Pandemics and Alertness Core Group leader and deputy-leader of WG1 (Understanding the virus), WG2 (Fighting the virus) and WG3 (Complementary and enabling techniques), LINXS Fellow

Lund Protein Production Platform (LP3) & Protein Production Sweden (PPS), Department of Biology, Lund University, Lund Sweden

Wolfgang Knecht was trained in human biology at the Philipps-Universität Marburg, Germany, with focus on biochemistry, molecular biology, and virology, followed by a post-doc period at the Technical University of Denmark. Since 2002, he has worked in the cardiovascular research area of AstraZeneca in Mölndal, Sweden, as associate principal scientist in protein production, protein science & enzymology and project leader in early drug discovery projects. In 2013, he joined Lund University (LU) as senior lecturer and director of LP3. LP3 is a university platform for protein production, protein characterization and structure determination. Today, he also serves as the deputy director of the distributed national research infrastructure PPS (Protein Production Sweden), of which LP3 is the LU node. His research is centered around integrated biochemical - structural biology approaches to study enzymes, as lately exemplified by studies of human dihydroorotate dehydrogenase and the complex of the non-structural proteins 10 and 14 of SARS-CoV-2. Since 2025 he has been a SciLifeLab group leader.

Pandemics and Alertness Leader WG1 (Understanding the virus), LINXS Fellow

Professor of Molecular Virology, Institute of Virology, Philipps-University Marburg, Marburg, Germany

Eva Friebertshäuser studied biology at the Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen and the Philipps-Universität Marburg, Germany, with the focus on molecular biology, microbiology and virology, followed by a PhD thesis and post-doc period at the Institute of Virology at the Philipps-Universität Marburg. Since 2015, she has been Professor of Molecular Virology at the institute. Her research interest is the proteolytic activation of viral envelope proteins by host cell proteases and the development of protease inhibitors as novel antiviral drugs. Her research group first identified the transmembrane protease TMPRSS2 as virus-activating protease and made the most significant contributions to understanding how respiratory viruses are proteolytically activated to induce fusion.

Pandemics and Alertness member WG1 (Understanding the virus) and WG3 (Complementary and enabling techniques), LINXS Fellow

Head of Systems Virology Group, Faculty of Medicine, Lund University, Lund, Sweden

Joakim Esbjörnsson has for the last 19 years developed a research profile that combines expertise in molecular virology, bioinformatics and immunology. After doctoral studies at Lund University (LU), and postdoctoral studies at the Katholieke Universiteit and University of Oxford, he returned to LU in 2016 to set up his own research team focusing on molecular virus epidemiology and understanding how virus-host interactions determine pathogenesis using different bioinformatics and systems virology approaches. His career development have been supported by Vetenskapsrådet (international postdoctoral grant, establishment grant, and consolidator grant), Swedish Society for Medical Research, SciLifeLab, the European Commission, Lund University (multiple internal grants and a tenured position from associate senior lecturer to full Professor since 2016), other funds. He has >70 scientific publications, whereof the majority is as either first or senior author. Major original articles as first or senior author include publications in the New England Journal of Medicine, Nature Communications, Lancet HIV, Clinical Infectious Diseases, and Frontiers in Immunology. Other acknowledgements include being ranked as top 1% of HIV-2 researchers in the world, initiator and coordinator of the Lund University Virus Centre (LUVC), member of Vetenskapsrådets reference group for the national research program on virus and pandemics, member of the SciLifeLab DDLS Research School Management group, coordinator of the LU cooperation initiative on Pandemics and alertness, coordinator of the research and innovation dimension of the European University alliance EUGLOH 2.0 (including nine universities), and invitations to numerous scientific conferences as keynote speaker. He has been the main supervisor of nine postdocs/research fellows, three PhD students that successfully defended their theses, and co-supervisor of 8 PhD students that successfully defended their theses.

