Why art class can help you solve a protein structure

Welcome back to Science is Fun!

Oren, my friend and colleague at UCSF, courageously volunteered to be my first interview, back in July 2019. It’s taken awhile for me to learn the ropes of podcasting, so apologies if this episode is a bit rough. If you like what you hear you can contact us by email, twitter, or sign-up for our mailing list.

Oren got an MD and a PhD from Yale and has deep expertise in structural biology. This includes using all sorts of fancy techniques that I don’t understand: crystallography, electron microscopy, and small-angle x-ray scattering. After cutting his teeth on eukaryotes, he joined the dark side (microbiology) focusing on tuberculosis and other infectious diseases. His lab at UCSF continues to push the field of structural biology forward into new and exciting areas, while also developing innovative new genetic techniques like a mobile CRISPR-Cas system that can be used to study diverse pathogenic and commensal bacteria. Hear how he made the shift from art (sculpture) to science and his remarkable journey from the ivy league, to Africa, and beyond.