Description:

Talk Title: "The tale of the sodium/iodide symporter (NIS): From cloning to structure"

Guest Speaker: Nancy Carrasco, M.D., Chair of the Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, Professor, Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, Joe C. Davis Chair in Biomedical Science. The 

Abstract: The Na+/I- symporter (NIS) is the key plasma membrane protein that actively transports iodide into the thyroid gland, the first step in the biosynthesis of the thyroid hormones, of which iodide is an essential constituent. NIS is also the molecule at the center of the highly successful treatment for thyroid cancer based on radioiodide, administered post-thyroidectomy. In this lecture, I will discuss my extremely exciting journey investigating NIS with my group, from isolating the cDNA that encodes the protein in the 1990's and subsequently characterizing it at the molecular level to determining its 3-D structure, just recently, by Cryo-EM—a fascinating undertaking that has opened up new and unexpected worlds of discovery.

Speaker Bio: Carrasco has conducted research in the fields of biochemistry, biophysics, molecular physiology, molecular endocrinology, and cancer. She cloned the sodium/iodide symporter (NIS), a breakthrough in thyroid pathophysiology with ramifications for many other fields, including structure/function of transport proteins, molecular endocrinology, gene transfer studies, cancer, and public health (she has served on the Environmental Protection Agency's science advisory board).