Pandemics and Alertness member WG1 (Understanding the virus) and WG3 (Complementary and enabling techniques), LINXS Fellow

MAX IV Laboratory, Lund University, Lund, Sweden

Marjolein Thunnissen, currently serving as senior science advisor at MAX IV, involved in coordinating activities towards the life sciences community. These encompass a wide spectrum of applications, including protein crystallography, small angle X-ray scattering, cutting-edge imaging techniques, X-ray absorption methods, and more. Marjolein plays a pivotal role in fostering relationships with users, both from academic and industrial backgrounds, while also spearheading educational and training initiatives. Marjolein's academic journey commenced at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands, where she embarked on her undergraduate and doctoral studies in chemistry. It was during her undergraduate years that her fascination with unraveling the intricate structure-function relationships of proteins through X-ray diffraction was ignited. Her main scientific interests have been inflammation and infection. She has solved several protein structures, amongst which the structure of Leukotriene A4 Hydrolase, the first member of the M1 group of zinc metalloproteases for which a structure got determined.

Pandemics and Alertness member WG1 (Understanding the virus), LINXS Fellow

Social Medicine and Global health and Systems Virology group, Faculty of Medicine, Lund University, Lund, Sweden

Pia Svensson holds a PhD in Public Health from Lund University. Her research is centered around patient and public health literacy, public health communication, and crisis communication, with a particular focus on hard to reach groups. She has specific experience and interest in interdisciplinary and cross-sector collaboration. Since 2024, Pia has served as the administrative coordinator for the thematic initiative Pandemics and Alertness, a role she will also assume within the LINXS theme collaboration.

Pandemics and Alertness member WG1 (Understanding the virus), LINXS Fellow

Professor of Molecular Virology, Head of Division of Virology and Immunology, Department of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell Biology, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden

Gerald McInerney is professor of molecular virology at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm. He has built a strong, internationally recognized research program in the cell biology of virus infection and its implications for viral replication and immune responses. His research focusses on the cell biology of alphavirus infection. He was first to show that virus infection induces the formation of RNA stress granules in infected cells and went on to elucidate the mechanism by which alphaviruses counteract this cellular defence pathway. He and his group were very active during the COVID19 pandemic, developing neutralizing antibodies and contributing to many projects in diagnostics, serology, antiviral and vaccine development and other diverse research projects.

Pandemics and Alertness member WG1 (Understanding the virus), LINXS Fellow

Department of Physics, Chemistry and Biology, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden

Eleonore studied molecular biology in Switzerland, followed by a PhD in structural biology working on titin elasticity and signaling. The focus during her postdoc at the Netherlands Cancer Institute was on mitotic kinase regulation (via regulatory domains), while also contributing to other research projects in the department. In 2017 Eleonore moved to Linköping to start her own research group, with a focus on using integrated structural biology approaches to explore the molecular mechanisms of the picornavirus host factor PLAAT3 and its family member PLAAT4 and how they can be acquired and repurposed by viruses to fulfil new role(s) in the viral life cycle. The group also contributes their expertise in designing and producing recombinant protein constructs for biophysical and structural characterizations to several national and international collaborations on different topics. One common theme tying these together is the interest in how the modularity observed in most proteins contributes to their evolutionary diversity and adaptability.

Pandemics and Alertness member WG1 (Understanding the virus), LINXS Fellow

Pure and Applied Biochemistry, Lund University, Lund, Sweden

Dr. Cedric Dicko is a researcher in applied biochemistry with a focus on fibrous proteins. His primary research involves the application of biospectroscopy, scattering and soft mechanics to investigate the self-assembly and structure-function relationships in silk materials. The work emphasizes the importance of microstructures in biological function and how microscopic organization dramatically affects and determines the macroscopic properties of biological systems. Leading the Soft and Complex Biomaterials Group, Dr. Dicko and his team explore biological molecules to uncover their potential in material science and bioengineering.

