Discovery Center at Murfree Spring will host Vanderbilt University Professor of Biochemistry Dr. Martin Egli, Thursday, October 22, in celebration of the museum's new exhibit: Makerspace 2.0: Ideas Made Real. Guests may tour components of the exhibit as well.

Discovery Center doors will open at 6 p.m. for light refreshments and a meet-and-greet with Dr. Egli, followed by his presentation at 6:30 p.m. The presentation is free and open to the public- sponsored in part by the Nashville section of the American Chemical Society (ACS).

Research in Dr. Egli's lab pursues a combination of crystallographic studies and biochemical assays to understand cellular processes; both normal, such as circadian rhythms, and abnormal, such as cancer. Why are crystals of DNA and proteins valuable to drug discoverers, such as those recognized by this year's Nobel Prize in Medicine? What insights into how cells function will be provided by using X-rays and neutrons to measure accurate three-dimensional structures of these molecules? His presentation will answer these questions and reflect on the beautiful history of crystallography, to which he has made important contributions.

Martin Egli was born in Schaffhausen, Switzerland, obtained his diploma in Chemistry from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zürich) and his Ph.D. in Stereochemistry and Chemical Crystallography. After postdoctoral studies with Alexander Rich in the Department of Biology at MIT and a lectureship at ETH, he spent five years as Assistant Professor at Northwestern University before moving to Vanderbilt University where he is currently Professor of Biochemistry.