Proteinhacker Boot Camp

In-person 3 part class:

Sunday, May 25 from 10am-2 PM EDT

Saturday, May 31 from 10am-2 PM EDT

Sunday, June 1 from 10am-2 PM EDT

What are proteins?

Are they what you eat? Do they make you swole? Turns out, proteins are the workhorses of the cell and they do nearly everything!

Proteins are chains of amino acids--small molecules strung together that are the ultimate product of genes. These genetically encoded molecules have vast functions in cells, allowing for movement, speeding up chemical reactions, and serving as signaling molecules within and between cells.

Deficiency in particular proteins can lead to diseases, for example, insulin deficiency causes diabetes. 50 years ago, scientists discovered a way to engineer microbes into protein production factories using recombinant DNA technology. This breakthrough revolutionized biological therapeutics. Today, nearly every therapeutic protein is made this way, from monoclonal antibodies to GLP-1 receptor agonists—proteins that mimic naturally occurring hormones to help regulate blood sugar, support weight loss, and treat metabolic diseases.

In this course, you will learn how to transform E. coli into protein-producing factories!

• First, we will introduce recombinant plasmid DNA containing the gene for green fluorescent protein (GFP) into E. coli in a process known as a transformation.
• Then, you’ll isolate the GFP from the bacteria using an “affinity resin” to capture the molecule.
• We will conclude the workshop by analyzing the purification process via SDS-PAGE (another type of gel electrophoresis).

Image from Biorad pGlo plasmid resources.

COVID-19 Safety Notice:

If you are feeling unwell, suspect that you have been exposed to COVID-19 or test positive, please do not attend and let us know ASAP (info@genspace.org). If you cancel after our 7-day policy, we cannot refund your ticket, but we can exchange and offer credits toward future classes. If you have signed up for Biohacker Boot Camp, we will automatically transfer your registration to the next month’s dates unless you tell us otherwise.

Meet the Instructor

Charles Warren is currently a fourth year PhD candidate in Jacob Geri’s lab at Weill Cornell. He grew up outside of Charlotte, North Carolina and received his BS in Chemistry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill while working in the lab of Dr. Matthew Redinbo. Here, he gained an interest in protein biochemistry, identifying, purifying, and characterizing enzymes in the human gut microbiome that influence host physiology. During undergraduate, he also interned at Halda Therapeutics and the Tri-I Chemical Biology Summer Program (hosted by Weill Cornell Medicine, Memorial Sloan Kettering, and the Rockefeller University) where he became passionate about research at the interface of chemistry, biology, and drug development. After undergraduate, he returned to the Tri-I to pursue his PhD in Chemical Biology and joined Jacob Geri’s lab, where he has focused on developing chemical methods to identify and characterize protein-protein interactions. Basically, Charlie LOVES the study of proteins, their functions and their interaction with other proteins and biomolecules in cells!