The Nissen group investigates the structure and molecular mechanisms of membrane transport processes, receptors, and biomembrane ultrastructure. Activities are mainly focused on using cryo-electron microscopy (Cryo-EM), protein crystallography, biochemistry, electrophysiology, and include also small-angle X-ray scattering and cryo-electron tomography.
A major topic of research interest is membrane transporters and receptors involved with neurological and psychiatric disorders, e.g. P-type ATPase that include ion pumps and lipid flippases, but also sodium-dependent amino acid, neurotransmitter transporters, and insulin receptor signaling are studied, as well as supramolecular structures of neuronal membranes addressing cooperative networks governing e.g. action potentials and synaptic functions. Studies also include structure-based drug discovery and protein engineering.
Our investigations link also to translational studies of neurological and psychiatric disorders associated with perturbed ion transport or metabolic control.
Methods development, integrative structural biology, and bioimaging are also of great interest to the group.
Research Areas: Membrane proteins, Membrane transport and signaling, single-particle Cryo-EM, Cryo-Electron Tomography, Crystallography, Biochemistry, Drug discover
The Nissen group currently has projects available for Master and PhD students.
See current research projects in the laboratory here (link opens pdf)
See overview of current study opportunities in the laboratory (link opens new page)
Please contact Group Leader Poul Nissen directly, if interested.
2019.10.07 | Events
The 8th Annual Symposium on ATP1A3 in Disease 2019 took place 3-4 October 2019 on Iceland, hosted by the AHC Association of Iceland, and supported by an organizing committee consisting of European scientists working on ATP1A3 related diseases for many years, including three researchers affiliated DANDRITE; Karin Lykke-Hartmann, Hanne Poulsen, and…
2019.08.13 | People
Mads Christensen started as PhD students in Poul Nissen's group per 1 August 2019. He will be working with a project on the Na,K-ATPase, which is a well known membrane embedded ion-transporter. In addition to the physiological importance maintaining the electrochemical gradient of Na+ and K+ across the plasma membrane, mutations have been…
2019.08.05 | People
Azadeh Shahsavar has been employed as an Assistant Professor for 2 years per 1 August 2019, funded by a project grant from the Novo Nordisk Foundation on regulation of glycinergic signaling by the glycine transporter GlyT1. Azadeh herself has developed this project earlier, first as a postdoc in Poul Nissen’s group in a collaboration with Roche,…
2019.06.27 | Research news
Using cutting-edge electron microscopy, researchers from Aarhus University have determined the first structures of a lipid-flippase. The discoveries provide a better understanding of the basics of how cells work and stay healthy, and can eventually increase our knowledge of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s.
2019.06.04 | People
Joseph Lyons continues as Assistant Professor in Group Leader Poul Nissen's group per 1 June 2019. Joseph is working with single-particle cryo-EM studies of P4-ATPase lipid flippases, focusing on structural studies of P4-ATPase complexes with a particular focus on their ATPase coupled lipid transport mechanism and their role in brain cells. The…
2019.05.03 | People
Ronja Driller is new postdoc in Poul Nissen’s group per 1 May 2019, as she has been awarded one of 46 prestigious Lundbeck postdoctoral fellowship for 2019. The fellowship is fully-funded for 3 years, amounting to 2,4 million DKK. The grant was awarded to Ronja in order for her to investigate the structure and function of endosomal and lysosomal…
2019.04.25 | Research news
The Novo Nordisk Foundation has awarded Professor Poul Nissen a five-year grant in the form of a so-called "NNF Distinguished Investigator 2019 grant" within "Bioscience and Basic Biomedicine", which is given to researchers who have shown their ability to carry out and lead research at the very highest international level.
2019.04.24 | Knowledge exchange
The four Nordic EMBL Partnership Directors are featured in an article by the EMBL, discussing the benefits of collaboration and what the EMBL means to them.
2019.04.11 | Research news
A normal function of the heart and nerve system is, among other things, dependent on proper regulation of calcium in the cells. This process depends on the proper functioning of the calcium pump. Poul Nissen and his research group at DANDRITE have conducted new studies of the calcium pump structure give new insight into this process, which may…
2019.03.12 | People
Swati Aggarwal is visiting Poul Nissen's research group from start March to end May 2019 as part of her PhD studies at the European Spallation Source (ESS) in Lund, Sweden. Her PhD subject is “elucidating the function of proton pumps with neutron crystallography.”
2019.02.05 | People
Andreu Sabater is new ERASMUS intern from the University of Barcelona, visiting Poul Nissen's research group from start February to end June 2019. During his internship, Andreu will work together with postdoc Montaña Bermejo on a project concerning stabilization and activity of the human copper pump associated with Wilson disease.
2019.02.01 | People
Line Marie Christiansen has been accepted as PhD student per 1. February 2019 in Group Leader Poul Nissen's group. Line Marie will be working on establishing an expression and purification protocol for ATP9A and fellow human P4-ATPase ATP9B. Further on in the project, she will work on biochemical characterization of ATP9A and ATP9B, as well as…
2018.12.19 | Research news
Cryo-electron microscopy, or cryo-EM, has been around since the 1970s, but it’s only in recent years that, thanks to technological advances, the technique has become more accessible. Poul Nissen, Director of DANDRITE, and Bernt Eric Uhlin, Founding Director of MIMS until October 2018, are interviewed about the current cryo-EM setups available in…
2018.12.07 | Research news
Professor Poul Nissen has been awarded a Novo Nordisk Foundation Project Grants in Bioscience and Basic Biomedicine 2018 for the project "Structure determination of the human glycine transporter hGlyT1".
2018.11.30 | News from the management
The directors of the Nordic EMBL Partnership nodes attended a farewell event at the EMBL in Heidelberg for Iain Mattaj on 27th Nov. 2018, as he nears the end of his Director General mandate. Professor Iain Mattaj will be succeeded by Professor Edith Heard, who officially joins EMBL in January 2019.
