Aleksandra Woznicka - Institut de Biologie Structurale, Grenoble

Aleksandra comes from University of Lodz, Poland, where she finished her first Master in Biochemistry. She later completed her second Master in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Chicago, USA. Aleksandra joined NanoMem on April 15, 2013 as a PhD student within Eva Pebay-Peyroula`s. Her objective is to investigate and characterize different mitochondrial human ADP/ATP carriers (AAC) isoforms but also focusing on some AAC homologs from different organisms: plants and fungi. She will be using different expression systems, different purification methods and tools: MALLS, TSA, mass-spectroscopy, FRET, radioactivity assays, crystallography (LCP, FRAP, xFel). Aleksandra is collaborating with Partner 8 (ESRF).

Anastasya Shilova -  European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, Grenoble

Anastasya comes from Saint Petersburg State University (Russia) where she did both, her Bachelor and Master in Chemistry, Physics, and mechanics of materials. Being highly motivated to move to the field of
structural biology, she recently joined the NanoMem training program on January 13, 2014 as a PhD student (ESR) at Manfred Burghammer's group. Her PhD project is to combine micro-/nano-diffraction methods employing serial crystallography data collection techniques for membrane protein crystals. The use of in-situ optical tweezers sample manipulation for such experiments shall also be explored. Anastasya is has started establishing close collaboration with Partner 5 (CNRS) and she is preparing for a collaborative lipidic cubic phase micro-jet micro-beam experiment scheduled at the ESRF in May 2014.

Publications:

Nogly, P., James, D., Wang, D., White, T.A., Zatsepin, N., Shilova, A., Nelson, G., Liu, H., Johansson, L., Heymann, M., Jaeger, K., Metz, M., Wickstrand, C., Wu, W., Båth, P., Berntsen, P., Oberthuer, D., Panneels, V., Cherezov, V., Chapman, H., Schertler, G., Neutze, R., Spence, J., Moraes, I., Burghammer M, Standfuss, J. & Weierstall, U.  (2015) Lipidic cubic phase serial millisecond crystallography using synchrotron radiation. IUCrJ, 2(2),168-176. [FULLTEXT]

Coquelle, N., Brewster, A.S., Kapp, U., Shilova, A., Weinhausen, B., Burghammer, M. & Colletier, J.-P.(2015) Raster-scanning serial protein crystallography using micro- and nano-focused synchrotron beams Acta Cryst. D71, 1184-1196 [FULLTEXT]

Gabriela Kovacsova - Max Planck Institute, Heidelberg

Publications:

Katharina Jungnickel - Molecular Dimensions

Katharina comes from Heiligenkreuz, Germany. She completed her Bachelor of Science and Master of Science in Biochemistry at the Martin-Luther-University in Halle (Saale), Germany. Since October 1st 2013, Katharina has been employed by Molecular Dimensions Ltd and enrolled as DPhil student in Biochemistry at the University of Oxford. Katharina aims to characterise membrane transporters structurally and functionally. She will use both conventional synchrotron radiation and XFEL radiation for structure determination. She has already crystallised four membrane transporters in lipidic cubic phase using a prototype of the MemMeso screen which is now being sold by Molecular Dimensions. This is the first commercial exploitation result from NanoMem. Katharina attended a workshop at Arizona State University to be trained in the production of microjet nozzles that are used for the injection of microcrystals in XFEL experiments and plans a visit to Partner 1 (UGOT) to learn the handling of lipidic sponge phases. Further information about Katharina's research at:

http://www.bioch.ox.ac.uk/aspsite/index.asp?sectionid=garman

Markus Metz - Center for Free-Electron Laser Science, DESY, Hamburg

Markus comes from Austria and received his Master degree in Biochemistry working in Ada Yonath's lab at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. After that a chance encounter in Stanford with Henry Chapman convinced Markus that his future lies in X-ray free electron laser science. Markus started his PhD studies in Henry's lab on January 1st 2014, as part of the NanoMem PhD program. He has participated in one experiment at the LCLS and is currently learning the methods of serial femtosecond crystallography (SFX) data processing.

