Facility Director, Biological Nanostructures
510.495.2594
Biography
Corie Ralston holds a B.S. in Physics from the University of California at Berkeley, and a Ph.D. in Biophysics from the University of California at Davis. She completed a post-doctoral fellowship at Brookhaven National Laboratory during which she helped develop the method of X-ray footprinting as a structural investigation technique for proteins and nucleic acids. In addition to being the Facility Director of of the Biological Nanostructures facility at the Molecular Foundry, she holds a guest appointment in the Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioimaging division at Berkeley Lab, and is actively developing the method of X-ray footprinting at the Advanced Light Source synchrotron.
Research Interests
Dr. Ralston’s interests include the development of new X-ray methods for structural characterization of macromolecules, and the application of these new methods to proteins and protein complexes. Recent work has included the investigation of the movement of carotenoid molecules within proteins involved in the photoprotection mechanism of cyanobacteria, the mechanism of chaperonin proteins in anti-aggregation, and the gating of ions in membrane channel proteins.
Links
Selected Publications
Gupta, S., Sutter, M., Ramesh, Dominguez-Martin, M.A., Bao, H., Feng, X.A., Chan, LJ. G., S.G., Petzold, C.J., Kerfeld, C.A., Ralston, C.Y., “X-ray radiolytic labeling reveals the molecular basis of orange carotenoid protein photoprotection and its interactions with fluorescence recovery protein,” J. Biol. Chem. 2019, DOI: 10.1074/JBC.RA119.007592
Morton, S. A., Gupta, S., Petzold, C.J., Ralston, C.Y. “Recent Advances in X-Ray Hydroxyl Radical Footprinting at the Advanced Light Source Synchrotron,” Protein and Peptide Letters, Volume 26, Number 1, 2019, pp. 70-75(6), DOI:10.2174/0929866526666181128125725
Huang, W., Peng, Y., Kiselar, J., Zhao, X., Albaqami, A., Mendez, D., Chen, Y.-H., Chakravarthy, S., Gupta, S., Ralston, C.Y., Kao, H.-Y., Chance, M., and Yang, S. “Multidomain architecture of estrogen receptor reveals interfacial cross-talk between its DNA-binding and ligand-binding domains,” Nature Communications, 2018, 9, Article number: 3520. DOI:10.1038/s41467-018-06034-2
“A Metastable Contact and Structural Disorder in the Estrogen Receptor Transactivation Domain,” Yi Peng, Shufe Cao, Janna Kiselar, Xiangzhu Xiao, Zhanwen Du, An Hsieh, Soobin Ko, Yinghua Chen, Prashansa Agrawal, Wenwei Zheng, Wuxian Shi, Wei Jiang, Lin Yang, Mark R. Chance, Witold K. Surewicz, Matthias Buck, Sichun Yang, Structure, Volume 27, Issue 2, 5 , Pages 229-240.e4, doi:10.1016/j.str.2018.10.026. February 2019.
T. Fukushima, S. Gupta, B. Rad, J.A. Cornejo, C.J. Petzold, L.G. Chan, R.A. Mizrahi, C.Y. Ralston, and C.M. Ajo-Franklin, “The Molecular Basis for Binding of an Electron Transfer Protein to a Metal Oxide Surface,” J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2017, 139 (36), pp 12647–12654.
S. Gupta, M. Guttman, R.L. Leverenz, K. Zhumadilova, E.G. Pawlowski, C.J. Petzold, K.K. Lee, C. Ralston, C.A. Kerfeld, “Local and global structural drivers for the photoactivation of the orange carotenoid protein,” Proceedings National Academy of Sciences, V112 No41, E5567, 2015.
S. Gupta, R. Celestre, J. Feng, C.Y. Ralston, “Advancements and Application of Microsecond X-ray Footprinting at the Advanced Light Source,” Synchrotron Radiation News, V29 No1, p39, 2016.
S. Gupta, J. Feng, M.R. Chance, C.Y. Ralston, “Recent Advances and Applications in Synchrotron X-ray Protein Footprinting for Protein Structure and Dynamics Elucidation,” Protein & Peptide Letters, Vol. 23, No. 3, 2016.
R. Hulscher, J. Bohon, M. Rappe, S. Gupta, R. D’Mello, M. Sullivan, C.Y. Ralston, M.R. Chance, S.A. Woodson, “Probing the Structure of Ribosome Assembly Intermediates In vivo using DMS and Hydroxyl Radical Footprinting,” Methods, Mar 22, S1046-2023(16) 30046-9, 2016.
S. Gupta, J. Feng, C.J. Petzold, C.Y. Ralston, “Synchrotron X-ray Footprinting as a Method to Visualize Water in Proteins,” J. Synchrotron Radiation, 2016 Sep 1;23(Pt 5):1056-69. doi: 10.1107/S1600577516009024. Epub 2016 Jul 27.
R.L. Leverenz, M. Sutter, A. Wilson, S. Gupta, A. Thurotte, C. Boucier de Carbon, C. Petzold, C. Ralston, D. Kirilovsky, C.A. Kerfeld, “Carotenoid translocation in the Orange Carotenoid Protein activates a photoprotective mechanism in cyanobacteria,” Science V348, 6242, p1463, 2015.
V.N. Bavro, S. Gupta, C. Ralston, “Oxidative footprinting in the study of structure and function of membrane proteins: current state and perspectives,V43(5), p983, Biochemical Society Transactions, 2015.
J. Bohon, R. D’Mello, C. Ralston, S. Gupta, M. R Chance, “Synchrotron footprinting on tour,” J. Sync. Rad., 21, 24-31, 2014.
S. Gupta, R. Celestre, C. Petzold, M.R. Chance, C. Ralston, “Development of a microsecond x-ray protein footprinting facility at the Advanced Light Source,” J. Sync. Rad., 21, 690, 2014.
