Speaker: Ahmad Jomaa PhD, Assistant Professor of Molecular Physiology and Biological Physics University of Virginia School of Medicine
Bio: Ahmad Jomaa, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Molecular Physiology and Biological Physics at the University of Virginia School of Medicine and a member of the UVA Comprehensive Cancer Center. He received his doctoral training in Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences from McMaster University in Canada and his postdoctoral training in Structural and Molecular Biology at the ETH Zurich in Switzerland. He established his laboratory at UVA in 2022.
The Jomaa laboratory investigates how ribosomes coordinate protein synthesis with nascent protein processing, targeting, quality control, and cellular adaptation. By integrating cryo-electron microscopy, cryo-electron tomography, genetics, biochemistry, and cell-based approaches, his group has uncovered mechanisms governing ribosome dormancy and translational recovery, co-translational protein modification and targeting, ribosome-associated quality control, and organelle-directed protein biogenesis. Dr. Jomaa is a Searle Scholar, and his research is supported by the NIH and NSF.
Lecture Title: The Ribosome as a Regulatory Hub for Protein Biogenesis and Cellular Adaptation
Abstract: Ribosomes do much more than synthesize proteins: they also coordinate nascent protein processing, targeting, quality control, and cellular adaptation. This lecture will highlight our work combining cryo-electron microscopy, cryo-electron tomography, biochemistry and cell-based approaches to uncover how ribosomes interact with regulatory factors during protein synthesis and how these mechanisms enable cells to respond to changing physiological conditions.
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