Pandemics and Alertness member WG1 (Understanding the virus), LINXS Fellow

Institute of Virology, University of Marburg, Marburg, Germany

Eva Herker was trained in biochemistry at the University of Potsdam and the University of Tübingen and during her PhD investigated cell death mechanisms and aging processes in yeast. Supported by a Human Frontier Science Program Fellowship, she started working on virus-host interactions of hepatitis C viruses as a post-doc at the Gladstone Institute of Virology and Immunology (San Francisco, USA). After leading a junior research group at the Leibniz Institute for Virology in Hamburg, she was appointed as Professor of Molecular Virology at the University of Marburg. Her research group investigates virus-host interactions, focusing on the interplay between flaviviruses, lipid droplets, and lipid metabolism. She is also the spokesperson of a DFG-funded research unit on lipid droplet heterogeneity, which studies the structural and functional diversity of these organelles.

Pandemics and Alertness member WG1 (Understanding the virus), LINXS Fellow

Institute of Virology, Philipps-University Marburg, Marburg, Germany

Janis Müller studied Molecular Medicine in Ulm, Germany and focused on the sexual transmission of HIV during his PhD. As postdoc he worked on the sexual transmission of typically arthropod-borne Zika virus and discovered an novel innate mechanism by which extracellular vesicles in body fluids compete with viruses for cell attachment and thereby provide a natural barrier against transmission. He is experienced in studying immune responses, host interactions and antiviral strategies against viruses of different families including lentiviruses, flaviviruses, coronaviruses and orthomyxoviruses. In Marburg, he was appointed junior professor for immune responses against highly pathogenic RNA viruses and studies the mechanism, breadth, origin and regulation of antiviral EVs. Since 2023, he is vice president of the German Society for EVs.

Pandemics and Alertness member WG1 (Understanding the virus), LINXS Fellow

Institute of Virology, Philipps-University Marburg, Marburg, Germany

Dr. Strecker graduated from the Philipps University Marburg, Germany, and obtained his doctoral degree in Virology from the same university in 2007. Since 2015, he holds a research group leader position at the Institute of Virology in Marburg. His primary research focuses on the molecular biology of the highly pathogenic Lassa virus, particularly on the functional roles of the envelope surface glycoprotein and matrix protein in virus entry and the late stages of the replication cycle, namely virus assembly and release. In addition to these basic research objectives, Dr. Strecker and his team have participated in various multinational collaborative Ebola virus projects, focusing on the characterization of antibody responses to vaccination and natural infection. As a member of the European Mobile Laboratory consortium, he served multiple times as a team leader of multinational field diagnostic teams that were deployed in response to the 2014-2016 West African Ebola virus outbreak and the Marburg virus outbreak in Uganda in 2017.

Pandemics and Alertness member WG1 (Understanding the virus), LINXS Fellow

Department of Clinical Microbiology, Wallenberg Centre for Molecular Medicine & Umeå Centre for Microbial Research, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden

Marta Bally was trained in Material Sciences at ETH Zürich where she also carried out her doctoral studies in biomedical engineering. This was followed by a post-doc period at Chalmers University of Technology (Sweden) and Institut Curie(France), where she trained in biophysics. During this period, she became increasingly interested in developing and implementing advanced bioanalytical tools to study virus interactions at the cell surface. In 2013, she became Assistant Professor at the Department of Physics at Chalmers University of Technology. In 2018, she was recruited by the Wallenberg Centre for Molecular Medicine at Umeå University, where she started working as a group leader within the section of virology (Department of Clinical Microbiology). Since 2022, she has been Associate Professor in Virology and since 2024, she has been the Deputy Director of the Umeå Centre for Microbial Research, a large center gathering 77 PIs with interest in various aspects of microbial research. Her current research is centered on viral entry. More specifically, she studies the molecular mechanisms by which the interaction dynamics of a virus particle are modulated at the cell surface, with emphasis on the role of carbohydrates in the process. She carries out a highly interdisciplinary research program at the interface between physics, chemistry and virology.

