About

Bronwyn Lucas is an Assistant Professor of Molecular & Cell Biology in the Division of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Structural Biology at the Center for Computational Biology. Her research interests include biophysics, gene expression and regulation, machine learning and algorithms, and RNA biology. She focuses on understanding gene regulation and expression through the application of computational and structural biology techniques, integrating machine learning approaches to analyze biological data. Her work aims to advance knowledge in structural biology, gene regulation, and RNA biology, contributing to the broader field of computational and molecular biology.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Artificial Intelligence
• Biology
• Computer vision
• Physics
• Biological system
• Optics

Selected publications

• BPS2026 – Locating macromolecules within crowded cell environments with deep representation learning

  Biophysical Journal · 2026-02-01

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• BPS2026 – MOSAICS (molecular in situ atomic coordinate scanning) enables high-resolution macromolecule structure probing within cryo-EM data using two-dimensional template matching

  Biophysical Journal · 2026-02-01

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• BPS2026 – In situ single-molecule structural biology of ribosomes using 2D-template matching

  Biophysical Journal · 2026-02-01

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• BPS2026 – Minimizing FIB-milling damage to maximize signal in biological cryo-lamella

  Biophysical Journal · 2026-02-01

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• BPS2026 – Visualizing the nucleolar organization of ribosome assembly in budding yeast

  Biophysical Journal · 2026-02-01

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• BPS2026 – Mitigating charge accumulation on lamellae during cryo-EM imaging with a laser phase plate

  Biophysical Journal · 2026-02-01

  articleSenior author
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• Are We Overestimating Cryo-ET? Evaluating the Role of 2D Cryo-EM for <i>In Situ</i> Studies

  Microscopy and Microanalysis · 2025-07-01

  articleOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• A new statistical metric for robust target detection in cryo-EM using 2D template matching

  IUCrJ · 2025-01-17 · 8 citations

  articleOpen access

  2D template matching (2DTM) can be used to detect molecules and their assemblies in cellular cryo-EM images with high positional and orientational accuracy. While 2DTM successfully detects spherical targets such as large ribosomal subunits, challenges remain in detecting smaller and more aspherical targets in various environments. In this work, a novel 2DTM metric, referred to as the 2DTM p-value, is developed to extend the 2DTM framework to more complex applications. The 2DTM p-value combines information from two previously used 2DTM metrics, namely the 2DTM signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and z-score, which are derived from the cross-correlation coefficient between the target and the template. The 2DTM p-value demonstrates robust detection accuracies under various imaging and sample conditions and outperforms the 2DTM SNR and z-score alone. Specifically, the 2DTM p-value improves the detection of aspherical targets such as a modified artificial tubulin patch particle (500 kDa) and a much smaller clathrin monomer (193 kDa) in simulated data. It also accurately recovers mature 60S ribosomes in yeast lamellae samples, even under conditions of increased Gaussian noise. The new metric will enable the detection of a wider variety of targets in both purified and cellular samples through 2DTM.

  PublisherDOI

• To tilt or not to tilt? Strategies for in situ cryo-EM data collection

  Current Opinion in Structural Biology · 2025-07-01 · 5 citations

  reviewOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  Recent breakthroughs in single-particle cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM) and protein structure prediction have transformed our ability to resolve molecular structures. Since we have now experimentally determined, or can confidently predict, the structures of a significant portion of the proteome, and since workflows for imaging in cells are established, the stage is set for applying cryo-EM to understand the molecular basis of complex cellular functions. This review explores a spectrum of data collection strategies-from 2D approaches to tomography-used for in situ cryo-EM. We discuss their relative merits in addressing key biological questions and the need to tailor them towards experimental goals. Improvements in theoretical and practical understanding of the challenges for in situ cryo-EM are necessary for optimizing data collection strategies and pushing the boundaries of structural cell biology.

  PublisherDOI

• Quantifying Focused Ion Beam Milling Damage During Cryo-lamella Preparation

  Microscopy and Microanalysis · 2025-07-01

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Nikolaus Grigorieff

  Howard Hughes Medical Institute

  66 shared

• Benjamin A. Himes

  University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School

  32 shared

• Kexin Zhang

  Fu Wai Hospital

  18 shared

• Sarah Loerch

  University of California, Santa Cruz

  12 shared

• Liang Xue

  Changchun University of Chinese Medicine

  8 shared

• Timothy Grant

  8 shared

• Lynne E. Maquat

  University of Rochester

  5 shared

• Julia Mahamid

  European Molecular Biology Laboratory

  4 shared

Labs

• Center for Computational BiologyPI

Education

• PhD, Biochemistry and Biophysics

  University of Rochester Medical Center

  2019

• B.Sc (Honours) , Biochemistry

  University of Adelaide

  2011