Slayton Evans 2026 Colloquium Guest Speaker – Bil Clemons

Start dateFebruary 12, 2026 12:30 pm

End dateFebruary 12, 2026 1:30 pm

Killing bacteria by leveraging phage-derived peptide antibiotics

Bil Clemons
California Tech
A catered lunch for colloquium attendees only will be served from 11:30 to 12:30 pm in the Stone Center.

Bio

Professor Bil Clemons received his PhD from the University of Utah working under Prof. Venki Ramakrishnan. During this time he spent two years as a visiting scientist at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England. The most notable achievement during his graduate work was that he was part of the team that solved the first atomic resolution structure of a small ribosomal subunit. This work led to a fundamental understanding of the translation of the genetic code and provided molecular details of the mechanism of a number of antibiotics. He then took a post-doctoral position at Harvard Medical School working for Profs. Tom Rapoport and Steve Harrison. During this time he solved the structure of the ubiquitous protein translocation channel. This membrane protein structure allowed for a clear model of how this fundamentally important complex could perform its unique function. Arriving at Caltech in 2006, the Clemons lab has continued its focus on structurally characterizing important biological systems.

Abstract

A vital step in the bacteriophage life cycle is the need to breach the peptidoglycan layer of the bacterial cell wall. Although various lysis mechanisms have evolved, the simplest ones are found in single-stranded DNA or RNA bacteriophages, which, due to their small genomes, encode a single-gene lysis (Sgl) protein. In this talk, I will discuss how we use single-particle electron cryo-microscopy to determine structures of these Sgls bound to their targets, including the essential enzyme MraY and the flippase MurJ. I will explain how these structures have inspired both mechanistic understanding and our efforts to develop new small-molecule inhibitors.

Slayton Evans 2026 Colloquium Guest Speaker – Bil Clemons

Killing bacteria by leveraging phage-derived peptide antibiotics

Bil Clemons California Tech A catered lunch for colloquium attendees only will be served from 11:30 to 12:30 pm in the Stone Center.

Bil Clemons
California Tech
A catered lunch for colloquium attendees only will be served from 11:30 to 12:30 pm in the Stone Center.