Pandemics and Alertness member WG1 (Understanding the virus) and WG2 (Fighting the virus), LINXS Fellow

Faculty of Medicine, Lund University, Lund, Sweden

Alex Evilevitch is a professor at the Faculty of Medicine, Lund University, with an extensive background in interdisciplinary research at the intersection of biophysics, virology, and physical chemistry. His academic journey includes tenured faculty appointments at Lund University (Sweden), Carnegie Mellon University (USA), and the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign (USA). Evilevitch's work has significantly advanced the understanding of viral genome packaging and infectivity, with a focus on the physical interactions governing the viral infectious cycle.His lab explores the physico-chemical mechanisms of viral capsid assembly, DNA packaging, and host-virus interactions using cutting-edge biophysical techniques, including Cryo-EM, AFM, and small-angle scattering. His translational research addresses key challenges in herpes virology and gene therapy, leading to the development of non-resistance-based antiviral therapies and improved AAV vector production methods. Evilevitch holds U.S. patents for groundbreaking antiviral strategies targeting the pressurized DNA state of herpesviruses, resistant to viral mutations. He is also developing scalable solutions for recombinant AAV production, enhancing packaging capacity and purity for gene therapy applications. Evilevitch has published over 60 peer-reviewed articles and received numerous awards, including the Hebert Newby McCoy Award and the Hagberg Prize from the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences. His research has been supported by over $7 million in funding from organizations such as the Swedish Research Council, NIH, and NSF.

Pandemics and Alertness member WG1 (Understanding the virus) and WG3 (Complementary and enabling techniques), LINXS Fellow

European Spallation Source ERIC, Lund, Sweden

Dr. Suzanne Zoë Fisher completed her Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) and Honours (Hons.) degree in Biochemistry and Animal Physiology at the University of Stellenbosch in 1999 and 2000, respectively. In December 2000, she emigrated to the United States, where she worked as a research assistant in the Department of Physiology and Cell Biology at the University of Florida for nearly two years before beginning her graduate studies in 2002. She earned her Ph.D. in structural biology from the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, UF in 2006. She then joined Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in Los Alamos, New Mexico, as a postdoctoral research associate from 2007 to 2010. Following her postdoctoral work, she became a permanent staff member at LANL, serving as a Research Scientist II from 2010 to 2014. In this role, she was responsible for the Protein Crystallography Station and its affiliated deuteration and crystallization support laboratory

In 2014, Dr. Fisher moved to Sweden to join the European Spallation Source (ESS) in Lund. She currently serves as a Senior Scientist at the ESS and holds an adjunct Senior Lecturer position in the Department of Biology at Lund University. Dr. Fisher has extensive expertise in structural biology, protein biochemistry, neutron and X-ray crystallography, and stable isotope labeling for NMR and neutron applications. She is an active member of the scientific community, having served as a LINXS fellow, a Scientific Advisory Board member for Prosel Biosciences, and a board member of the DeuNet network. She is also engaged in education and outreach, has participated in numerous schools, workshops, conferences, and regularly delivers talks or seminars to diverse audiences to promote the applications of neutrons in structural biology. Dr. Fisher has authored or co-authored more than 80 peer-reviewed publications, including recent studies on SARS-CoV-2 nonstructural proteins nsp10 and nsp14.

Pandemics and Alertness member WG1 (Understanding the virus) and WG3 (Complementary and enabling techniques), LINXS Fellow

Professor of Molecular Biophysics, Section for Biochemistry and Structural Biology, Dept. of Chemistry, Lund University, Sweden

Prof. Logan has a D.Phil. in Molecular Biophysics from Oxford University, where he worked on the structures of picornaviruses, in particular foot-and-mouth disease virus. He did postdoctoral work in Strasbourg and Stockholm before moving to Lund University in 2001. He studies the structural basis for macromolecular function using a variety of experimental techniques: X-ray and neutron crystallography, small-angle X-ray scattering and cryo-electron microscopy. Two particular foci in recent years have been the mechanism and allosteric regulation of the radical enzyme ribonucleotide reductase and the details of ligand binding to the galectin family of carbohydrate recognition proteins. Prof. Logan is secretary of the European Synchrotron and XFEL Users Organisation and is a member of the advisory panel for the neutron macromolecular crystallography instrument at the ESS. He was recently appointed director of a new facility for cryo-EM at Lund University. He is co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of the company SARomics Biostructures AB, which was founded in 2006.

