Seminar Series: Kylie Walters
Kylie Walters, NCI
Senior Investigator, Center for Structural Biology
Walters is an internationally renowned structural biologist who has made seminal discoveries of how targeted protein degradation occurs in cells. Her laboratory has applied a multidisciplinary approach that includes cutting-edge cellular and structural biology methods, including CRISPR-based gene editing, NMR spectroscopy, and cryoelectron microscopy, to uncover how the proteasome recognizes and processes its substates. Major discoveries include identifying Rpn1 and Rpn13 as proteasome substrate receptors as well as a binding site for E3 ubiquitin ligase E6AP/UBE3A at the proteasome in Rpn10. These findings have led to new therapeutic strategies for cancer which she is pursuing by using structure-based drug design.