Gourdon Group - Membrane Protein Structural Biology

Kaituo Wang, PhD, Assistant Professor

Took his PhD in Prof. Xiao-Dong Su’s laboratory at the prestigious Peking University (China), and then went on to Prof. Poul Nissen's group in Aarhus (Denmark). Kaituo's efforts were essential for recovering the first crystal structures of a zinc-transporting P-type ATPase that were published in Nature recently. Now at University of Copenhagen and at UCLA (through a collaboration with the group of Prof. Zhou Hong), he continues this work, while at the same time focusing on structural and functional characterization of other proteins involved in ion flux across cellular membranes. Kaituo loves Chinese delicacies and perhaps somewhat surprisingly, he is also a big fan of karaoke and Danish rugbrød.

Contact: kaituo@sund.ku.dk

Kristian Frandsen, Assistant Professor

Kristian obtained his PhD in 2016 from Prof. Leila Lo Leggio’s group at Department of Chemistry, University of Copenhagen focusing on X-ray crystallography to structurally characterize copper-dependent fungal oxidases, denoted LPMOs, which are involved in plant cell wall biomass conversion and plant pathogenicity, but also in lethal meningitis in humans via interactions with Ctr1 copper transporters. Kristian worked as a postdoc (2017-2019) at the French National Institute of Agricultural Research (INRAE) in Marseille, before returning to University of Copenhagen and Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences (PLEN) in 2020. He is currently employed as an Assistant Professor and works in close collaboration with the Gourdon group focusing on cryo-EM and modelling of plant polysaccharide-synthesizing enzymes and their microtubule binding interaction partners, which are structurally and functionally related to hyaluronan synthases and intrinsically disordered proteins involved in mammalian neurobiology, respectively.

Contact: kehf@plen.ku.dk

Ping Li, PhD, Postdoc

Ping took his PhD in Tianjin Key Laboratory of Protein Science, Nankai University, China, and then moved to the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology in Singapore, where he focused on structural studies of a two-component sensor. He is now working in our group at Lund University, focusing on proteins linked to copper transport across cellular membranes. His main scientific interest regards the elucidation of copper uptake and resistance, therefore his project focuses on structural and functional studies of proteins associated with prokaryotic copper flux across cellular membranes. In his spare time, he enjoys watching and playing football.

Contact: ping.li@med.lu.se

Jie Wang, PhD, Postdoc

Jie obtained her Phd dgree in Chinese Academy of Science (China) focusing on exploring the structures and functions of photosystem light harvesting membrane protein complex. Jie has now chosen to enter the Cryo-EM field of protein structure biology, carrying out her Post-doc studies in Pontus Gourdon’s group at the University of Copenhagen. In her leisure time, Jie enjoys music and wandering in beautiful beach.

Malene Wind, PhD student

Malene obtained her bachelor's in Biochemistry in 2021 from the University of Copenhagen with a focus on protein chemistry and peptide toxins from snakes and scorpios. She started her M.Sc in Biochemistry in 2021 with a specialization in protein chemistry. Her main interest is within structural biology, protein characterization and neuroscience. Malene joined the group to do her Master thesis, and is now working as a PhD student in the group, focussing on targeting different membrane protein channels.

Zongxin Guo, PhD student

Zongxin obtained his Msc in Organic Chemistry from University of Copenhagen and has a strong interest in structural biology. His Master project focused on structural characterization of P-type ATPases. He started his PhD in 2022 and works on disease-related membrane proteins.

Viktoria Bågenholm, PhD, Postdoc

Jonas Hyld Steffen, PhD Student

Niloofar Nayeri, PhD student

She is from Iran originally. Niloofar has a huge interest in figuring out exactly how proteins are and function. Following her interest, she took a BSc in general biology in Iran, and then a MSc in protein science at Lund University (Sweden). Her master's project was performed in Derek Logan's group working on production of ribonucleotide reductases and discovering the role of their ATP-cones. She has now joined the group of Pontus Gourdon in Lund where we are after structural and functional properties of proteins linked to copper homeostasis. Off science, there is an art-loving Niloofar following different types of art. She is also into cooking and deeply in love with Siberian huskies.

Contact: niloofar.nayeri@med.lu.se

Liying Zhang, PhD, Postdoc

Obtained her MSc in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from State Key Laboratory Of Silkworm Genome Biology in Chongqing (China) focusing on exploring the sex control mechanism of silkworm. Liying has now chosen to enter the new field of protein structure biology, carrying out her PhD studies in Pontus Gourdon’s group at the University of Copenhagen. In her leisure time, Liying Zhang enjoys staying with friends and reading the novel of Martial Arts.

Kamil Gotfryd, PhD, Associate Professor

Kamil obtained his MSc degree in Biotechnology at Jagiellonian University in Cracow, Poland. Afterwards, he moved to Denmark and joined a PhD programme at the Copenhagen University. After gaining his PhD, he continued his scientific career in the Molecular Neuropharmacology Group headed by Prof. Ulrik Gether. He then worked as an Associate Professor in our group at Copenhagen University studying biomedically important targets implicated in human metabolism.

Christina Grønberg, PhD, Postdoc

She has studied Medicinal Chemistry at Aarhus University  and selected the “Analysis, Structure and Design” program after the first year, due to the importance of three-dimensional structures of proteins for research and drug development. Christina then did her MSc in Poul Nissen’s group in Aarhus. Christina was then continuing as a PhD student seeking to structurally and functionally characterize different transition metal transporting P-type ATPases. She continued as a BRIDGE fellow focusing on drug development for neuromuscular diseases, in collaboration with NMD Pharma.  