Publications:

Ayyer, K., Yefanov, O.M., Oberthür, D., Roy-Chowdhury, S., Galli, L., Mariani, V., Basu, S., Coe, J., Conrad, C.E., Fromme, R., Schaffer, A., Dörner, K., James, D., Kupitz, C., Metz, M., Nelson, G., Xavier, P.L., Beyerlein, K.R., Schmidt, M., Sarrou, I., Spence, J.C., Weierstall, U., White, T.A., Yang, J.H., Zhao, Y., Liang, M., Aquila, A., Hunter, M.S., Robinson, J.S., Koglin, J.E., Boutet, S., Fromme, P., Barty, A. & Chapman, H.N. (2016) Macromolecular diffractive imaging using imperfect crystals. Nature, 530(7589), 202-6. [FULLTEXT]

Kirian, R.A., Awel, S., Eckerskorn, N., Fleckenstein, H., Wiedorn, M., Adriano, L., Bajt, S., Barthelmess, M., Bean, R., Beyerlein, K.R., Chavas, L.M., Domaracky, M., Heymann, M., Horke, D.A., Knoska, J., Metz, M., Morgan, A., Oberthuer, D., Roth, N., Sato, T., Xavier, P.L., Yefanov, O., Rode, A.V., Küpper, J. & Chapman, H.N. (2015) Simple convergent-nozzle aerosol injector for single-particle diffractive imaging with X-ray free-electron lasers. Struct. Dyn. 2(4) 041717. [FULLTEXT]

Nogly, P., James, D., Wang, D., White, T.A., Zatsepin, N., Shilova, A., Nelson, G., Liu, H., Johansson, L., Heymann, M., Jaeger, K., Metz, M., Wickstrand, C., Wu, W., Båth, P., Berntsen, P., Oberthuer, D., Panneels, V., Cherezov, V., Chapman, H., Schertler, G., Neutze, R., Spence, J., Moraes, I., Burghammer M, Standfuss, J. & Weierstall, U.  (2015) Lipidic cubic phase serial millisecond crystallography using synchrotron radiation. IUCrJ, 2(2),168-176. [FULLTEXT]

Fenalti, G., Zatsepin, N. A., Betti, C., Giguere, P., Han, G. W., Ishchenko, A., Liu, W., Guillemyn, K., Zhang, H., James, D., Wang, D., Weierstall, U., Spence, J. C. H., Boutet, S., Messerschmidt, M., Williams, G. J., Gati, C., Yefanov, O. M., White, T. A., Oberthuer, D., Metz, M., Yoon, C. H., Barty, A., Chapman, H. N., Basu, S., Coe, J., Conrad, C. E., Fromme, R., Fromme, P., Tourwé, D., Schiller, P. W., Roth, B. L., Ballet, S., Katritch, V., Stevens, R. C., and Cherezov, V. (2015) Structural basis for bifunctional peptide recognition at human δ-opioid receptor. Nat. Struct. Mol. Biol. 22, 265-268. [FULLTEXT]

Robert Dods  - University of Gothenburg

Rob comes from Nottingham in the UK and attained his Masters of Science in Natural Sciences at Durham University.  He joined the NanoMem training program as a PhD student (ESR) in Richard Neutze's lab (Partner 1, UGOT) on February 1st, 2013.  Rob is investigating the conformational changes of photo-excited proteins on an ultrafast time-scale, utilizing advances made in X-ray free electron laser (XFEL) science.  He is working with solution-based time-resolved wide-angle X-ray scattering (WAXS) as well as time-resolved serial femtosecond crystallography (SFX).  To this end he has made one exchange to Hamburg (Partner 9, UHAM) to learn how to produce microjets needed for the injection of samples at an XFEL.  He has participated in two joint experiments at the LCLS, the world's first XFEL in Stanford: in February 2014 in collaboration with Partner 2 (PSI), Partner 4 (SWISSCI) and Partner 9 (UHAM); and in October 2013 in collaboration with Partner 9 (UHAM). 

