Uploaded May 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
In this Presidential Lecture, Alex de Marco will explore how technological advances in cryo-EM are expanding the reach of in situ structural biology, and why the resulting biological discoveries consistently challenge conclusions drawn from purified systems. Drawing on recent work conducted at the New York Structural Biology Center spanning chromatin organization, cytoskeletal self-assembly and membrane trafficking, he will argue that the most consequential variable in modern structural cell biology is not resolution but relevance. The structure of a molecule tells us what is possible. Its cellular context tells us what actually happens.
For more information please visit: simonsfoundation.org/event/its-not-the-structure-its-the-context
In this Presidential Lecture, Alex de Marco will explore how technological advances in cryo-EM are expanding the reach of in situ structural biology, and why the resulting biological discoveries consistently challenge conclusions drawn from purified systems. Drawing on recent work conducted at the New York Structural Biology Center spanning chromatin organization, cytoskeletal self-assembly and membrane trafficking, he will argue that the most consequential variable in modern structural cell biology is not resolution but relevance. The structure of a molecule tells us what is possible. Its cellular context tells us what actually happens.
For more information please visit: simonsfoundation.org/event/its-not-the-structure-its-the-context
