Rich Posert

Responsibilities

• A complete re-write of the CryoSPARC guide, with a focus on increasing the approachability for new users and the depth of material available.
• Developing and delivering trainings for the entire range of CryoSPARC users, from new students to experienced SPA practicitioners.
• Providing internal guidance and trainings to aid inter-team communication.

Skills/Experience

• Extensive experience with cryoEM single-particle analysis of small membrane proteins
• Optimization of grid type, grid conditions, and blotting protocol
• Advanced particle cleaning including 3DVA subpopulation picking and cryoDRGN latent space selection improved best-quality ENaC ECD reconstruction resolution from 3.1Å to 2.4Å
• Advanced mask creation and refinement in RELION to reveal TMD information initially lost to Fab and micelle alignment
• Extensive experience with and optimization of mamallian cell culture expression of membrane proteins
• Extensive development and optimization of protein purification protocols
• Implementation of GFP-nanobody resin purification
• Time from cell pellet to grid-ready protein reduced from approximately 72 hours to 18 hours
• Purity, homogeneity, and yield improved
• Development of multiple software tools
• Appia, a chromatography processing and visualization package used in multiple labs across multiple instututions
• Exawatcher, a RELION job monitor
• Mortimer, a cryoEM screening assistant
• Construction, installation and maintenance of two cryoEM workstations
• Implementation of LDAP/PAM logins for users with OHSU accounts
• Installation and maintenance of multi-node cryoSPARC cluster
• Custom automated disk usage monitoring system

Publications

Skills/Experience

• Built structures to support an organization that grew from eight people to approximately 300
• Worked with many groups, large and small, to achieve long-term goals
• Produced most grahpical elements of our campaign, including emails, posters, and presentations
• Designed surveys and visualized the results to guide our bargaining tactics and goals
• Bargained a legal contract between OHSU and our union of 300 graduate students worth, in total, over $3,000,000

Skills/Experience

• Extensive construct design and cloning experience
• Extensive expression of protein in Pichia pastoris
• Development of protocols for purification of ion channel GIRK2/4 heterotetramer
• Development of scripts to simplify analysis of detergent screening experiments
• Mammalian and insect cell culture

Skills/Experience

• Cloning and expression of a small soluble protein, PinX1
• Ciruclar Dichroism and chromatography experiments
• split-TRAP functional assay developement

Teaching

cryoEM and Coding Workshops

• Ran workshops in git, R, and python for the cryoEM community at OHSU
• Designed and wrote several exercises for self-assesment of python skills
• Exercise site is a custom interactive site, allowing for learners to choose how many hints are revealed
• Hints are classified as conceptual (how to break a problem down) or syntactic (actual code) hints
• Ran an Advent of Code working group for the Vollum Institute

Courses

• Teaching assistant for CONJ 661: Biochemistry, a required course for all incoming graduate students in the umbrella program
• One of two co-lecturers for the NEUS 619: Effective Scientific Presentation, required for all incoming Neuroscience students

Web Games

Wordle and Spelling Bee clones

• Built to self-teach Vue framework
• Both run a CouchDB/Flask backend and Vue frontend
• Worlde includes multiplayer mode which uses websockets to send keypresses and guesses
• Spelling bee includes a simple user authentication setup to allow for play across multiple devices

INDEL

• Also created to learn Vue, but it's an original creation 😄

Blender

• Self-taught Blender for biochemistry visualizations, especially large images of cryoEM maps for posters or presentations

Hobbies

• I love to backpack! I've taken several trips around Oregon and Washington. My favorites have been Cispus Pass and the Alvord Desert.
• I'm very glad I enjoy cooking because I'd have to do it even if I didn't. Recently I've been making a lot of steamed buns, both traditional (curry vegetables and tofu) and...original (cheeseburger buns are very good).
• I also enjoy baking, especially working with bread. I've also assigned myself the task of getting good at making baguettes over the summer to go along with light salads and hummus.