Pandemics and Alertness Core Group leader and deputy-leader of WG1 (Understanding the virus), WG2 (Fighting the virus) and WG3 (Complementary and enabling techniques), LINXS Fellow

Lund Protein Production Platform (LP3) & Protein Production Sweden (PPS), Department of Biology, Lund University, Lund Sweden

Wolfgang Knecht was trained in human biology at the Philipps-Universität Marburg, Germany, with focus on biochemistry, molecular biology, and virology, followed by a post-doc period at the Technical University of Denmark. Since 2002, he has worked in the cardiovascular research area of AstraZeneca in Mölndal, Sweden, as associate principal scientist in protein production, protein science & enzymology and project leader in early drug discovery projects. In 2013, he joined Lund University (LU) as senior lecturer and director of LP3. LP3 is a university platform for protein production, protein characterization and structure determination. Today, he also serves as the deputy director of the distributed national research infrastructure PPS (Protein Production Sweden), of which LP3 is the LU node. His research is centered around integrated biochemical - structural biology approaches to study enzymes, as lately exemplified by studies of human dihydroorotate dehydrogenase and the complex of the non-structural proteins 10 and 14 of SARS-CoV-2. Since 2025 he has been a SciLifeLab group leader.

Pandemics and Alertness Leader WG3 (Complementary and enabling techniques), LINXS Fellow

Researcher at the Swedish BioMS and SciLifeLab Integrated Structural Biology (ISB) mass spectrometry platforms & Department of Clinical Sciences Lund (IKVL), SciLifeLab Group Leader, Division of Infection Medicine, Lund University, Lund, Sweden

Lotta Happonen studied biotechnology and genetics at the University of Helsinki, Finland, where she obtained her PhD in 2012 in structural virology using single particle cryoEM and X-ray crystallography as the main research methods. She joined Lund University initially as a postdoctoral researcher, and she is currently a PI and SciLifeLab Group Leader of a research group in Structural Infection Medicine (STRIME) at the Division of Infection Medicine. The methodological interests and research focus of her are to integrate cryoEM, X-ray crystallography, crosslinking and hydrogen-deuterium exchange mass spectrometry with quantitative proteomics in order to advance the understanding of the molecular basis of infections. These efforts have paved the way for research activities of deciphering the structure of host-pathogen protein complexes, with the aim of providing novel interfaces to target for diagnostic, preventive, and therapeutic opportunities.

In addition to leading her research at the Division of Infection Medicine, she has an affiliation with the Swedish National Infrastructure in Biological Mass Spectrometry (BioMS) Lund node and the SciLifeLab Integrated Structural Biology platform (ISB), where she leads and develops the crosslinking mass spectrometry research and workflows. She is an elected board member and former President of the Swedish Proteomics Society (SPS); a national organisation promoting proteomics research in Sweden, and the Swedish connection to the European and global proteomics organizations.

Pandemics and Alertness member WG1 (Understanding the virus) and WG3 (Complementary and enabling techniques), LINXS Fellow

Head of Systems Virology Group, Faculty of Medicine, Lund University, Lund, Sweden

Joakim Esbjörnsson has for the last 19 years developed a research profile that combines expertise in molecular virology, bioinformatics and immunology. After doctoral studies at Lund University (LU), and postdoctoral studies at the Katholieke Universiteit and University of Oxford, he returned to LU in 2016 to set up his own research team focusing on molecular virus epidemiology and understanding how virus-host interactions determine pathogenesis using different bioinformatics and systems virology approaches. His career development have been supported by Vetenskapsrådet (international postdoctoral grant, establishment grant, and consolidator grant), Swedish Society for Medical Research, SciLifeLab, the European Commission, Lund University (multiple internal grants and a tenured position from associate senior lecturer to full Professor since 2016), other funds. He has >70 scientific publications, whereof the majority is as either first or senior author. Major original articles as first or senior author include publications in the New England Journal of Medicine, Nature Communications, Lancet HIV, Clinical Infectious Diseases, and Frontiers in Immunology. Other acknowledgements include being ranked as top 1% of HIV-2 researchers in the world, initiator and coordinator of the Lund University Virus Centre (LUVC), member of Vetenskapsrådets reference group for the national research program on virus and pandemics, member of the SciLifeLab DDLS Research School Management group, coordinator of the LU cooperation initiative on Pandemics and alertness, coordinator of the research and innovation dimension of the European University alliance EUGLOH 2.0 (including nine universities), and invitations to numerous scientific conferences as keynote speaker. He has been the main supervisor of nine postdocs/research fellows, three PhD students that successfully defended their theses, and co-supervisor of 8 PhD students that successfully defended their theses.

