3rd Transatlantic ECI GPCR Symposium

Dr. Nina Tsvetanova was born and raised in Bulgaria. She moved to the US to attend Vassar College, where she obtained a bachelor's degree in Biochemistry and German Studies. From there, Nina relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area for her PhD and postdoctoral training. As a graduate student in the Biochemistry Department at Stanford, Nina worked with Patrick Brown to develop high-throughput approaches to study RNA genomics and post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression. She then switched fields to concentrate on the function of mammalian GPCRs as a postdoc in Mark von Zastrow's lab at the UCSF. Nina has been an Assistant Professor at Duke University since 2018, and her lab bridges her trainings in quantitative -omics and cell biology to shed light on signal transduction and its regulation. Outside of managing a lab, Nina is a mom of two boys and an avid runner.

Dr. Matthew Eddy received his PhD in physical chemistry from MIT in the laboratory of Professor Robert Griffin where he developed new approaches using solid-state NMR to study membrane proteins in cellular environments. Matt then joined the laboratories of Professors Raymond Stevens and Kurt Wüthrich at The Scripps Research Institute as an American Cancer Society Postdoctoral Fellow, applying an integrative structural biology approach to study human G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), focusing on applications of NMR to improve our understanding of GPCR signaling. In 2018, Matt started his independent laboratory at the University of Florida where his group focuses on investigating the impact of the cellular environment on GPCR drug responses.

Dr. Brian Bender is currently working at Sosei Heptares in Cambridge, UK as a Computational Chemist where he utilises Heptares’ database of GPCR structures to develop new therapeutics. Prior to his time in industry, Brian completed a PhD in Pharmacology at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN where he developed methods for the improved prediction of GPCR structures. Following this, Brian completed a postdoc at the University of California, San Francisco leveraging large chemical libraries for novel hit identification of GPCRs and other targets. Outside of the lab, Brian enjoys learning new languages, karaoke, and relaxing at the beach.

Prof. Dr. Ines Liebscher obtained an MD and later on a PhD at the Leipzig University. After a postdoc at the Copenhagen University, Ines returned to Leipzig to build up her group and eventually became here full Professor for Signal Transduction at the Rudolf Schönheimer Institute of Biochemistry. Ines’ research interest was always with orphan GPCRs in general but with a specific focus on adhesion GPCRs. Ines wants to know how they are activated, what their physiological roles are, what pathologies occur through mutations of these receptors and how we can modify all of these parameters.

Dr. Isha Singh recently moved to Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research (NIBR) as a Principal Scientist II. Earlier she had worked as Research Scientist at Gilead Sciences. Before transitioning to industry, Isha received postdoctoral training at the University of California, San Francisco where she worked on docking ultra-large libraries, homology modelling of orphan receptors and discovery of novel SERT inhibitors that binds to selective conformational state. Isha earned her doctorate degree in biochemistry where she primarily focused on biochemical and structural studies on eIF2 kinases and protein purification. Isha’s research on serotonin transporter was published in Cell earlier this year. When she is not doing science, Isha loves to spend time with her family and in nature.

Dr. Justin English is an Assistant Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Utah where he develops and applies new methods in molecular engineering to study G-protien coupled receptor pharmacology. Justin received his PhD at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the Department of Pharmacology with Dr. Henrik Dohlman. He remained there for his postdoc in the same Department with Dr. Bryan Roth. Justin is an NIH DP2 New Innovator and Eli Lilly LRAP Awardee.

Dr. Ruth Huttenhain obtained her Ph.D. in Systems Biology from ETH Zurich, Switzerland, where she worked with Ruedi Aebersold, to develop quantitative proteomics methods. Supported by the Swiss National Science and the Human Frontiers Science Foundation, Ruth performed her postdoctoral work with Nevan Krogan at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). During her postdoc, Ruth pioneered a proteomics approach that can resolve protein interaction networks with temporal and spatial resolution and applied this approach to study dynamics of protein networks engaged by ligand-activated GPCRs. After her postdoc Ruth continued at UCSF as an Assistant Adjunct Professor with a research focus on how GPCRs decode extracellular cues into dynamic and context-specific cellular signaling networks, a research direction that she now further explores in her lab at Stanford. Her lab exploits quantitative proteomics to capture the spatiotemporal organization of GPCR signaling networks combined with functional genomics to study their impact on physiology. Ruth is the Chair of the Early Career Researcher Committee in the Human Proteome Organization.