Meet the scientists of ISBUC

Albert Jelke Kooistra

Associate professor, Department of Drug Design and Pharmacology, Discipline of Peptides and Proteins

Data Science for Drug Design | Developing and applying cutting-edge and data-driven technologies to ultimately advance the development of new therapeutics.

Keywords: GPCRs, Kinases, Structural bioinformatics, Cheminformatics, Structure-based drug discovery & design, Research tool/database development

Alexander  Schultz

Professor, Department of Plant and Environmental Science, Section for Transport Biology

Structure-function relationship of symplasmic transport in plants using non-invasive Bioimaging to visualise and quantify plant cell communication across plas­mo­des­mata

Keywords: Plasmodesma communication phloem

Amelie Stein

Associate professor, Department of Biology, Section for Computational and RNA Biology

Consequences of protein sequence changes on structure, function and phenotype

Keywords: structural computational biology, variant consequences, MAVE

Anders Bach

Professor, Department of Drug Design and Pharmacology, Discipline of Medicinal Chemistry

Fragment-based drug discovery (FBDD) on disease-relevant protein-protein interactions (PPIs) in order to evaluate the druggability of selected targets and identify novel chemical probes and therapeutic principles

Keywords: Medicinal Chemistry, Organic Synthesis, Fragment-based drug discovery, Assay development and screening, Protein-Protein Interactions, CNS drug discovery, Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR), Keap1, NADPH oxidase

Anja Tatiana Ramstedt Jensen

Professor, Department of Immunology and Microbiology, Centre for Medical Parasitology

Structural and in vitro molecular and immunological characterization of proteins associated with severe malaria in young children.

Keywords: malaria, pathogenesis, immunity, variant surface antigens, ICAM1, adhesion, molecular interactions, immunology and the immune defence, malaria immunology, malaria vaccine

Anja Thoe Fuglsang

Professor, Department of Plant and Environmental Science, Section for Transport Biology

Identify and elucidate signal transduction pathways regulating the activity of plasma membrane H+-ATPases as response to both abiotic and biotic stresses

Keywords: protein kinases, phosphatases and signaling peptides

Annette Eva Langkilde

Associate professor, Department of Drug Design and Pharmacology, Discipline of Peptides and Proteins

Structural analysis of proteins in solution. SAXS. Protein protein interactions. Protein fibrillation and formation of amyloids and amyloid-like structures.

Keywords: fibrillation, SAXS, amyloids, TEM, fibre diffraction

Azadeh Shahsavar

Assistant professor, Department of Drug Design and Pharmacology, Discipline of Peptides and Proteins

Glycine and glutamine transport molecular characterisation using a multidisciplinary approach including structural studies by Cryo-EM and/or X-ray crystallography, and a range of biophysical and biochemical methods.

Keywords: glycine, glutamine, Cryo-EM, X-ray crystallography

Birthe Brandt Kragelund

Professor, Department of Biology, Section for Biomolecular Sciences

Dynamic Protein-Protein Interactions - Understanding Functional Interactions from a Structural Dynamics Platform

Keywords: NMR, Intrinsically Disordered Proteins, membrane proteins, protein interactions

Céline Galvagnion-Büll

Associate professor, Department of Drug Design and Pharmacology, Discipline of Peptides and Proteins

Mechanistic insights into the interplay between disruptions in lipid homeostasis and Parkinson's Disease. Multidisciplinary approach at the interface between biology and biophysics including the study of different patients derived samples and the characterisation of protein-membrane interactions and aggregation at the molecular level.

