Welcome to Lorne Proteins

Heidelberg University

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Petr Chlanda studied Biochemistry at Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic. He earned his PhD at Heidelberg University, focusing on the assembly of poxviruses using electron microscopy (EM) methods. During his postdoctoral research at EMBL Heidelberg and the NIH in Bethesda, he investigated the structural mechanisms of influenza A virus membrane fusion and assembly. In 2017, he became a Chica and Heinz Schaller group leader at the Department of Infectious Diseases – Virology at Heidelberg University and BioQuant. Since 2025, he has held the position of Heisenberg Professor for Cryo-EM of Viral Infection at the Department of Infectious Diseases-Virology, Medical Faculty of Heidelberg University. He is a founding member of the Heidelberg University Cryo-EM Network. His team uses in situ cryo-electron tomography to study cell infection of different RNA viruses with a focus on influenza A virus, SARS-CoV-2 and Ebola viruses.

Cornell University

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Susan Daniel is the Lisa L. Walker '86 Distinguished Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and the William C. Hooey Director of the Robert Frederick Smith School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Cornell University.

 Her research team strives to understand phenomena at biological interfaces and chemically patterned surfaces that interact with soft matter – liquids; polymers; and biological materials, like cells, viruses, proteins, and lipids. Her team pioneered “biomembrane chips” to conduct cell-free, biophysical studies of mammalian, bacteria, and plant cell membranes, and recently merged this technology with organic electronic devices for expanded sensing capabilities.

University of Copenhagen

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Alexander S. Hauser is Associate Professor of Pharmacoinformatics and Pharmacology at the Department of Drug Design and Pharmacology, University of Copenhagen. His research combines pharmacology, genomics, structural biology, and AI-driven data science to advance the understanding and therapeutic targeting of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs). Trained at the University of Copenhagen and the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, he integrates computational and experimental approaches to uncover fundamental principles of receptor signaling and drug action. His work has contributed to the discovery of novel hormone signaling systems, mechanisms governing receptor coupling selectivity, and the influence of human genetic variation on drug response. His current research aims to accelerate precision medicine and next-generation peptide therapeutics through systems-level and machine learning–enabled approaches to translational drug discovery. He is a member of the Young Danish Academy and an EMBO Young Investigator.

University of California San Diego

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Ryan Hibbs is Professor and Chair of Neurobiology and Professor of Pharmacology at the University of California San Diego. He earned a BA in Chemistry-Biochemistry from Whitman College, a PhD in Neuropharmacology from UC San Diego, and completed postdoctoral training in structural biology at the Vollum Institute at Oregon Health & Science University. Prior to joining UCSD in 2023, he served on the faculty at UT Southwestern Medical Center for a decade.

Hibbs studies the structure and function of neurotransmitter receptors that mediate fast synaptic signaling in the nervous system. His laboratory combines cryo-electron microscopy, biochemistry, electrophysiology, and pharmacology to understand how these receptors operate in health and disease and how they are modulated by drugs and autoimmune antibodies. His work has provided foundational structural insights into nicotinic acetylcholine and GABAA receptors, with implications for neurological and neuromuscular disorders. The laboratory also studies the evolution of neurotransmitter receptor families, including specialized sensory receptors that enable chemotactile signaling in cephalopods such as octopus and squid.

Charles University

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Klara studied chemistry at Charles University in Prague and was trained as a biochemist at IOCB (PhD in 2009). Her postdoctoral research in evolution of metabolic pathways with Prof. Shelley Copley at University of Colorado Boulder (2011-2013) sparked her curiosity in life’s early origins and the divide between non-viable and viable, converging with a long-standing interest in astrobiology. She started her independent research at Charles University (Department of Biochemistry and later Department of Cell Biology) in 2016. Her group of Synthetic Biology explores fundamental questions about the origin and evolution of proteins, be it in the era of prebiotic Earth, extant biological or synthetic life. They also have several projects focusing on what it takes for cells to emerge, with the aid of proteins and other key life’s molecules all playing along.

Princeton University

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​​Jerelle Joseph is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering and the Omenn-Darling Bioengineering Institute at Princeton University.  Her research focuses on understanding and engineering biomolecular condensates for biomedical and sustainability applications through the development of computer simulation approaches. Prior to joining Princeton, she completed postdoctoral research in the Department of Physics at the University of Cambridge and held a Junior Research Fellowship in Physical and Chemical Sciences at King's College in Cambridge. Jerelle obtained a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Cambridge and an MPhil in Chemistry from the University of the West Indies, Barbados.

University of Leiden

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After studying Biology, Lars Jeuken completed his PhD in bioinorganic chemistry at Leiden University, where he investigated the structure–function relationship of the blue copper protein azurin. He moved to the University of Oxford as a postdoctoral researcher, focusing on the development of bioelectrochemistry for studying metalloproteins.

Lars was awarded a BBSRC David Phillips Fellowship in 2002, followed by an ERC Consolidator Grant in 2011. These fellowships supported his move to the University of Leeds, where he expanded his research to membrane-bound metalloproteins and their application in semi-artificial photosynthesis. In 2017, he was appointed Full Professor, and in 2021 he returned to Leiden University, where he continues his research into bacterial bioenergetics and compartmentalised (photo)biocatalysis.

Oxford University

Indian Institute of Technology Bombay

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Roop Mallik completed a PhD in Condensed matter Physics before moving to Biology via a brief postdoctoral stint in Chemistry. He then worked at the University of California Irvine as a Long term Postdoctoral fellow of the Human Frontier Sciences Program. He returned to India to start his own group 2006. He is currently a Professor at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay. Mallik's research is extremely interdisciplinary, using an amalgamation of Physics, Biology and Computation. The effort has been to understand how sub-cellular vesicles are transported to specific locations inside cells in response to metabolic and immune signals, and how protein-lipid interactions on the vesicles engineer these responses.

Tata Institute of Fundamental Research

Purdue University

Emory University & Georgia Institute of Technology

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Felipe G. Quiroz is an Assistant Professor in the top-ranked Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering of Emory University and Georgia Institute of Technology. He received a PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Duke University for his work with Prof. Ashutosh Chilkoti, where he uncovered sequence heuristics to engineer the liquid-liquid phase separation behavior (LLPS) of intrinsically disordered proteins. As a postdoctoral fellow with Prof. Elaine Fuchs at Rockefeller University, he pioneered the study of intracellular LLPS in mammalian skin. Building on this path, through a combination of genetic, protein and cellular engineering approaches, his team at Emory and Georgia Tech mines the self-assembly and intracellular LLPS of intrinsically disordered proteins across engineered and biological systems. Felipe is a recipient of the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award and holds a Career Award at the Scientific Interface from Burroughs Wellcome Fund.

University of Texas

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Dr. Y. Jessie Zhang is the L. Leon Campbell Distinguished Professor of Biochemistry in the Department of Molecular Biosciences at The University of Texas at Austin. She received her B.S. in Chemistry from Tsinghua University, her M.S. from University of Oregon with Brian Matthews, and her Ph.D. from The Scripps Research Institute with Ian Wilson, followed by postdoctoral training at Salk Institute for Biological Studies. Her laboratory combines structural biology, chemical biology, and enzymology to investigate RNA polymerase II CTD phosphorylation and transcriptional regulation. Her group has pioneered approaches to uncover combinatorial and masked CTD phosphorylation patterns that govern transcription dynamics and elongation. Her work has been published in multiple Nature portfolio journals, as well as PNAS, JACS, Angewandte Chemie, Science Advances, and ACS Catalysis.. She is a Fellow of the and recipient of the Margaret C. Etter Early Career Award from the American Crystallographic Association.