Functional Proteins for the Future Theme Leader, LINXS Fellow

Professor, University of Bergen, Norway

Prof. Kursula is a professor in the Department of Biomedicine, University of Bergen, and Scientific Director of the BiSS core facility. His expertise covers sample preparation workflows, core facilities, structural biology, and the use of synchrotron and neutron sources. He is a member of the Programme Advisory Committee of MAX IV, a Steering Committee member of the NordForsk infrastructure hub NordStruct, and a member of the scientific programme committee of the European Conference on Neutron Scattering (ECNS2027). He was a guest scientist at LINXS in 2025 and is a LINXS Fellow. Prof. Kursula has published more than 160 peer-reviewed articles and deposited more than 200 protein structures in the Protein Data Bank.

Functional Proteins for the Future Core Group member and leader of WG1 (Sample production and characterisation workflows), LINXS Fellow

Associate Professor, Lund University, Sweden

Dr. Schüler’s research covers biochemistry, biophysics, structural biology, and biomolecular modifications. He leads a research group at the Department of Chemistry, Lund University, and previously led a group at Karolinska Institutet and was Team Leader at the Structural Genomics Consortium in Stockholm. He has initiated and organised international conferences and symposia on ADP-ribosylation and has solved nearly 200 crystal structures deposited in the Protein Data Bank. He also has broad experience in teaching and course leadership in biochemistry and chemistry at Lund University, and in reviewing and evaluating work for national and international funding agencies.

Functional Proteins for the Future Core Group member and co-leader of WG1 (Sample production and characterisation workflows), LINXS Fellow

Research Group Leader, University of Bergen, Norway

Dr. Kalienkova is an expert in membrane protein structural biology and cryo-EM. She has studied ion channels, scramblases, and transporters, including the calcium-activated chloride channel TMEM16A and a sperm-specific solute carrier, with training in Zurich and Groningen before moving to Bergen. As an EU MSCA Fellow, she has worked on the myelin membrane in molecular detail. In 2026, she started her own independent research group at the University of Bergen, funded by a Trond Mohn Foundation Starting Grant, focusing on acid-sensing ion channels in a physiological context. She received the Falch Junior Prize from the Faculty of Medicine, University of Bergen, in 2025, and is a board member of the Norwegian Biosciences Society.

Functional Proteins for the Future Core Group member and leader of WG2 (Experiments on functional proteins at synchrotron and neutron sites), LINXS Fellow

Beamline Manager (P11), DESY, Hamburg, Germany

Dr. Hakanpää is the beamline manager of the P11 macromolecular crystallography beamline at DESY. She has strong expertise in synchrotron instrumentation, methods development, and data collection, as well as in X-ray crystallography applications in general, including serial crystallography and the crystallisation of biological macromolecules. Before joining DESY, she was a staff scientist in macromolecular crystallography at EMBL for nearly ten years. She has contributed to large crystallographic screening studies, such as the work identifying inhibitors of the SARS-CoV-2 main protease, and has a long record of supporting users at synchrotron beamlines.

Functional Proteins for the Future Core Group member and leader of WG3 (Computational approaches to experimental design and data analysis), LINXS Fellow

Associate Professor, Lund University, Sweden

Dr. Atkinson leads a research group at the Department of Experimental Medical Science, Lund University, studying the evolution and function of microbial proteins, with an emphasis on phage–bacteria interactions and antibiotic resistance. Her group combines large-scale bioinformatics, protein structure prediction, and experimental validation to predict new microbial immune systems, a rich reservoir of biotechnological tools, with CRISPR-Cas and restriction-modification systems as notable examples. Her lab has developed widely used bioinformatics tools and resources, including FlaGs, iLund4u, and the Viral AlphaFold Database. She is Director of LU-Fold, the SciLifeLab and Lund University structure prediction infrastructure, and received the Swedish Fernström Prize in 2025.

Functional Proteins for the Future Core Group member and co-leader of WG3 (Computational approaches to experimental design and data analysis), LINXS Fellow

Professor, University of Helsinki, Finland

Prof. Vattulainen is Professor of Biological Physics at the University of Helsinki and leads the Biological Physics group of about 25 scientists. His research in computational and theoretical biological physics covers membrane biophysics, lipid–protein interactions, protein dynamics, signalling, and drug–receptor interactions, with multi-scale simulations from atomistic to coarse-grained resolution and a growing use of machine learning. Several of his predictions have been confirmed experimentally, including by neutron scattering. He is an ERC Advanced Grant recipient and has experience from several Centres of Excellence, and he chairs the customer panel of the Finnish supercomputing centre CSC. He has published about 300 peer-reviewed articles.

Functional Proteins for the Future Core Group member and leader of WG4 (Future applications for functional proteins), LINXS Fellow

Professor, Technical University of Denmark

Prof. Morth is a structural enzymologist and an experienced synchrotron user. He is Professor of Structural Enzymology at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU), where his research uses X-ray crystallography, including serial crystallography, to understand and design enzymes and membrane proteins. He is co-PI of En’Zync, a centre for the enzymatic deconstruction of thermoset plastics, and director of the Catalyse4X infrastructure for high-throughput structural characterisation of protein complexes. He is a Steering Committee member of NordStruct and has served as a board member of the C10 panel at the ESRF.

Functional Proteins for the Future Core Group member and co-leader of WG2 (Experiments on functional proteins at synchrotron and neutron sites), LINXS Fellow

Professor, University of Bergen, Norway

Prof. Kursula leads a research unit at the University of Bergen, where her research focuses on integrative structural biology and molecular motors, in particular the molecular mechanisms of parasite motility. She has extensive experience with large research infrastructures, including synchrotrons, cryo-EM, and X-ray free electron lasers. She has served as a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the European XFEL, chaired its proposal review panel for the SPB/SFX instrument, and coordinated the XBI User Consortium that established a biological infrastructure for the European XFEL. She also holds a part-time professorship at the University of Oulu, Finland, and has deposited more than 60 structures in the Protein Data Bank.

Functional Proteins for the Future Core Group member and co-leader of WG4 (Future applications for functional proteins), LINXS Fellow

Professor, University of Iceland and CEO, Ternaria Biosciences

Prof. Ögmundsdóttir is a professor at the Biomedical Center, University of Iceland, with a teaching focus on cell biology and genetics and a research focus on autophagy and cancer. She is co-founder and CEO of the biotech company Ternaria Biosciences, bringing a direct link between basic research and biotech applications to the theme. She has held several leadership roles in Icelandic and Nordic research policy, including chair of the Icelandic Research Infrastructure Fund, chair of the research council of the Icelandic Research and Technology Council, and board member of NordForsk. She holds a DPhil from the University of Oxford.