Page 5 - Hormel Report 2023

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BIOIMAGING CENTER
Susan Hafenstein, PhD, has been appointed to lead The Hormel Institute’s cryo-EM facility. Dr. Hafenstein’s hiring marks a new phase for The Hormel Institute as we progress in establishing the Minnesota Bioimaging Center (MBiC). She brings her expertise in cryo-EM and related technologies and dynamic leadership to the helm to help us accomplish these goals and support our scientists using cryo-EM in order to help us advance cancer research and biomedical discoveries at the Institute.
Dr. Hafenstein joins the robust team of researchers at The Hormel Institute as the first Director of the Cryo-Electron Microscopy (Cryo-EM) core program and Professor of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Biophysics. Most recently, Dr. Hafenstein served as Penn State’s Director for the Center of Structural Biology, Huck Chair of Structural Virology, and Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.
In her own research, Dr. Hafenstein uses local reconstruction approaches with cryo-EM to solve atomic resolution maps of disease-causing viruses such as papillomaviruses, flaviviruses, and enteroviruses. The goal is to better understand viruses’ structures and the ways they function, which could lead to the development of effective treatments and preventative measures to protect people from disease.
Dr. Hafenstein says this new role is one that’s rife with opportunity, for myriad reasons. There are opportunities to use cryo-EM for her own research—but there are also opportunities for collaboration, including with other virologists, and to help others make the best possible use of the tools The Hormel Institute has at hand.
“I really like doing that [helping other researchers use cryo-EM]. There’s already four people here doing cryo-EM,” Dr. Hafenstein said. “The mission is to create a facility that all of Minnesota can use—and even more than that, the Midwest.”
Also joining The Hormel Institute are seven people who will work in
Dr. Hafenstein’s lab—all of whom worked together at Penn State University.
“They’re an excellent group,” Dr. Hafenstein said. “My lab, people work well together... Each one has a certain level of expertise, we’re sort of stair- stepped, and so the people who know more are in the same room with the people who are learning... Everybody has a helpful attitude, where they want to see the other person succeed. My lab excels at that.”
In addition to the defined MBiC goals, Dr. Hafenstein looks forward to further expanding The Hormel Institute’s tomography capabilities and helping researchers succeed in generating the highest possible quality of images from their samples.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT OF AND ADVOCACY FOR MBiC
• Austin Port Authority
• U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar
• U.S. Senator Tina Smith
• State Representative Patricia Mueller
• State Senator Gene Dornink
• City of Austin
• The Hormel Foundation
• University of Minnesota
• Mayo Clinic