Jennifer Nwokeji hopes to find a cure or treatment for malaria, a disease that still ravages her parents’ home country of Nigeria. As a junior, the molecular biology major is using one of Princeton's most sophisticated microscopes to find out how to stop a protein from burrowing through the membrane wall of a human cell. Nwokeji is using the cryogenic electron microscope (cryo-EM) to help build a 3-D model of the attacking protein. "For proteins, structure dictates function. Once we have the structure, future research can see what it binds to, what it does and ultimately, how to design a drug to stop it," she said.
More on how Princeton’s world-class microscopes are making a giant impact in the realm of the minuscule: bit.ly/3xHBnSo