Gunasekaran Dhandapani
Postdoctoral Fellow
dhandapa@ohsu.edu

Guna received a B.Tech. degree in Bioinformatics from Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore in 2012. He then completed an M.Sc. degree in Genomics at Madurai Kamaraj University, Madurai. While working at RMRC (ICMR), Port Blair, his research focused on characterization of recombinant proteases of Leptospira interrogans and identification of their role in invasion. Later, he joined the lab of Dr. Guy Patchornik at Ariel University, Israel in 2017. In his doctoral research, he worked on development of novel purification methods for IgGs, Fabs, and IgM antibodies. After receiving his Ph.D., Guna joined the Gouaux lab in Dec 2022 to develop new labeled mAbs, Fabs, and scFvs to study the molecular organization and function of chemical synapses.

Chengli Fang
Postdoctoral Fellow
fangch@ohsu.edu

Chengli received B.S. degree in Biological Engineering from Hunan University of Science and Technology, in 2016. Then, he joined Dr. Yu Zhang’s lab at Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, to study the mechanisms for RNA polymerase (RNAP) transcription, transcription initiation, and activation. After receiving his Ph.D., Chengli joined the Gouaux lab in June 2022 to study the structural and functional basis of neurotransmitter receptors.

Makayla Freitas
Graduate Student
freitama@ohsu.edu

Makayla received B.S. degrees in Molecular & Cellular Biology and Psychology from the University of Arizona in 2019. At UA, she worked with Professor Rebecca Page to study the highly dynamic, interacting proteins that comprise signal transduction networks using X-ray crystallography and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). Makayla joined the Gouaux lab in the summer of 2020 to study the structure and function of transmembrane proteins using cryo-EM.

April Goehring
Senior Research Associate
goehring@ohsu.edu

April Goehring earned a B.A. in Biochemistry from the University of Colorado-Boulder in 1993, and as an undergraduate participated in projects to characterize the regulation of MAP kinase kinase. In her graduate research, April’s work focused on the identification and characterization of proteins in yeast involved in polarized cell growth. She was granted a Ph.D. in Biochemistry in 2002 from the University of Oregon. Her postdoctoral training was carried out at the Vollum Institute where she studied anchored PKA signal transduction. Since joining the Gouaux lab in 2008, she has spent her time studying the molecular mechanisms of neurotransmitter transporters and receptors.

Hanbin Jeong
Postdoctoral Fellow
jeongh@ohsu.edu

Hanbin received his B.S. degree in Life Sciences from Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), South Korea in 2014. He then joined the lab of Dr. Changwook Lee at UNIST. In his doctoral research, Hanbin mainly focused on the structural studies of membrane contact sites (MCSs) protein complex using X-ray crystallography. After receiving his Ph.D. degree in 2019, he continued his work in the Lee Lab. Hanbin joined the Gouaux Lab in 2021 to study the structure and function of transmembrane channel proteins using cryo-electron microscopy.

Hoyoung Kim
Postdoctoral Fellow
kimhoy@ohsu.edu

Hoyoung received his B.S. degree in Systems biology in 2015 at Yonsei University, Seoul, Republic of Korea and started a Ph.D. course in Structure Biology in the lab of Professor Hyun-Soo Cho at the same university. Hoyoung’s research focused on the studies of structure by XFEL, functional mechanism and discovery antagonist of human G-protein coupled Receptor (GPCR). After receiving his Ph.D. degree, Hoyoung joined Eric Gouaux’s lab in June 2024 to study the structure and function of neurotransmitter receptors by cryo-electron microscopy.

Junhoe Kim
Postdoctoral Fellow
kimjunh@ohsu.edu

Junhoe received his B.S. degree in Life Sciences in 2011 at Korea University, Republic of Korea and started a Ph.D. course in Molecular Biology in the lab of Professor Hyun Kyu Song at the same university. His thesis focused on the studies of structure and function of human autophagy-related (ATG) proteins underlying autophagosome maturation mechanism. After earning his Ph.D. degree, Junhoe joined Eric Gouaux’s lab in the summer of 2019 to study the structure and function of neurotransmitter receptors.

Aya Matsui
Senior Research Associate
matsuia@ohsu.edu

Aya received a B.S. degree in Neurobiology from the University of Washington in 2007. She joined the lab of Dr. John Williams at OHSU for her Ph.D. research, which investigated how activation of the mu-opioid receptor disinhibits the dopamine neuron and its modulation following chronic opioid treatment. Aya completed her postdoctoral training in the lab of Dr. Veronica Alvarez at the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIH), where she studied neuronal modulation following drugs of abuse, such as cocaine and alcohol. She joined the Gouaux lab in 2020 to study the structure and function of synaptic receptors.

