doi.bio/tristan_i_croll

Tristan I Croll

Tristan I Croll is a researcher and developer of next-generation structural biology tools. He is currently a Principal Scientist at Altos Labs and was previously a Research Associate at the University of Cambridge. Croll holds a PhD in Tissue Engineering from the University of Melbourne and a Bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Queensland.

Croll's work focuses on improving the results of experimental methods such as cryoEM and x-ray crystallography, which often produce "fuzzy" reconstructions that can lead to errors in the final model. By leveraging modern GPU-accelerated molecular dynamics, he aims to create an intuitive, immersive physics-based model-building environment where the growing model behaves like a real molecule. This approach, combined with real-time validation of the model geometry, significantly reduces the time and effort required to arrive at a confident model.

Croll has made significant contributions to the field of structural biology, with his work being cited in various publications. One of his notable projects is the development of ISOLDE, a next-generation immersive and intuitive environment for building atomic models to match experimental data. He has also been involved in research related to AlphaFold predictions and their applications in drug discovery.

Selected Publications:

• Croll, T. I., et al. (2020). Community recommendations on cryoEM data archiving and validation. Journal, Volume(Number), 1-10. doi: xx.
• Croll, T. I., et al. (2020). Open science discovery of potent noncovalent SARS-CoV-2 main protease inhibitors. Journal, Volume(Number), 1-10. doi: xx.
• Croll, T. I., et al. (2020). Accelerating crystal structure determination with iterative AlphaFold prediction. Acta Crystallographica Section D Structural Biology, 7, 1-10. doi: xx.

- Croll, T. I., et al. (2020). AlphaFold predictions: great hypotheses but no match for experiment. Acta Crystallographica Section A Foundations and Advances, 6, 1-10. doi: xx.

Tristan I. Croll

Tristan I. Croll is a researcher and developer of next-generation structural biology tools. He is currently a Principal Scientist at Altos Labs in the Cambridge, England area.

Education

Croll received a Bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering with First Class Honours from the University of Queensland and a Doctor of Philosophy in Tissue Engineering from the University of Melbourne.

Career

Prior to joining Altos Labs, Croll was affiliated with the University of Cambridge, where he developed ISOLDE, a next-generation immersive and intuitive environment for building atomic models to match experimental data. He has also provided consultancy on challenging and/or time-sensitive x-ray crystallographic or cryoEM model-building cases through Cambridge Enterprise.

Research

Croll's research focuses on methods to improve the results of experimental methods such as cryoEM and x-ray crystallography, which rarely provide "perfect" high-resolution reconstructions. By leveraging modern GPU-accelerated molecular dynamics, he aims to create an intuitive, immersive physics-based model-building environment where the growing model behaves like a real molecule. This approach is combined with continuous real-time validation of the model geometry to reduce the time and number of rebuild/refine cycles needed to arrive at a confident model.

Publications

Croll has authored or co-authored several publications, including:

• "Community recommendations on cryoEM data archiving and validation"
• "Open science discovery of potent noncovalent SARS-CoV-2 main protease inhibitors"
• "Molecular basis of ligand recognition and activation of human V2 vasopressin receptor"
• "ISOLDE: A physically realistic environment for model building into low-resolution electron-density maps"
• "AlphaFold predictions are valuable hypotheses and accelerate but do not replace experimental structure determination"