Pandemics and Alertness member WG1 (Understanding the virus) and WG3 (Complementary and enabling techniques), LINXS Fellow

MAX IV Laboratory, Lund University, Lund, Sweden

Marjolein Thunnissen, currently serving as senior science advisor at MAX IV, involved in coordinating activities towards the life sciences community. These encompass a wide spectrum of applications, including protein crystallography, small angle X-ray scattering, cutting-edge imaging techniques, X-ray absorption methods, and more. Marjolein plays a pivotal role in fostering relationships with users, both from academic and industrial backgrounds, while also spearheading educational and training initiatives. Marjolein's academic journey commenced at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands, where she embarked on her undergraduate and doctoral studies in chemistry. It was during her undergraduate years that her fascination with unraveling the intricate structure-function relationships of proteins through X-ray diffraction was ignited. Her main scientific interests have been inflammation and infection. She has solved several protein structures, amongst which the structure of Leukotriene A4 Hydrolase, the first member of the M1 group of zinc metalloproteases for which a structure got determined.

Pandemics and Alertness member WG1 (Understanding the virus) and WG3 (Complementary and enabling techniques), LINXS Fellow

European Spallation Source ERIC, Lund, Sweden

Dr. Suzanne Zoë Fisher completed her Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) and Honours (Hons.) degree in Biochemistry and Animal Physiology at the University of Stellenbosch in 1999 and 2000, respectively. In December 2000, she emigrated to the United States, where she worked as a research assistant in the Department of Physiology and Cell Biology at the University of Florida for nearly two years before beginning her graduate studies in 2002. She earned her Ph.D. in structural biology from the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, UF in 2006. She then joined Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in Los Alamos, New Mexico, as a postdoctoral research associate from 2007 to 2010. Following her postdoctoral work, she became a permanent staff member at LANL, serving as a Research Scientist II from 2010 to 2014. In this role, she was responsible for the Protein Crystallography Station and its affiliated deuteration and crystallization support laboratory

In 2014, Dr. Fisher moved to Sweden to join the European Spallation Source (ESS) in Lund. She currently serves as a Senior Scientist at the ESS and holds an adjunct Senior Lecturer position in the Department of Biology at Lund University. Dr. Fisher has extensive expertise in structural biology, protein biochemistry, neutron and X-ray crystallography, and stable isotope labeling for NMR and neutron applications. She is an active member of the scientific community, having served as a LINXS fellow, a Scientific Advisory Board member for Prosel Biosciences, and a board member of the DeuNet network. She is also engaged in education and outreach, has participated in numerous schools, workshops, conferences, and regularly delivers talks or seminars to diverse audiences to promote the applications of neutrons in structural biology. Dr. Fisher has authored or co-authored more than 80 peer-reviewed publications, including recent studies on SARS-CoV-2 nonstructural proteins nsp10 and nsp14.

Pandemics and Alertness member WG1 (Understanding the virus) and WG3 (Complementary and enabling techniques), LINXS Fellow

Professor of Molecular Biophysics, Section for Biochemistry and Structural Biology, Dept. of Chemistry, Lund University, Sweden

Prof. Logan has a D.Phil. in Molecular Biophysics from Oxford University, where he worked on the structures of picornaviruses, in particular foot-and-mouth disease virus. He did postdoctoral work in Strasbourg and Stockholm before moving to Lund University in 2001. He studies the structural basis for macromolecular function using a variety of experimental techniques: X-ray and neutron crystallography, small-angle X-ray scattering and cryo-electron microscopy. Two particular foci in recent years have been the mechanism and allosteric regulation of the radical enzyme ribonucleotide reductase and the details of ligand binding to the galectin family of carbohydrate recognition proteins. Prof. Logan is secretary of the European Synchrotron and XFEL Users Organisation and is a member of the advisory panel for the neutron macromolecular crystallography instrument at the ESS. He was recently appointed director of a new facility for cryo-EM at Lund University. He is co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of the company SARomics Biostructures AB, which was founded in 2006.

