Joachim Frank
Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics
and Department of Biology
Columbia University (starting April 2008)
Distinguished Scientist in Structural Biology, Wadsworth Center
Distinguished Professor, Department of Biomedical Sciences
School of Public Health, SUNY Albany
HHMI Investigator
Research Interests
More information on
Wadsworth Center page;
HHMI page
Selected Publications
Cryo-EM visualization of a viral internal ribosome entry site (IRES) bound to human 40S and 80S ribosomes: the
IRES functions as an RNA-based translation factor (2004),
M. T. Spahn, E. Jan, A. Mulder, R. A. Grassucci, P. Sarnow, and J. Frank,
Cell, 118, 465-475
(more ...)
Incorporation of aminoacyl-tRNA into the ribosome as seen by cryo-EM (2003),
M. Valle, A. Zavialov, W. Li, S. M. Stagg, J. Sengupta, R. C. Nielsen, P. Nissen, S. C. Harvey, M. Ehrenberg, and J. Frank.
Nat. Str. Biol., 10, 899-906
(more ...)
Hepatitis C virus IRES RNA induced changes in the conformation of the 40S ribosomal subunit (2001),
C. M. T. Spahn, J. S. Kieft, R. A. Grassucci, P. Penczek, K. Zhou, J. A. Doudna, and J. Frank,
Science, 291, 1959-1962
(more ...)
Solution structure of the E. coli ribosome at 11.5 Ang. resolution (2000),
I. S. Gabashvili, R. K. Agrawal, C. M. T. Spahn, R. A. Grassucci, D. I. Svergun, J. Frank and P. Penczek,
Cell, 100, 51-63
(more ...)
A ratchet-like inter-subunit reorganization of the ribosome during translocation (2000),
J. Frank and R. K. Agrawal,
Nature, 406, 318-322
(more ...)
Direct visualization of A, P and E site tRNAs in the E. coli ribosome (1996),
R. K. Agrawal, P. Penczek, R. Grassucci, Y. Li, A. Leith, K. H. Nierhaus, and J. Frank,
Science, 271, 1000-1002
(more ...)
Lab Members with RNA-related projects
Xabier Agirrazabala (postdoc)
Greg Allen (postdoc)
Magali Cottevieille (postdoc)
Jie Fu (graduate student)
Haixiao Gao (postdoc)
Ning Gao (postdoc)
Ingrid Hahn (graduate student)
Wen Li (postdoc)
Jayati Sengupta (postdoc)
Derek Taylor (postdoc)