Biography

Biological systems rely on large polymers of proteins to provide mechanical scaffolds to cope with existing in the physical world. One particular area of interest is how these scaffolds are constructed to perform their necessary functions. During my PhD, I studied how microtubule-associated proteins cooperate to stabilize tubulin oligomers during microtubule nucleation using cryo-EM, X-ray crystallography, and live imaging of microtubule polymerization in biochemical reconstitutions. At NYSBC, I study the structures of heterogeneous viral-like particles to understand the principles governing their assembly, with an eye toward nanoparticle design for cryo-EM sample preparation and biomedical applications. As a staff electron microscopist, I also assist with SEMC user sessions and training, including cryo-EM data processing workshops in CryoSPARC. Outside the lab, I enjoy exploring the Met Museum, trying new restaurants around the city, lifting and taking yoga classes, and making weekend escapes to the Jersey Shore.

Publications

Overcoming air–water interface-induced artifacts in cryo-EM with protein nanocrates

Matthew C. Jenkins, Daija Bobe, Jake D. Johnston, Jonah Cheung, Akira Karasawa, Christina M. Zimanyi, Ömer Dermanci, Collin T. McManus, M. G. Finn, Alex de Marco, Mykhailo Kopylov

Nature Methods, Vol. 23, Issue 9, Pages 1798-1804

2026 September

SCM-1/SCAMP Maintains Microdomain Boundaries and Cargo Sorting within the Endosomal System

Kam Shan Hu, Anne Norris, Wilmer Rodriguez-Polanco, Collin McManus, Inna A. Nikoronova, Geoffrey G. Hesketh, Anne-Claude Gingras, Maureen M. Barr, Barth D. Grant

2026 May

Molecular insight into microtubule nucleation by the XMAP215/γ-TuRC module

Collin T. McManus, Sophie M. Travis, Philip D. Jeffrey, Rui Zhang, Sabine Petry

Nature Communications, Vol. 17, Issue 1

2026 May

How augmin establishes the angle of the microtubule branch site

Sophie M. Travis, Jodi Kraus, Collin T. McManus, Kiana Golden, Rui Zhang, Sabine Petry

Nature Communications, Vol. 16, Issue 1

2025 October

Conformational states of the microtubule nucleator, the γ-tubulin ring complex

Brianna Romer, Sophie M. Travis, Brian P. Mahon, Collin T. McManus, Philip D. Jeffrey, Nicolas Coudray, Rishwanth Raghu, Michael J. Rale, Ellen D. Zhong, Gira Bhabha, Sabine Petry

2023 December

Mutagenesis and structural modeling implicate RME-8 IWN domains as conformational control points

Anne Norris, Collin T. McManus, Simon Wang, Ruochen Ying, Barth D. Grant

PLOS Genetics, Vol. 18, Issue 10, Pages e1010296

2022 October

LetB Structure Reveals a Tunnel for Lipid Transport across the Bacterial Envelope

Georgia L. Isom, Nicolas Coudray, Mark R. MacRae, Collin T. McManus, Damian C. Ekiert, Gira Bhabha

Cell, Vol. 181, Issue 3, Pages 653-664.e19

2020 April