Sjors Hendrik Willem Scheres FRS (born 1975) is a Dutch scientist at the

MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology The Medical Research Council (MRC) Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) is a research institute in Cambridge, England, involved in the revolution in molecular biology which occurred in the 1950–60s. Since then it has remained a major medical r ...

Cambridge, UK.

Education

Scheres studied Chemistry at

Utrecht University Utrecht University (UU; nl, Universiteit Utrecht, formerly ''Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht'') is a public research university in Utrecht, Netherlands. Established , it is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands. In 2018, it had an enrollm ...

in The Netherlands, and spent nine months at the

European Synchrotron Radiation Facility The European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) is a joint research facility situated in Grenoble, France, supported by 22 countries (13 member countries: France, Germany, Italy, the UK, Spain, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, ...

in France for his undergraduate research thesis. He then came back to

for his

DPhil A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is a ...

Protein Crystallography X-ray crystallography is the experimental science determining the atomic and molecular structure of a crystal, in which the crystalline structure causes a beam of incident X-rays to diffract into many specific directions. By measuring the angles ...

, which was supervised by Piet Gros.

Career

Scheres worked as a

Postdoctoral researcher A postdoctoral fellow, postdoctoral researcher, or simply postdoc, is a person professionally conducting research after the completion of their doctoral studies (typically a PhD). The ultimate goal of a postdoctoral research position is to pu ...

at the Spanish National Center for Biotechnology (CNB) with José Maria Carazo from 2003-2010, where he developed classification algorithms for

Cryogenic electron microscopy Cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM) is a cryomicroscopy technique applied on samples cooled to cryogenic temperatures. For biological specimens, the structure is preserved by embedding in an environment of vitreous ice. An aqueous sample so ...

(cryo-EM) images based on

Maximum likelihood estimation In statistics, maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) is a method of estimating the parameters of an assumed probability distribution, given some observed data. This is achieved by maximizing a likelihood function so that, under the assumed stati ...

. In 2010 Scheres was appointed as a group leader at the

, Cambridge. There, he extended his maximum-likelihood methods to a general

Empirical Bayes method Empirical Bayes methods are procedures for statistical inference in which the prior probability distribution is estimated from the data. This approach stands in contrast to standard Bayesian methods, for which the prior distribution is fixed ...

for

Protein structure Protein structure is the molecular geometry, three-dimensional arrangement of atoms in an amino acid-chain molecule. Proteins are polymers specifically polypeptides formed from sequences of amino acids, the monomers of the polymer. A single ami ...

determination by cryo-EM, which he implemented in the computer program RELION. In 2020, Scheres and collaborators used RELION to reach atomic resolution for a cryo-EM reconstruction of apo-

Ferritin Ferritin is a universal intracellular protein that stores iron and releases it in a controlled fashion. The protein is produced by almost all living organisms, including archaea, bacteria, algae, higher plants, and animals. It is the primary ...

. Besides developing algorithms for cryo-EM image processing, Scheres has also collaborated with experimental groups to solve important protein structures. For example, Xiaochen Bai, currently at

UTSW The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (UT Southwestern or UTSW) is a public academic health science center in Dallas, Texas. With approximately 18,800 employees, more than 2,900 full-time faculty, and nearly 4 million outpatient vi ...

, in his group solved the structure of human

Gamma secretase Gamma secretase is a multi-subunit protease complex, itself an integral membrane protein, that cleaves single-pass transmembrane proteins at residues within the transmembrane domain. Proteases of this type are known as intramembrane proteases. Th ...

in a collaboration with

Shi Yigong Shi Yigong (; born May 1967) is a Chinese biophysicist who serves as founding and the current president of Westlake University since April 2018. He previously served as vice president of Tsinghua University from 2015 to 2018 and dean of Tsin ...