Keywords: Parkinson's disease, Amyloid fibrils, Alpha-synuclein, Lipid, Kinetic analysis, Biophysics, Cellular biology, Molecular biology

Christian Adam Olsen

Professor, Department of Drug Design and Pharmacology, Discipline of Peptides and Proteins

Synthesis and evaluation of biologically active peptidomimetics and macrocyclic peptides

Keywords: Foldamers, macrocycles, post translational modifications, epigenetics, affinity-based probes

Claus Juul Løland

Professor, Department of Neuroscience

Elucidation of structure-function relationships in secondary active transporters

Keywords: neurotransmitter transporters, fluorescence, x-ray crystallography, functional reconstitution, membrane protein purification, molecular pharmacology, drug discovery,

David E. Gloriam

Professor, Department of Drug Design and Pharmacology, Discipline of Peptides and Proteins

Structure-based drug design and GPCR crystallography

Keywords: GPCR, computational drug design, crystallisation construct design, database development

Dimitrios Stamou

Professor, Department of Chemistry

Disruptive technologies to study the biophysical properties of membranes and membrane proteins on the nanoscale using fluorescence microscopy.

Keywords: Nanoscale membrane biophysics, membrane proteins, membrane curvature, single molecules, fluorescence microscopy, Ras, G protein coupled receptors, primary and secondary active transporters.

Eva Kummer

Associate professor, Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Research

Working Principles of Molecular Machines involved in Mitochondrial Genome Maintenance & Gene Expression

Keywords: mitochondria, protein-DNA interactions, protein-RNA interactions, electron microscopy, biophysics, biochemistry

Federica Sebastiani

Assistant professor, Department of Pharmacy

Interested in understanding the relationship between structure and function of bio-colloids and biomimetic systems. Experienced user of scattering methods (light, x-rays and neutrons) and skilled in surface characterisation techniques (Ellipsometry, QCM-D, ATR-FTIR). Currently working on drug delivery systems for RNA molecules.

Keywords: lipid self assembly, small angle scattering, gene delivery

Flemming Steen Jørgensen

Professor, Department of Drug Design and Pharmacology, Discipline of Peptides and Proteins

Computational chemistry and prediction of drug metabolism

Keywords: computational chemistry, drug metabolism, prodrugs, transporters

Guillermo Montoya

Professor, Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Research

Molecular understanding of macromolecules involved in cell cycle and genome instability.

Keywords: protein-DNA interaction, X-ray, Electron Microscopy, Biophysics

Heloisa Nunes Bordallo

Associate professor, Niels Bohr Institute, Condensed Matter Physics

Solving scientific questions where complex dynamics play an important role on physical properties.

Keywords: water dynamics, hydrogen bonds, metastable states

Henriette Elisabeth Autzen

Associate professor, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Section for Molecular and Translational Pharmacology

Structural and functional characterisation of mammalian membrane proteins involved in taste-signalling with single-particle cryo-EM and complimentary techniques.

Keywords: cryo-EM, membrane proteins, pharmacology, biochemistry

Jacob Judas Kain Kirkensgaard

Associate professor, Niels Bohr Institute, Condensed Matter Physics; Department of Food Science, Section for Ingredient and Dairy Technology

Soft matter self-assembly, structural food science - primarily using small-angle scattering but also light scattering, rheology, imaging and coarse grained simulations

Keywords: Self-assembly, structural, food science, soft matter

Jannick Prentø

Associate professor, Department of Immunology and Microbiology

Defining the structure/function relationship of viral glycoproteins (including in this case: fusion mechanisms) and tight junctions.

Keywords: viral glycoproteins, flaviviruses, hepaciviruses, pestiviruses

Jette Sandholm Jensen Kastrup

Professor, Department of Drug Design and Pharmacology, Discipline of Peptides and Proteins

Study of ligand-gated ion channel receptor structure and function, which is essential for providing a rational basis for design of therapeutic strategies for treating diseases and disorders within the central nervous system.

Keywords: receptors, soluble domains, protein X-ray, neutron crystallography, protein-ligand, protein-protein interactions, structure-based ligand design; ionotropic glutamate receptors

Jon Sporring

Professor, Department of Computer Science

ND Image analysis

Keywords: Data science, method development

Joseph Matthew Rogers

Associate professor, Department of Drug Design and Pharmacology, Discipline of Peptides and Proteins

Discovery of new drug-like cyclic peptides for disease-relevant proteins, including biophysical and structural characterisation of the discovered molecules.

