ABOUT THE TAYLOR LAB
We use a wide range of techniques to study the structure and function of protein complexes.
State-of-the-art research
In the heart of Copenhagen
Meet the team
Inga Songailiene
Inga obtained their PhD from the Vilnius University, Institute of Biotechnology, where she focused on CRISPR-Cas systems that function as defense systems of bacteria and archaea against foreign mobile genetic elements. She then continued as a Research Scientist there, followed by an Associate Research Scientist role where she carried on a 20-month scientific project on structural and functional investigation of genome editing tools. She will continue her research at the Taylor Lab on contractile injection systems, employing single particle analysis and in situ cryoelectron tomography.
Haidai Hu
Haidai obtained their PhD from Institut Pasteur where he received training as a structural biologist. His doctoral research mainly focused on the structure and function of pentameric ligand-gated ion channels. Within the Taylor group, Haidai has worked on bacterial flagella, with a particular emphasis on the flagellar stator unit. He has also studied the structure and function of novel bacterial anti-phage defence systems using diverse biotechnology techniques.
Claudia Kielkopf
Claudia did their bachelors from the University of Tübingen (Germany), masters at Linköping University (Sweden), and PhD University of Wollongong (Australia) before joining us as a postdoc in 2020. Her project is on contractile injection systems and their tail fibres, working on protein expression, purification, sample preparation, and cryo EM analysis, alongside bioinformatics and structure prediction. Claudia has experience with expression, purification and vitrification of small soluble proteins as well as eCISs, and "general" cryo-EM and local refinement workflows.
Leyre Marin Arraiza
Leyre has a background in Biomedical Biotechnology and received their bachelors from the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre. Leyre first joined the lab as a student assistant, and then continued to do their Master's thesis, staying with us to do their PhD project, which focuses on extracellular contractile injection systems. She is working on the structural characterization by single-particle cryo-EM, and combining the structural information with functional assays and bioinformatic analysis.
Mònica Santiveri
Mònica is a biotechnologist with specialisation in cell and molecular biotechnology. As a research assistant, she worked on the bacterial flagellar motor project, where she gained experience in cloning, membrane protein expression and purification, as well as single particle cryoEM. As a PhD student, she is studying the structure and mechanism of tailocins, along with potential modifications.
Shweta Bhatt
Shweta did their Bachelors in Pharmacy at the Manipal Academy of Higher Education, before their master’s here at the University of Copenhagen. She joined the Taylor group in 2018 as a research assistant before starting her PhD in 2020. Her research has focused on the structural elucidation and characterization of bacteriophages, with a focus on cryo-EM. Shewta has been actively involved in many student-led initiatives within CPR, KU and the international community in Copenhagen.
Freddie Martin
Freddie did his Master’s in Chemistry at the University of Bath, working on small-molecule organic synthesis, before moving to Bristol for their PhD at the Chemical Synthesis Centre for Doctoral Training, where he worked on protein design and understanding protein sequence-to-structure relationships in the Woolfson group. Freddie is currently working collaboratively with others on the understanding of anti-phage defence systems and the bacterial flagellar motor in conjunction with protein design.
Victor Klein-Sousa
Victor completed their master’s studies in physics in Brazil at the Universidade de São Paulo, working on antimicrobial peptide interaction with membrane models, mostly with synchrotron radiation circular dichroism. Victor’s PhD is focused on bacteriophages and structural biology: implementing large-scale structural-based ML approaches, to investigate how phages recognize their hosts.
Nicole Rutbeek
Nicole completed their master’s in Microbiology at the University of Manitoba, researching small prophage proteins and their role in altering host regulation gaining experience in X-ray crystallography as well as techniques for looking at protein-protein interactions. Nicole’s PhD project involves the structural (cryo-EM) and functional characterisation of novel membrane-associated phage defence systems.
Aritz Roa Eguiara
Aritz received his bachelors from the Universidad del País Vasco before joining us for their master’s studies where he worked on understanding the stator units of the bacterial flagellar motor. Aritz continued with us for his PhD where he is studying bacteriophages, their interactions with the membrane, and anti-phage defence systems.
Rooshanie Nadia Ejaz
Rooshanie has a primary research interest in the infection aetiology of bacteria. During their bachelor studies at Roskilde University, she trained as a microbiologist, studying clinical strains of pathogenic bacteria isolated from humans. They have experience in mammalian cell cultures, and wound healing assays. During their master’s thesis studies, they acquired skills in recombinant protein purification and expression and CRISPR based genomic strain engineering. Their PhD at the Taylor Lab, is focused on in situ cryo-electron tomography and single particle analysis.
FORMER LAB MEMBERS
Alumni
Maria del Mar Perez
Mar is a biologist specialising in structural biology, biochemistry, and biophysics. They received their PhD in Biology from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, where they researched the protein components of the bacteriophage T7 core, a DNA translocation complex, by cryo-EM and other biophysics techniques.Her research in the Taylor group focused on investigating the molecular mechanisms of AAA+ proteins, which is a component of extracellular contractile injection systems (eCISs).
Eva Maria Rebrova
Eva joined us after receiving their PhD from the Karolinska Institutet, and worked on contractile injection systems. They are now a principal investigator at Lund University and a part of the Spin-Outs Denmark Translational Program.
Nicolas Kjær-Jensen
Nicolas worked with us on understanding human multidrug transporters, after completing his bachelor’s studies with us he has joined the Aricescu lab for his PhD at the LMB in Cambridge.
Isha Raj
Isha joined us after a postdoc at the Jovine lab at the Karolinska Institutet, working with us on understanding human multidrug transporters. They are now a Research Project Coordinator at the NNF Center for Protein Research.
Magnus Borup Bloch
Magnus’s PhD was focused on understanding human multidrug transporters. He has since moved to the UK and is doing a postdoc at Birkbeck, University of London.
Yumeng Yan
Yumeng worked between the Taylor and Rasmussen groups at CPR. His research was focused on bioinformatic analysis and artificial intelligence as a tool for understanding structural biology problems.
Former visitors
Ricardo Adaixo
Visiting postdoc from Biozentrum, University of Basel (Henning Stahlberg group)
Friederieke Pisarz
Visiting PhD student from University of Mainz (Ralf Heermann group)
Julia Schmidt
Visiting PhD student from Humboldt University (Marc Erhardt group)
Vyshakh Panicke
Visiting PhD Student from Malopolska Centre of Biotechnology, UJ (Mostowy group)