Post by Scripps Research

Growing up in the small, rural town of Littlerock, California, Alexandra Salazar didn’t picture herself becoming a scientist. Today, Salazar is studying in Gabriel Lander's lab at Scripps Research, where she is developing a new approach to study protein structures inside mitochondria—tiny organelles in our cells that produce energy—using cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM). By examining proteins in a near-native environment, Salazar is helping uncover details that more traditional methods might miss, with the goal of developing a faster, more direct way to observe proteins in cells without time-consuming purification steps. “Understanding protein structures and how proteins behave inside cells helps us ask better questions about how they actually work in the body, and what goes wrong in diseases,” she explains. More: https://ow.ly/iPaQ50Zc1Lm