Alberto Bartesaghi

Associate Professor of Computer Science

Dr. Bartesaghi is an Associate Professor in the departments of Computer Science, Biochemistry and Electrical and Computer Engineering at Duke University. The Bartesaghi Lab focuses on the development of machine learning approaches to determine the structure of macromolecular complexes of general biomedical interest using single-particle cryo-electron microscopy, cryo-electron tomography, and sub-volume averaging. Some of our targets include glycoproteins of enveloped viruses like HIV, Influenza and Ebola, transporters and channels involved in signaling and metabolism, GPCRs, DNA-targeting CRISPR-Cas surveillance complexes, and targets for cancer drugs. The lab also works more broadly in the fields of deep learning and artificial intelligence, computer vision, biomedical imaging, and high-performance computing.

Appointments and Affiliations

  • Associate Professor of Computer Science
  • Associate Professor of Biochemistry
  • Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
  • Faculty Network Member of the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences

Contact Information

  • Office Location: 308 Research Drive, LSRC D338, Durham, NC 27708-0129
  • Office Phone: +1 919 660 6579
  • Email Address: alberto.bartesaghi@duke.edu
  • Websites:

Education

  • D.Phil. University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, 2005

Research Interests

Image analysis, data science, computer vision, machine learning, image reconstruction, cryo-electron microscopy, protein structure

Courses Taught

  • COMPSCI 562: High-Resolution Cryo-Electron Microscopy Image Analysis
  • COMPSCI 393: Research Independent Study
  • COMPSCI 362: Introduction to Computational Imaging
  • COMPSCI 290: Topics in Computer Science
  • CBB 562: High-Resolution Cryo-Electron Microscopy Image Analysis
  • BIOCHEM 700: Graduate Training Internship
  • BIOCHEM 593: Research Independent Study
  • BIOCHEM 562: High-Resolution Cryo-Electron Microscopy Image Analysis
  • BIOCHEM 393: Research Independent Study

In the News

Representative Publications

  • Bouvette, Jonathan, Hsuan-Fu Liu, Xiaochen Du, Ye Zhou, Andrew P. Sikkema, Juliana da Fonseca Rezende E Mello, Bradley P. Klemm, et al. “Beam image-shift accelerated data acquisition for near-atomic resolution single-particle cryo-electron tomography.” Nat Commun 12, no. 1 (March 30, 2021): 1957. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-22251-8.
  • Bartesaghi, Alberto, Cecilia Aguerrebere, Veronica Falconieri, Soojay Banerjee, Lesley A. Earl, Xing Zhu, Nikolaus Grigorieff, et al. “Atomic Resolution Cryo-EM Structure of β-Galactosidase.” Structure (London, England : 1993) 26, no. 6 (June 2018): 848-856.e3. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.str.2018.04.004.
  • Kang, Yanyong, Oleg Kuybeda, Parker W. de Waal, Somnath Mukherjee, Ned Van Eps, Przemyslaw Dutka, X Edward Zhou, et al. “Cryo-EM structure of human rhodopsin bound to an inhibitory G protein.” Nature 558, no. 7711 (June 2018): 553–58. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-018-0215-y.
  • Guo, Tai Wei, Alberto Bartesaghi, Hui Yang, Veronica Falconieri, Prashant Rao, Alan Merk, Edward T. Eng, et al. “Cryo-EM Structures Reveal Mechanism and Inhibition of DNA Targeting by a CRISPR-Cas Surveillance Complex.” Cell 171, no. 2 (October 2017): 414-426.e12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2017.09.006.
  • Aguerrebere, C., M. Delbracio, A. Bartesaghi, and G. Sapiro. “Fundamental limits in multi-image alignment.” IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing 64, no. 21 (November 1, 2016): 5707–22. https://doi.org/10.1109/TSP.2016.2600517.
  • Merk, Alan, Alberto Bartesaghi, Soojay Banerjee, Veronica Falconieri, Prashant Rao, Mindy I. Davis, Rajan Pragani, et al. “Breaking Cryo-EM Resolution Barriers to Facilitate Drug Discovery.” Cell 165, no. 7 (June 2016): 1698–1707. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2016.05.040.