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Nerdy Jobs: Protein Crystallization, Middle school

Video of ice crystals spreading across a freezing soap bubble

Proteins are tiny parts that do jobs inside your body, and one protein is much too small to see with your eyes.

Could scientists grow a crystal, the kind you can see, out of a protein?

Nerdy Jobs S1E1, Exploring the Magic of Protein Crystallization

Dr. Raven spends a day growing protein crystals with Dr. Sarah Bowman in Buffalo, New York. A robot sets out drops too small to see, and some drops grow crystals within hours. Dr. Bowman explains that X-rays aimed at a protein crystal help scientists learn the protein’s shape and design medicines.

A NASA scientist uses a pipette to add protein solution to a crystal-growing tray at her lab bench

Meet the scientist

Dr. Sarah Bowman

  • Job titleStructural biologist. A structural biologist figures out the shapes of proteins and other molecules in living things. Dr. Bowman runs a crystallization center at the Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute in Buffalo, New York.
  • A workdayLabs from around the world send proteins to her center. Robots set up tiny drops of each protein, and cameras take pictures of the drops for six weeks to spot crystals as they grow. Dr. Bowman also aims X-rays at protein crystals and uses math and computers to work out each protein’s shape.
  • TrainingDr. Bowman first earned a college degree in English literature and women’s studies. Years later, she went back to college for chemistry. She earned a Ph.D. in chemistry five years after her chemistry degree. A Ph.D. is the highest degree in a subject. Then she did more research at MIT and Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Black-and-white photo of an early lab machine for making X-ray diffraction patterns of crystals
Photography means “drawing with light.”

Your word of the day is

kris-tuh-LOG-ruh-fee

crystallo-clear ice, rock crystalfrom Greek krýstallos
-graphydrawing, writing, recordingfrom Greek -graphía

The science of crystals and how they form.

A researcher studies a 3D model of the insulin protein on a computer screen

Dr. Bowman calls proteins the molecular machines in your body. Her job as a structural biologist is figuring out what those machines look like.

Why would scientists want to know a protein’s shape?

A 3D computer model of the hemoglobin protein, drawn as a dotted surface in blue, teal and red

Hemoglobin has one shape with oxygen attached and a slightly different shape without oxygen.

Why would scientists want to see both shapes of hemoglobin?

Video of an automated lab machine with a row of tubes over a sample plate

In the episode, a robot puts drops of protein into a plate with 96 tiny wells. The drops are too small to see with your eyes.

Why does the lab use a robot to set up the drops?

A CDC illustration of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, a gray ball covered in red spikes

A medicine that blocks the main protease of the COVID-19 virus can treat COVID-19.

How can knowing the shape of a virus protein help scientists make a medicine?

The X-ray station at a synchrotron where scientists study protein crystals, with a robot arm that loads samples

Dr. Bowman’s team grows crystals out of proteins, then aims X-rays at the crystals.

Why do structural biologists like Dr. Bowman grow crystals out of proteins?

Microscope view of a blood sample with round red blood cells and a few long, curved sickle cells

Lesson complete

Today’s word

crystallography

kris-tuh-LOG-ruh-fee

The science of crystals and how they form.

Back to the lessonStart over
Up nextapiaryNerdy Jobs: Beekeeping
Sources
  1. Raven Baxter, #NerdyJobs S1E1: Exploring the Magic of Protein Crystallization, YouTube, unlisted
  2. Episode transcript, with times from the episode’s YouTube captions
  3. Luft and others, Expert Opinion on Drug Discovery, 2011
  4. Lynch and others, Acta Crystallographica Section D, 2023
  5. Budziszewski and others, Journal of Visualized Experiments, 2023
  6. Ghosh and others, European Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, 2024 (nirmatrelvir and the main protease)
  7. RCSB PDB-101 Molecule of the Month: Hemoglobin (Dutta and Goodsell, 2003), Lysozyme (Goodsell, 2000), Coronavirus Proteases (Goodsell, 2020)
  8. RCSB PDB-101, Methods for Determining Atomic Structures
  9. American Crystallographic Association, Sarah Bowman candidate bio, 2023
  10. Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute, news release on Dr. Bowman, 2017
  11. Vision and Change core concepts and competencies, as summarized in Brownell and others, CBE Life Sciences Education, 2014
  12. Word origins from Dictionary.com: crystallography, crystal, -graphy, protein, diffraction, calligraphy, photography, cryo-, chromatography, chromato-, graph, graphic, phonograph, lysozyme, lysosome
  13. Spanish and French spellings from Wiktionary