The Laganowsky Lab

Meet the team.

We are chemists, biochemists, structural biologists, and mass spectrometrists working together to understand how membrane chemistry controls protein structure, interactions, and function.

Hover over a portrait for a little Texas.
Principal Investigator

Arthur Laganowsky, Ph.D.

Professor & Principal Investigator

The Laganowsky Lab investigates how the chemical environment of biological membranes regulates membrane protein structure, interactions, and function, combining native mass spectrometry with structural, biochemical, and biophysical approaches.

Ph.D. University of California, Los Angeles
Postdoctoral training University of Oxford
Current Members

Postdoctoral Researcher

Virginia K. James, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral Researcher

I develop mass spectrometry approaches for measuring protein–ligand binding kinetics and dissecting endogenous protein complexes to reveal their composition, proteoform heterogeneity, and molecular interactions.

Ph.D., Chemistry — The University of Texas at Austin, 2024
B.S., Biochemistry and Chemistry — College of Charleston, 2019
Joined: 2024
Current Members

Graduate Students

James Downing

Graduate Student

I apply Salipro nanodisc technology and native mass spectrometry to investigate membrane protein–lipid interactions.

B.S., Chemistry — University of Massachusetts Lowell, 2024
Joined: Summer 2024

Hanieh Bahramimoghaddam

Graduate Student

Investigating how lipids, metal ions, and the membrane environment regulate mechanosensitive K2P ion-channel gating using cryo-EM.

M.Sc., Inorganic Chemistry — University of Tehran, 2021
B.Sc., Chemistry — University of Tehran, 2018
Joined: 2022

Jing-Yuan Chang

Graduate Student

Developing native mass spectrometry approaches to characterize membrane proteins and their molecular interactions in diverse membrane environments.

B.S., Chemistry — National Taiwan University, 2019
M.S., Chemistry — National Taiwan University, 2022
Joined: 2022

Michael Lynn

Graduate Student

Investigating how lipids and other cofactors regulate potassium ion channel activity.

B.S., Biochemistry — Texas A&M University, 2020
Joined: August 2023

Tanishq Khandelwal

Graduate Student

Developing time-resolved native mass spectrometry to directly measure the kinetics of biomolecular interactions.

B.S.–M.S., Chemistry; Minor in Biology — IISER Bhopal, 2023
Joined: October 2023

Ji Kang

Graduate Student

Investigating how RAS and PI3K interact in membrane environments and how oncogenic mutations alter these interactions.

B.S., Chemistry — Kyungpook National University, 2020
M.S., Chemistry — University of Oklahoma, 2022
Joined: 2023

Trent Blackburn

Graduate Student

Examining how lipids regulate the activity of the lipid flippase MsbA to better understand lipid-dependent control of bacterial outer-membrane assembly.

B.S., Chemistry — Wake Forest University, 2021
Concentration in Medicinal Chemistry and Drug Discovery
Minors in Biology and Mathematics
Joined: 2024
Where they are now

Alumni

Christopher Boone Adjunct Faculty Instructor, The College of St. Scholastica
Xiao Cong, Ph.D. Senior Principal Scientist, Boehringer Ingelheim
Smriti Kumar
Wen Liu, Ph.D. Hook Laboratory, IBT TAMHSC, Houston, TX
Yang Liu REGENXBIO
Jixing LyuRegeneron
Zahra Moghadamchargari Resilience
Charles Packianathan Walter Reed Army Institute of Research
John W. Patrick Janssen: Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson
Pei Qiao Assistant Professor, Zhejiang University of Technology
Samantha SchreckeSino Biological
Elena Scott Sino Biological
Lauren StoverNovartis
Sangho YunNeurocrine Biosciences
Tianqi Zhang
Yun ZhuEli Lilly
Laganowsky Lab group photo, 2024
Laganowsky Lab · 2024