Blob-ology and biology of cryo-EM: an interview with Helen Saibil

Helen Saibil is Bernal Professor of Structural Biology at Birkbeck, University of London. After undergraduate work at McGill University, Canada, Helen moved to London for her PhD at Kings College. After stints at CEA Grenoble and the University of Oxford, she moved to Birkbeck where her lab studies the operation of macromolecular machinery—including molecular chaperones, protein folding/misfolding, and host cell interactions with pathogens. Helen is a Fellow of the Royal Society, Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, and an Honorary Member of both the British Biophysical Society and the Royal Microscopical Society. She talked to us about the background, recent developments, and future prospects in cryo-electron microscopy.