Membrane Protein Conference

This Membrane Protein Conference is open to all researchers interested in membrane proteins, including students with an interest in entering this growing field and researchers developing new technologies for membrane protein analysis. We welcome scientists from around the world to present and discuss the latest developments in membrane structural biology, lipid biophysics, trafficking and cellular functions of membrane zones, as well as technologies for preparing physiologically representative targets, screening tools and a variety of systems to stabilize and solubilize native membrane assemblies.

Schedule

We'll begin with Introductions, questions, tips & tricks, where participants are free to introduce themselves briefly, ask questions or offer advice on methods, share news and job postings.

A series of about 8 short talks (15 minutes each) are followed by Q&A (5 minutes) with breaks for discussions.

Speakers include:

Hayarpi Torosyan, Postdoctoral Scholar with Kliment A. Verba at University of California, San Francisco, who recently published Structures of the PI3Kα/KRas complex on lipid bilayers reveal molecular mechanisms of PI3Kα activation.

Meseret Haile, PhD Student with Chi-Min Ho, Assistant Professor of Microbiology & Immunology at Columbia University, and recently published structural basis for host membrane binding and remodeling by invading malaria parasites.

Alexej Kedrov, Associate Professor, University of Düsseldorf on the substrate-induced assembly and functional mechanism of the bacterial membrane protein insertase SecYEG-YidC using nanodiscs and cryo-EM.

Surbhi Dhingra, Postdoctoral Fellow with Kenton Swartz, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, NIH, who recently published Mechanisms of ligand recognition and channel opening for P2X2 receptors in lipid nanodiscs.

George Hedger, Senior Postdoc with Sarah Rouse, Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, on native mass spectrometry, multiscale simulations, machine learning, and fluorescence microscopy of GPCR targets; recently published Ligand-like lipid interactions with membrane proteins: Simulations and machine learning.

Moitrayee Bhattacharyya, Assistant Professor of Pharmacology, Department of Pharmacology, School of Medicine, Yale University, on Single molecule microscopy and cryo-EM with native nanodiscs in understanding neurodegeneration and pain.

Shiv K. Sah Teli, Postdoc­toral Re­searcher with Juha Huiskonen, Laboratory of Structural Biology, University of Helsinki, who published Gating Mechanism of the Human Connexin 45 Gap Junction.

Salma Dienta Salsabila, PhD Student with Jungwook Kim, Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology, who published Structural mechanism of membrane-associated cytidine diphosphate diacylglycerol diphosphatase in Escherichia coli.

Participants are invited to vote for the best talk by a junior scientist thanks to support from Nanosene. We'll also decide the next conference date.

Program of our previous event on May 12, 2026 (the format will be similar on Sept 15):

13:50 CET Informal opening with introductions and sharing of tips & tricks

Session 1 chaired by Gestél Kuyler, CEO, Nanosene

14:00 Christos Pliotas, Reader in Structural Biological EPR Spectroscopy, Division of Molecular & Cellular Function, School of Biological Sciences, University of Manchester, recently published Swapped and non-swapped TRAAK states co-exist in membranes at a ratio influenced by temperature in Nat. Commun.

14:20 Emmanuelle Quemin, Group Leader, I2BC, CNRS will speak on probing virus-host interactions using cellular cryo electron tomography, and published Subcellular reorganization upon phage infection reveals stepwise assembly of viral particles from membrane-associated precursors in Nat Commun.

14:40 Alexandra Steinhauser, PhD student, Faculty of Science and Engineering, U Groningen, who recently published Home is where the lipids are: a comparison of MSP and DDDG nanodiscs for membrane protein research in Soft Matter.

15:00 Break with Q&A

Session 2 chaired by Evelyn Okorafor, PhD Student, Miami University

15:10 Adel Hussein, Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, New York University with David Stokes, will present Lipids are essential for potassium transport by KdpFABC from E. coli, which is on bioRxiv.

15:30 Yasmin Aydin, Post-doctoral Researcher at Indiana University School of Medicine with Qiuyan Chen will present Lipid Zipcodes and Phosphorylation Barcodes Cooperatively Control Arrestin Activation as is also discussed in her bioRxiv article.

15:50 Eugene Agyemang , PhD Student, Biochemistry & Cellular and Molecular Biology, U Tennessee, Knoxville with Rajan Lamichhane, who recently published on Activation dynamics of a water-soluble human mu-opioid receptor in JBC.

Session 3 chaired by Youzhong Guo, Associate Professor, VCU

16:10 Break with Q&A

16:20 Amedee des Georges, Associate Professor, Molecular Pathobiology, NYU College of Dentistry and Investigator in the NYU Pain Research Center, will present on the mechanism of beta-arrestin 1 mediated Src activation via Src SH3 domain revealed by c-EM.

16:40 Cristina Santarossa, Postdoctoral Fellow in Gira Bhabha's lab at Johns Hopkins University, who recently published LetA defines a structurally distinct transporter family in Nature.

17:00 Discussion and close

Organizers

• Alice Rothnie, Senior Lecturer, School of Biosciences Biosciences Research Group, College of Health and Life Sciences, Aston University
• Barry Bruce, Charles P. Postelle Distinguished Professor, Dept. Microbiology; Dept. Biomolecular and Chemical Eng., University of Knoxville, Tennessee
• Bert Klumperman, South African Research Chair in Advanced Macromolecular Architectures at the Department of Chemistry and Polymer Science at Stellenbosch University
• Frank Sobott, ,Chair in Biomolecular Mass Spectrometry, Faculty of Biomedical Sciences, University of Leeds
• Michael Overduin, Professor, Department of Biochemistry, University of Alberta, Canada
  Tim Dafforn, Professor, School of Biosciences, University of Birmingham
• Naomi Pollock, Lecturer in Biosciences, School of Biosciences, College of Health and Life Sciences, Aston University
  
• Stephen Muench, Lecturer in Membrane Biology, School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Leeds
• Tomas Laursen, Assistant Professor, Section for Plant Biochemsitry, University of Copenhagen
• Youzhong Guo, Professor, Department of Medicinal Chemistry, Virginia Commonwealth University

Supporting Partners

ACS Publications

Anatrace

Creative Biolabs

Cube Biotech

DIMA Biotech

FB Reagents

Fluidic Sciences

Molscreen

Nanosene

Nanotemper

RANE Pharmaceutical

Contact us

Let us know if you would like to get involved, we welcome any organizations that would like to contribute at any level. Sponsors and partners have complimentary passes, as well as a range of benefits.