Jumi Park
Postdoctoral Fellow
parkjum@ohsu.edu

Jumi received a B.S degree in Life Sciences from Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology, South Korea in 2016. She then joined Prof. Changwook Lee’s lab at the same university, focusing on the molecular mechanisms of membrane contact sites between organelles and DNA/RNA processing proteins. After earning her Ph.D., Jumi joined the Gouaux lab in April 2021 to investigate the structure and function of neurotransmitter receptors.

Damien Rasmussen
Postdoctoral Fellow
rasmussd@ohsu.edu

Damien completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse in 2017. He then joined Nick Levinson’s laboratory at the University of Minnesota, where he used a variety of optical and magnetic resonance spectroscopies to study the allosteric regulatory mechanisms of the protein kinase BRAF. After earning his Ph.D., Damien joined the Gouaux lab in May 2024, where he is investigating the structural mechanisms of neurotransmitter transport using single particle cryo-EM.

Natalie Sheldon
Lab Manager
sheldonn@ohsu.edu

Natalie was born and raised in Oregon and earned a B.S. in Biology from Hope College in Holland, MI. While earning her degree she worked on the transporter system x_c^- in Leah Chase's lab. After graduation in 2006 she joined the Gouaux lab, and her primary role has been to do support work for the entire lab. Natalie also does the purchasing for the lab and tries her hardest to maintain some organization and cleanliness around the lab.

Cathy Spangler
Postdoctoral Fellow
andecath@ohsu.edu

Cathy received B.S. degrees in Chemistry and Biology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2016. She went on to conduct her graduate research at the same institution in the lab of Dr. Robert McGinty, where she used single particle cryo-electron microscopy to investigate how chromatin-interacting proteins bind to and enzymatically target specific sites on the nucleosome. After earning her PhD, Cathy joined the Gouaux lab in the Spring of 2022 and is exploring the structural and functional basis of neurotransmitter receptor misregulation in glioblastoma.

Dushyant Srivastava
Postdoctoral Fellow
srivastd@ohsu.edu

Dushyant received his B.Sc. degree in 2011 and M.Sc. degree in 2013 in Zoology from University of Calcutta, India. He then joined the lab of Dr. Siddhartha Roy at CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Biology to pursue his doctoral research work in the field of chromatin biology where he pursued structural studies on histone chaperones and chromatin reader protein by X-ray crystallography. After receiving his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from University of Calcutta, India he joined Gouaux Lab in June 2022 to study the structural and functional aspects of neurotransmitter transporters. 

Chang Sun
Postdoctoral Fellow
sunch@ohsu.edu

Chang received his B.S. in Pharmacy from Fudan University, China, in 2010. He then started his graduate studies in Biochemistry at the University of Illinois, under the supervision of Profs. Colin Wraight and Robert Gennis. Chang's research focused on characterizations of bioenergetic enzymes with magnetic resonance spectroscopy and time-resolved optical spectroscopy. After receiving his Ph.D. in May 2016, he remained at the University of Illinois to work on a joint project with Profs. Gennis and Emad Tajkhorshid, and Prof. John Rubinstein from SickKids, Canada. Together, they solved a new respiratory protein structure with the styrene-maleic acid copolymer. Chang joined the Gouaux Lab in November 2018 to study the molecular mechanism of ligand-gated ion-channel by cryo-electron microscopy.

Gaoqi Weng
Postdoctoral Fellow
weng@ohsu.edu

Gaoqi received his B.S. in Pharmacy from Zhejiang University, China, in 2018. He then started his graduate studies in computer-aided drug design at Zhejiang University, under the supervision of Prof. Tingjun Hou. Gaoqi's research focused on the computational methodology study on protein-protein interactions and PROTACs. After receiving his Ph.D., Gaoqi joined the Gouaux Lab in November 2023 to study the molecular mechanism of transmembrane channel proteins using cryo-electron microscopy.

Justus Wilke
Visiting Research Scholar
wilke@ohsu.edu

Justus received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Biochemistry at the Ruhr-University Bochum in 2016 and 2018. As an undergraduate he worked on projects related to autoantibodies targeting iGluRs in the lab of Prof. Michael Hollmann. For his Ph.D., he joined the Clinical Neuroscience group of Prof. Hannelore Ehrenreich at the Max-Planck-Institute of Multidisciplinary Sciences (formerly MPI of Experimental Medicine) to study the pathophysiological relevance of brain-directed autoantibodies, in particular anti-GluN1 autoantibodies, in health and neuroinflammatory diseases. In 2024, Justus joined the Gouaux Lab as visiting scholar in collaboration with Prof. Harald Prüß from the Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin, to study the molecular mechanisms of AMPAR-autoantibody mediated effects.