Keywords: Peptide display, Unnatural amino acids, Cyclic peptides, Protein folding, Intrinsically disordered proteins

Karen Laurence Martinez

Associate professor, Department of Chemistry & Nano-Science Center

Bionanoscience for Membrane Proteins group (BioMeP)
- Use of new biochemical and biophysical tools to investigate membrane proteins isolated and in cells
- Use of nanomaterials for novel cell assays.

Keywords: GPCR, membrane proteins, amphipols, nanodiscs, nanomaterials, surface sensitive techniques,fluorescence,

Karla Andrea Frydenvang

Associate professor, Department of Drug Design and Pharmacology, Discipline of Peptides and Proteins

Structure determination of complexes of Ligand-binding domain of ionotropic glutamate receptors. Structure determination of AKR1C3 in complex with inhibitors.

Keywords: Ionotropic glutamate receptors, ligand-binding, AKR1C3

Kasper Dyrberg Rand

Professor, Department of Pharmacy, Section for Analytical Biosciences

Analysis of the primary structure of proteins by liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry (LC-MS). As well as analysis of the higher-order structure and molecular interactions of proteins and protein systems by hydrogen/deuterium exchange mass spectrometry (HDX-MS).

Keywords: Bioanalytical Chemistry, Protein Analytical Chemistry, HDX-MS, Protein Mass Spectrometry

Klaus Qvortrup

Professor, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Core Facility for Integrated Microscopy (CFIM)

Director of CFIM, offering open access to a broad range of Light and Electron microscopy technologies across scales.

Keywords: Advanced Light, Electron Microscopy, Meniere disease

Kresten Lindorff-Larsen

Professor, Department of Biology, Section for Biomolecular Sciences

Molecular dynamics simulations restrained by experimental data and Relationship between protein structure, function and dynamics

Keywords: biochemistry, computational protein biophysics, protein dynamics, genomics

Kaare Teilum

Associate professor, Department of Biology, Section for Biomolecular Sciences

Link between protein dynamics and function using NMR spectroscopy to look at protein misfolding and aggregation, enzyme catalysis and membrane transport.

Keywords: NMR, Protein dynamics, enzyme stability

Lars Bo Stegeager Hemmingsen

Associate professor, Department of Chemistry, Section for Biological Chemistry

Exploring the role of metal ions in biological systems using various spectroscopic techniques. Current interests: Cu(II) and Zn(II) in Alzheimer's disease, metalloregulatory proteins, ultrasensitive radioisotope based NMR.

Keywords: Metal ions, proteins, spectroscopy

Leila Lo Leggio

Professor, Department of Chemistry

Structural biology of carbohydrate-active, other biotechnology relevant enzymes and  transcription factor.

Keywords: Biochemistry, Carbohydrate-active enzymes, transcription factors, X-ray crystallography, small angle scattering

Lise Arleth

Professor, Associate Dean of Research, SCIENCE Faculty Management

Structure and Self-assembly of Lipid and Protein based systems Small-Angle X-ray and Neutron Scattering (SAXS/SANS) experiments and analysis

Martin Gustavsson

Associate professor, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Section for Molecular and Translational Pharmacology

Structure, dynamics and function of 7TM G protein-coupled receptors.

Keywords: Membrane proteins, 7TM receptors, protein-protein and protein-lipid interactions, receptor pharmacology and signalling

Martin Willemoës

Associate professor, Department of Biology, Section for Biomolecular Sciences

Enzyme engineering and design. Development of selection systems for accelerated evolution of enzyme activities.

Keywords: enzymology, protein engineering, bacterial genetics

Mette Marie Rosenkilde

Professor, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Section for Molecular and Translational Pharmacology

Basic pharmacology within the area of 7TM receptors

Keywords: incretin hormones, 7TM G protein coupled receptors, virus-exploited 7TM receptors

Michael Gajhede

Professor, Department of Drug Design and Pharmacology, Cluster for Biopharmaceuticals

Structural biology of selected histone demethylases and their interactions with other enzymes involved in epigenetic regulation and with potential drug molecules.