Publications:

Wickstrand, C., Dods, R., Royant, A. & Neutze, R. (2015) Bacteriorhodopsin: Would the real structural intermediates please stand up? Biochim. Biophys. Acta, 1850(3),536-53. [FULLTEXT]

Wenting Wu - Paul Scherrer Institute, Switzerland

Wenting originally comes from Shanghai and obtained her BSc and MSc in Biochemistry at Imperial College London, UK. She joined the NanoMem Network on 18th February 2013 in Gebhard Schertler's lab (Partner 2, PSI) and is enrolled at ETH Zürich as a PhD student. She is working on nanocrystallisation of G protein-coupled receptors and would like to study their structural dynamics using an X-ray free electron laser (XFEL). She has participated in one joint experiment at the LCLS, Stanford, in February 2014. In addition, she is also exploring methods for nanocrystal characterization and tools to facilitate nanocrystallization of membrane proteins.

Publications:

Panneels, V., Wu, W., Tsai, C.J., Nogly, P., Rheinberger, J., Jaeger, K., Cicchetti, G., Gati, C., Kick, L.M., Sala, L., Capitani, G., Milne, C., Padeste, C., Pedrini, B., Li, X.D., Standfuss, J., Abela, R. & Schertler, G. (2015) Time-resolved structural studies with serial crystallography: A new light on retinal proteins. Struct Dyn. 2(4):041718. [FULLTEXT]

Nogly, P., James, D., Wang, D., White, T.A., Zatsepin, N., Shilova, A., Nelson, G., Liu, H., Johansson, L., Heymann, M., Jaeger, K., Metz, M., Wickstrand, C., Wu, W., Båth, P., Berntsen, P., Oberthuer, D., Panneels, V., Cherezov, V., Chapman, H., Schertler, G., Neutze, R., Spence, J., Moraes, I., Burghammer M, Standfuss, J. & Weierstall, U.  (2015) Lipidic cubic phase serial millisecond crystallography using synchrotron radiation. IUCrJ, 2(2),168-176. [FULLTEXT]

Živa Vučkovič - SWISSCI, Switzerland

Živa obtained her degree in Biochemistry from the University of Ljubljana. After being involved in several projects during her studies, she went for an internship at the Mawson Institute, University of South Australia where she was working on controlled drug delivery from contact lenses. She became interested in Structural Biology during her second internship at Paul Scherrer Institut in Switzerland where she was producing ligands for the cocrystallization of VEGF receptor. In January 2013 she joined Nanomem program and is now investigating different crystallization strategies for adrenergic receptors.

Publications:

Heydenreich, F.M., Vuckovic, Z., Matkovic, M. & Veprintsev, D.B. (2015) Stabilization of G protein-coupled receptors by point mutations. Front Pharmacol. 6:82. [FULLTEXT]

Former Nanomem PhD student

Akram Mohd - Max Planck Institute Heidelberg

Akram Mohd comes from Tundla, in India. He obtained his Bachelor degree in Chemistry from Aligarh Muslim University and his Master degree in Biotechnology from Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, both in India. He joined the NanoMem project as a PhD student (ESR) under the supervision of Ilme Schlichting on March 22nd 2013.  He spent two months in Volker Zickermann's laboratory in Frankfurt to optimize crystallization conditions of complex I microcrystals for SFX measurements. The crystals were measured during the January 2014 protein crystal screening beamtime at the LCLS.

Former Nanomem PhD student

Ana Rita dos Santos Silva - Imperial College, London

Ana comes from Esposende in Portugal. She holds a degree in Biosciences and a Master in Microbiology from Portuguese Catholic University, Department of Biotechnology, Porto. She later continued her academic training at the Macromolecular Crystallography Unit at Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica (ITQB) in Lisbon. Anna joined the NanoMem training program on August 2013 as a PhD student under the supervision of Professors So Iwata and Xiaodong Zhang. She is currently working to characterise Caveolae biogenesis and regulation. Crystals obtained will be used for both, conventional synchrotron radiation and XFEL radiation for structure determination. Rita has participated in one joint experiment at the the LCLS in Stanford in January 2014 in collaboration with Partner 9 (UHAM). She was also trained at Membrane Protein Laboratory at Diamond in lipidic cubic phase crystallisation for XFEL.