CCeMMP Special Seminar – Prof. Dimitrios Fotiadis – August 2025

This seminar presents recent structural and mechanistic insights into two distinct classes of membrane proteins: bacterial transporters and light-driven proton pumps, investigated using cryo-EM.

The first part of the talk focuses on the glucose-specific transporter from Escherichia coli, a key component of the bacterial phosphotransferase system responsible for efficient glucose uptake. Cryo-EM structures of this transporter provided insights into how glucose is recognized and translocated across the membrane, offering a comprehensive view of the transport cycle.

The second part explores the structural basis of light-driven proton pumping by a bacterial rhodopsin, an important model system in photobiology and synthetic biology. Cryo-EM structures of the green-light absorbing proteorhodopsin revealed its oligomeric states and clarified the structural arrangement underlying proton translocation.

Together, these findings advance our understanding of transmembrane solute transport and light-driven proton pumping.

Prof. Dimitrios Fotiadis, Institute of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine (IBMM), Medical Faculty, University of Bern, Switzerland