Keywords: histone demethylases, epigenetics, enzyme, methylation, lysine, drug design

Michal Tomasz Marzec

Other, Guest researcher, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Section for Inflammation, Metabolism and Oxidation

Proinsulin folding- new necessary steps (type 2 diabetes) and their relationship to degradation and antigen presentation (type 1 diabetes).

Keywords: genetics, protein chaperones, diabetes, GRP94

Morten Jannik Bjerrum

Professor, Department of Chemistry

Bioinorganic Chemistry - Metal ions in biological systems: structure, function, binding, shuttling and exchange - Structure and function of redox active metalloenzymes in metabolic and biotechnological processes

Keywords: Bioinorganic Chemistry, metal ions, macromolecules

Morten Peter Meldal

Professor, Department of Chemistry & Nano-Science Center

Artificial small molecule antibodies and enzymes for medicine and diagnostics using state of the art combinatorial technology and click chemistry

Keywords: Molecular recognition and processing, Artificial antibodies and enzymes, Click chemistry, Combinatorial technology, Peptide - organic solid phase synthesis, Polymers, Cell signaling, Molecular modelling and NMR spectroscopy.

Nicholas M I Taylor

Associate professor, Novo Nordisk Foundation Centre for Protein Research

Structural Biology of Molecular Machines, study of regulation on transport across membranes

Keywords: cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM), structural biology, bacteriophages, bacterial secretion systems, contractile injection systems, membrane transport

Nikos Hatzakis

Professor, Affiliated Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry & Nano-Science Center, Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Research

Advanced fluorescent microscopy and single molecule techniques for deciphering protein dynamics and their role in regulation of protein activity and plasticity

Keywords: Single molecule, microscopy, biophysics,

Osman Asghar Mirza

Associate professor, Department of Drug Design and Pharmacology, Discipline of Peptides and Proteins

Interplay between (un)natural compounds and secondary transporters involved in health and disease.

Keywords: X-ray crystallography, EM, Transporters, Structure, Function

Per Mårten Hägglund

Associate professor, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Section for Inflammation, Metabolism and Oxidation

Mechanisms of protein oxidation and its influence on protein structure and function

Keywords: Mass spectrometry, protein oxidation, cross-linking, extracellular matrix proteins

Peter Waaben Thulstrup

Associate professor, Department of Chemistry, Section for Biological Chemistry

Protein and nucleic acid structures and development of their synthetic modification as tools to investigate aspects of biological chemistry

Keywords: Circular dichroism, fluorescence, electronic structure, excited states, pharmaceutical proteins, bioinorganic chemistry, metal ions, nanoclusters, biosensors

Pétur Orri  Heiðarsson

Associate professor, Department of Biology

Structure and dynamics of transcription factors, how it allows them to navigate and modulate the genome, and how they enable cell fate decisions to be made. Integrative approaches by combining single-molecule and ensemble biophysical techniques, biochemistry, and computer simulations.

Keywords: Dynamic structural biology; intrinsically disordered regions; single-molecule techniques; chromatin biophysics; transcriptional regulation

Pontus Emanuel Gourdon

Associate professor, Department of Biomedical Science, Section for Molecular Cardiology and Membrane Proteins

Study of molecular principles and determinants of medically relevant transport processes across cellular membranes

Keywords: membrane proteins, structure, function

Poul Martin Bendix

Associate professor, Niels Bohr Institute

Mechanosensing of cell shapes and dynamics of membrane proteins using advanced optical tools.

Keywords: Filopodia dynamics, membrane curvature, membrane tubes, BAR domain proteins, optical manipulation of membranes, Optically controlled fusion of membranes and cells

Robert Krarup Feidenhans’l

Professor, Niels Bohr Institute, European XFEL

Chairman of the Management Board of the European XFEL GmbH

Keywords: X-ray Science

Rosa Laura Lopez Marques

Associate professor, Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Section for Transport Biology

The study of lipid transporters at the physiological, biochemical and structural levels, working mainly with plant and yeast flippases, but also mammalian and parasitic flippases.

