Flatiron Institute (Simons Foundation) / formerly Max Planck / University of Antioquia
Info
Research Scientist and Project Leader for Biomolecular and Biophysical Inference (BBI) at the Center for Computational Mathematics, Flatiron Institute (Simons Foundation), New York (joined April 2021). Develops mathematical and computational methods to characterize protein structures and dynamics from cryo-EM, single-molecule spectroscopy, and biomolecular simulations. Particularly known for Bayesian approaches to extracting conformational heterogeneity from cryo-EM images. Developer of CryoLike, a computationally efficient algorithm for image-to-structure likelihoods. Previously Max Planck Tandem Group Leader (Univ. of Antioquia, Colombia / MPI Biophysics, Frankfurt). PhD at SISSA (Italy).
DiffUSE relevance
Cossio’s Bayesian methods for extracting conformational ensembles from experimental data are directly analogous to the challenge DiffUSE faces: extracting dynamics information from diffuse scattering. Her mathematical framework (probabilistic inference on structural models given noisy imaging data) could be adapted to model diffuse scattering patterns as arising from ensembles of conformational states.
Key Relationships
- Flatiron Institute Center for Computational Mathematics — current position
- CryoLike — Python package for cryo-EM image-to-structure likelihoods
- Max Planck Institute of Biophysics (Frankfurt) — previous affiliation
- Cryo-EM conformational heterogeneity community (Flatiron Cryo-EM Challenge co-organizer)
- SISSA (Trieste) — PhD training
Sources
- Flatiron profile: https://www.simonsfoundation.org/people/pilar-cossio/
- Cossio Lab: https://pilarcossio.org/
- CryoLike preprint: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.10.18.619077v1