Sjors Scheres is a structural biologist who was born and educated in The Netherlands, where he obtained his PhD at Utrecht University in 2003. He has been a Programme Leader at the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology since 2010.
Sjors made fundamental contributions to three-dimensional structure determination of protein complexes by electron cryo-microscopy (cryo-EM). He formulated a Bayesian framework for high-resolution reconstruction of cryo-EM images and their classification into distinct structural states, and implemented these methods in the RELION software package. He used these methods to reach a milestone in cryo-EM structure determination of protein complexes: reconstruction to atomic-resolution.
In collaboration with Michel Goedert, Sjors also applied his methods to solve atomic structures of amyloid filaments from the brains of individuals with neurodegenerative disease, including tau filaments from Alzheimer's disease. Surprisingly, although different diseases are characterised by amyloid formation of the same protein, specific amyloid structures were observed for each disease.
Professional position
- Group Leader, Structural Studies Division, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology
Subject groups
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Molecules of Life
Biophysics and structural biology
Awards
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Leeuwenhoek Medal and Lecture
For ground-breaking contributions and innovations in image analysis and reconstruction methods in electron cryo-microscopy, enabling the structure determination of complex macromolecules of fundamental biological and medical importance to atomic resolution.