Keywords: Lipid flippases, P4 ATPases, biomembranes, plant lipids

Rune Berg

Associate professor, Department of Neuroscience

Combination of quantitative approaches of mathematics and physics with experiments using electrophysiology, genetics, tissue clearing and other biological tools to better understand the nervous system, especially the motor system.

Keywords: neuroscience, motor system, neuronal population activity, network architecture, histology, electrophysiology

Simon Erlendsson

-, Visiting researcher, Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Research

Structural Neurobiology, molecular mechanisms underlying neuronal communication. Synaptic transmission in the brain. Structure and function of domesticated endogenous retroviral elements and how these have evolved and influence neuronal communication.

Keywords: Neurobiology, Structural biology, In situ Structural biology, Protein Chemistry, CryoEM, CryoET, retroviral capsids

Stephan Alexander Pless

Professor, Department of Drug Design and Pharmacology, Discipline of Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology

Structure-function studies of ion channels (electrophysiology, unnatural amino acids, fluorometry assays)

Keywords: ion channels, electrophysiology, synthetic amino acid, protein engineering, spectroscopy

Søren Gøgsig Faarup Rasmussen

Associate professor, Department of Neuroscience

G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) and neurotransmitter transporters function at the molecular level.

Keywords: GPCR, 7TM, G protein coupled receptor activation, signal transduction, monoamine transporters

Thomas Miller

Associate professor, Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine

Molecular mechanisms of eukaryotic DNA replication and replication-coupled DNA repair studied with biochemical, biophysical and structural approaches, including cryo-EM.

Keywords: DNA replication, cryo-EM

Thomas Michael Frimurer

Associate professor, Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research, Section for Metabolic Receptology and Enteroendocrinology

Chemical and Molecular Receptology (computational chemistry): development of advanced technologies for structure based drug discovery and optimization, structural chemical genomics and protein modeling - in particularly modeling of alternative functional states of structurally uncharacterized members of proteins and 7TM, G protein-couple receptors (GPCRs).

Keywords: Structural biology, Molecular modeling of alternative functional states , Design of pharmacological tool compounds, Structure based drug discovery and optimization, Structural chemical genomics, 7TM, G-Protein Coupled Receptors

Thomas Wim Hamelryck

Associate professor, Associate Professor, Department of Biology, Section for Computational and RNA Biology, Department of Computer Science, Section for Programming Languages and Theory of Computation

Understanding protein structure and protein structure evolution using probabilistic models and machine learning.

Keywords: Bayesian statistics, probabilistic programming, machine learning, directional statistics

Thue W. Schwartz

Professor, Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research

Physiological function and pharmacological or therapeutic potential of G protein-coupled receptors

Keywords: 7TM receptors, GPCR, obesity, diabetes, enteroendocrinology

Ulrik Gether

Professor, Center for Neuroscience

Study of molecular, cellular and genetic processes responsible for synaptic signal transmission and how these processes can be modulated by drugs. Focus on neurotransmitter receptors and transporters with interest in their structure, mechanism and cellular regulation.

Keywords: neurotransmitter receptors, neurotransmitter transporters, structure, cell biology, single molecule microscopy, molecular neuropharmacology

Vito Foderà

Associate professor, Department of Pharmacy, Section for Drug Delivery and Biophysics of Biopharmaceuticals

Molecular mechanisms leading to protein self-assembly and characterization of the physico-chemical properties of protein aggregates.

Keywords: Protein Aggregation, Amyloid-like Superstructures, Protein-Membrane Interactions, Polymers, Theoretical Models for Self-Assembly, Protein-based Biomaterials

Weria Pezeshkian

Assistant professor, Niels Bohr Institute, Niels Bohr International Academy

Computational microscopy of biological systems, from atomistic to mesoscopic

Keywords: Computational Microscopy

Wouter Krogh Boomsma

Assistant professor, Department of Computer Science, Section for Machine Learning

Improving the methodology for molecular simulation, and using Machine Learning to provide more accurate models of the structural preferences in proteins.

Keywords: Molecular simulation, Machine Learning