Yifan Cheng, PhD

Associate Professor
YCheng@ucsf.edu

Dr. Yifan Cheng is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of California, San Francisco. He and his lab are interested in studying the three-dimensional structures of large macromolecular machineries: their structural architectures, the regulation of their function and the dynamic processes of their assembly and disassembly, by molecular electron microscopy. A full understanding of the biological functions/processes of macromolecular machinery requires structural information at a wide range of resolutions, from the atomic details of all of its components, the spatial arrangements of these components and the interactions between them, all the way to its cellular context. X-ray crystallography and NMR spectroscopy are the traditional methods used to determine the structures of macromolecules at atomic resolution. Molecular electron cryomicroscopy (cryoEM) can be used to study the macromolecular machineries in their native conformations at a wide resolution range, from sub-nanometer resolution (single particle cryoEM) to the cellular level (electron tomography). Thus the cryoEM has the potential to integrate the structural information obtained at different resolution levels.

UCSF Profiles Page for Yifan Cheng, PhD
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