. Since 2016, Scheres has worked closely together with

Michel Goedert Michel Goedert FRS, FMedSci is a Luxembourgish-British neuroscientist and former Head of Neurobiology, at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology. Goedert was born and raised in Luxembourg. After finishing his medical studies at the University ...

, who is also at the

. Using cryo-EM image processing methods that were developed by Scheres, they solved the structure of

Amyloid fibrils Amyloids are aggregates of proteins characterised by a fibrillar morphology of 7–13 nm in diameter, a beta sheet (β-sheet) secondary structure (known as cross-β) and ability to be stained by particular dyes, such as Congo red. In the human ...

Tau protein The tau proteins (abbreviated from tubulin associated unit) are a group of six highly soluble protein isoforms produced by alternative splicing from the gene ''MAPT'' (microtubule-associated protein tau). They have roles primarily in maintaining ...

from the brain of an individual with Alzheimer's disease. Since then, Scheres and Goedert have also solved the cryo-EM structures of tau filaments from multiple other

Tauopathies Tauopathy belongs to a class of neurodegenerative diseases involving the aggregation of tau protein into neurofibrillary or gliofibrillary tangles in the human brain. Tangles are formed by hyperphosphorylation of the microtubule protein known ...

, as well as filaments of

Amyloid beta Amyloid beta (Aβ or Abeta) denotes peptides of 36–43 amino acids that are the main component of the amyloid plaques found in the brains of people with Alzheimer's disease. The peptides derive from the amyloid precursor protein (APP), which i ...

from Alzheimer's disease,

Alpha-synuclein Alpha-synuclein is a protein that, in humans, is encoded by the ''SNCA'' gene. Alpha-synuclein is a neuronal protein that regulates synaptic vesicle trafficking and subsequent neurotransmitter release. It is abundant in the brain, while smaller a ...

from

Multiple system atrophy Multiple system atrophy (MSA) is a rare neurodegenerative disorder characterized by autonomic dysfunction, tremors, slow movement, muscle rigidity, and postural instability (collectively known as parkinsonism) and ataxia. This is caused by p ...

and

TMEM106B Transmembrane protein 106B is a protein that is encoded by the ''TMEM106B'' gene. It is found primarily within neurons and oligodendrocytes in the central nervous system with its subcellular location being in lysosomal membranes. TMEM106B helps faci ...

. Scheres has been a member of the Board of Reviewing Editors for

eLife ''eLife'' is a not-for-profit, peer-reviewed, open access, scientific journal for the biomedical and life sciences. It was established at the end of 2012 by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Max Planck Society, and Wellcome Trust, following a ...

since 2014. He has been joint Head of the Division of Structural Studies of the

since 2018. In 2021, he was elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge, including mathematic ...

Awards

Leeuwenhoek Lecture The Leeuwenhoek Lecture is a prize lecture of the Royal Society to recognize achievement in microbiology. The prize was originally given in 1950 and awarded annually, but from 2006 to 2018 was given triennially. From 2018 it will be awarded bienni ...

of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, r ...

(2022) * Bijvoet medal of the

Bijvoet Center for Biomolecular Research The Bijvoet Centre for Biomolecular Research is a research institute at Utrecht University. The Bijvoet Centre performs research on the relation between the structure and function of biomolecules, including proteins and lipids, which play a role ...

(2018) *Elected

EMBO Member Membership of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) is an award granted by the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) in recognition of "research excellence and the outstanding achievements made by a life scientist". , 88 EMB ...

(2017) * Gold medal KNCV (2015) *

Nature's 10 ''Nature'' 10 is an annual listicle of ten "people who mattered" in science, produced by the scientific journal ''Nature''. Nominees have made a significant impact in science either for good or for bad. Reporters and editorial staff at ''Nature'' ...

who mattered in 2014

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Scheres, Sjors 1975 births Living people Members of the European Molecular Biology Organization Utrecht University alumni Dutch expatriates in the United Kingdom Bijvoet Medal recipients Fellows of the Royal Society