She completed her MSc in biochemistry in 2016 at Per Amstrup Pedersen’s laboratory at the Institute of Biology, University of Copenhagen. Julie started her PhD studies in 2016 where she aimed towards getting a deeper understanding of the structure and mechanism of aquaporins. Following her graduation, she continued as a postdoc focusing on production ion channels using Xenopus oocytes and HEK cells.

Elena Longhin, PhD student

She earned her MSc in Biotechnology at the University of Parma, Italy. She started in our group in Copenhagen as Research Assistant, following her interest in the challenges offered by the structural characterization of membrane proteins. She continued her work as PhD student, working on structural characterization of the zinc-transporting P-type ATPases.

Qiaoxia Hu, PhD student

She obtained her MSc in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Shandong University in China. She is very interested in structural biology because of the associated challenges. She then started her PhD studies in our group at University of Copenhagen to approach the structure and function of transition metal P-type ATPases. 

Eva Ramos Bécares, PhD student.

She obtained her BSc in biochemistry from the Complutense University of Madrid. Subsequently, she moved to the Netherlands, where she got her MSc in Biotechnology at Wageningen University. In the meantime, she carried out an online MSc in Bioinformatics and Biostatistics at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya. Eva then became a PhD student in our group at University of Copenhagen. Her project aims to elucidate the structural and functional basis of zinc translocation.

Nina Salustros, PhD student

She has studied Biochemistry at Goethe-University Frankfurt am Main, Germany. As part of her studies, Nina has been an intern in Pontus Gourdon's Group in Copenhagen, where she focused on overproduction, purification and crystallization of copper transporting P-type ATPases. Back in Germany, she finished her MSc studies at the Department of Structural Biology at the Max Planck Institute of Biophysics in Frankfurt am Main. Then she returned to our group for her PhD, aiming to gain deeper insights into aquaporin structure and function.

 Anders Wiuf, PhD student

He took his BSc in Medicinal Chemistry at the Aarhus University, then continued his studies in Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Copenhagen. Here, Anders worked with Prof. Michael Gajhede. In February 2017 Anders joined our group as a PhD student working with expression, purification and characterization of bacterial zinc transporters (ZIPs).

 Pin Lyu, PhD student

Pin obtained her MSc from Tianjin University of Science & Technology, China, and then worked in a structural biology and protein enzyme laboratory at Tianjin Institute of Industrial biotechnology. She joined the group as a PhD student hoping to shed further light on the structures of membrane proteins. 

 Henriette Elisabeth Autzen, PhD, Postdoc

She obtained her PhD in Prof. Poul Nissen’s laboratory in Aarhus, Denmark, focusing on two P-type ATPases: the Ca(II)-ATPase SERCA from fast-twitch skeletal muscle and the Cu(I)-ATPase Lpg1024 (LpCopA) from Legionella pneumophila. Henriette then continued along those lines for 14 months (2014-2016) within our group through a maintained collaboration with Prof. Poul Nissen's team, focusing on biochemical characterization of the Cu(I)-ATPases.

 Jette Skov Alstrøm, MSc

She obtained her MSc in Molecular Biomedicine at the University of Copenhagen. She focused on structural characterization of connexin channels (gap junctions and hemichannels) while recruited as a research assistant in our group.

 Martina Tamburello, BSc.

Martina took her BSc in Biology at the University of Calabria. Before starting her MSc, she decided to come in Denmark to carry out an internship in our group, in order to acquire new competencies. Her work focused on the purification and crystallization of a zinc-transporting P-type ATPase.

 Kamil Górecki, PhD, Postdoc

Originally from Poland, where he earned his MSc in inorganic chemistry. He moved to the other side of the Baltic Sea to pursue PhD studies in Prof. Cecilia Hägerhäll group, Lund University, Sweden. While working as a postdoc in our group, he focused on structural and functional properties of copper transporters.

 Alba Ferrer Pérez

She was enrolled in the last year of her BSc of Biochemistry at the Universitat de València. She did a three-month Erasmus traineeship in our group, because she wanted to learn more about how to work with membrane proteins. Here, she was working with a zinc-transporting P-type ATPase.

 Md Tamim Al Jubair, PhD, Postdoc

He is from Bangladesh and received his BSc in Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering from Khulna University, Bangladesh. He moved to Sweden and received a MSc in Protein Science from Lund University.  Tamim began his PhD studies in the group of Kristian Riesbeck where worked in close collaboration with Susanna Törnroth-Horsefield (at Lund University). He was employed as a postdoctoral researcher in our group focusing on different heavy metal transporting P-type ATPases.

 Hafsa Saeed, visiting PhD student

She studied Molecular Biology in her home country from University of the Punjab, Pakistan. She joined our group for six months as a PhD guest researcher to learn state-of-the-art techniques about membrane proteins structural biology, with the aim of better understanding zinc-transporting P-type ATPases.

 Aurélie Dupuis, BSc.

Aurélie studied Biomedical Sciences at the University of Mons, Belgium. She performed an internship in our group here in Copenhagen. She worked on the structural and functional characterization of zinc-transporting P-type ATPases, focused on the production, purification and crystallization of some mutants. 

 Hajira Ahmed Hotiana, PhD student

Hajira has a long standing interest in the fields of structural biology and structural pharmacology. Originally from Lahore, Pakistan, she took her Master at the University of London in 2017, where she was involved in the characterization of peptide inhibitors against KSHV infection. She joined the group as a PhD fellow in 2019 to pursue her interest of using structural biology to eradicate diseased states. Hajira will be focusing on structural studies of insulin with chaperones. In her free time, Hajira enjoys travelling, exploring and living life to the fullest.