Mitochondria are complex organelles of paramount importance for eukaryotic live, as they produce a vast amount of energy for cells via the respiratory chain. The respiratory chain complexes are encoded in the mitochondrial genome and are synthesized in specialized mitochondrial ribosomes. The biosynthesis of ribosomes is one of the key aspects for mitochondrial gene expression, is tightly regulated and can be disrupted or altered in several inheritable diseases.

The Hällberg group performs biochemical and structural studies to better understand the molecular mechanisms for mitochondrial ribosome biogenesis. We have two different projects that rely on different cryo-EM methodologies.

Project 1. Single particle cryo-electron microscopy is a structural biology technique that allows the study of heterogeneous and complex samples with unprecedented resolution. This project relies on protein expression and purification and immunoprecipitation of cellular complexes to perform single particle cryo-electron microscopy.

Project 2. Cryo-electron tomography is a young and fast-developing technique aimed at bridging the gap between structural and cell biology. This master thesis project employs cell culture, cryo-FIB-SEM and tomography to perform in situ structural studies of mitochondrial complexes.

Our group is located at Karolinska Institutet Biomedicum, an innovative building with shared offices and labs designed to foster interdisciplinary interactions. The group works in proximity with the KI 3D-EM facility (https://ki.se/cmb/3d-em), that provides cutting edge equipment to bring electron microscopy methods from single particle to cells and tissues.