA as the ribosome resumes translation (2010),
J. Fu, Y. Hashem, I. Wower, J. Lei, H. Y. Liao, C. Zwieb, J. Wower, J. Frank
EMBO J, 20, 3819-3825.
(more ...)
Characterization of the nuclear export adaptor protein Nmd3 in association with the 60S ribosomal subunit (2010),
J. Sengupta, C. Bussiere, J. Pallesen, M. West, A. W. Johnson, and J. Frank,
J. Cell Biol., 189, 1079-1086.
(more ...)
Ribosome-induced changes in elongation factor Tu conformation control GTP hydrolysis (2009),
E. Villa, J. Sengupta, L. G. Trabuco, J. LeBarron, W. T. Baxter, T. R. Shaikh, R. A. Grassucci, P. Nissen, M. Ehrenberg, K. Schulten, and J. Frank,
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A., 106, 1063-1068.
(more ...)
Comprehensive molecular structure of the eukaryotic ribosome (2009),
D. J. Taylor, B. Devkota, A. D. Huang, M. Topf, E. Narayanan, A. Sali, S. C. Harvey, J. Frank,
Structure, 17, 1591-1604.
(more ...)
Lab Members with RNA-related projects
Wen Li (research scientist)
Sanchaita Das (postdoc)
Amedee DesGeorges (postdoc)
Jesper Pallesen (postdoc)
Bingxin Shen (postdoc)
Cheri Hampton (postdoc)
Yaser Hashem (postdoc)
Nesh Sharma (postdoc)
Bo Chen (graduate student)
Drew Kennedy (graduate student)
Danny Nam Ho (graduate student)
Chuan-Chao Lv (visiting graduate student)