Pandemics and Alertness member WG1 (Understanding the virus) and WG3 (Complementary and enabling techniques), LINXS Fellow

Associate Senior Lecturer, Division of Biochemistry and Structural Biology, Department of Chemistry, Lund University, Lund, Sweden

Anna Munke has a PhD in Structural Biology from Uppsala University. This was followed by a postdoctoral stay at Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY) in Hamburg. She then returned to Uppsala University for a second postdoc before starting her current role at Lund University in 2025. Her experience spans developing and applying different structural biology techniques, with viruses as a consistent focus, either as model systems or from a biological perspective. Her current research centers on viruses infecting marine diatoms, where cryo-EM and in situ cryo-ET are mainly used to understand their replication.

Pandemics and Alertness member WG3 (Complementary and enabling techniques), LINXS Fellow

Head of Scientific Support, European Spallation Source ERIC, and adjunct Associate Professor, Division of Physical Chemistry, Lund University, Lund, Sweden

Hanna Wacklin-Knecht trained as chemist at Imperial College (UK) and received a DPhil in 2004 in Physical Chemistry from Oxford University, on the development of neutron reflectometry to study enzyme mechanism at membrane interfaces. Her research centers around elucidating cell membrane structure and function by using neutron scattering and deuteration, ranging from development of advanced biomimetics for human cell membranes to the in-situ study of membrane-protein and lipid function related to health and disease. After carrying out postdoctoral research at Oxford, the Toshiba R&D Centre (Japan) and the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO), she joined the Institut Laue Langevin in Grenoble (France) as an instrument scientist in 2009 and joined ESS in 2011. She has worked at ESS in a number of different roles on instrument and facility design, first as an instrument scientist for neutron reflectometry, and later as scientist for Life science within the DEMAX deuteration platform, and founder of the international deuteration network DeuNET. She was appointed in 2024 as the Head of the ESS Scientific Support Division comprising support laboratories and sample environments.

Pandemics and Alertness member WG3 (Complementary and enabling techniques), LINXS Fellow

Head of Unit, Structural Proteomics, SciLifeLab & BioMS, Lund University Node, Lund, Sweden

Simon Ekström received his PhD-degree in Electrical measurements (Area: Medical and chemical microsystems) in 2006 from Lund University. The PhD-thesis work was performed in a cross-disciplinary environment involving researchers from the Engineering and Medical faculties in Lund as well as from the company Astra Zeneca, also in Lund. Following the PhD- degree, Simon spent many years developing the area of microtechnology for protein analysis at the Department of Biomedical Engineering, while also working in a start-up company, based on his ideas, where he was responsible for R&D. In 2017 he transferred to the medical faculty and joined BioMS to build up and develop HDX-MS as resource for structural protein analysis, since 2021 he is head of unit for the SciLifelab unit Structural Proteomics, part of the ISB platform, where he and his colleagues have been very successful in helping researchers and companies understand different aspects of protein structure, dynamics and interaction.

Pandemics and Alertness member WG3 (Complementary and enabling techniques), LINXS Fellow

SciLifeLab, Lund, Sweden

Wojtek Potrzebowski is a Data Science Coordinator at SciLifeLab Lund. With a robust background in structural biology, Wojtek has honed his expertise in data science, data analysis, and scientific software development. Prior to his current role, he contributed significantly as a SANS Data Scientist at the European Spallation Source (ESS). Wojtek is also an active member of the leadership team of SasView (small-angle scattering data analysis toolkit), where he continues to drive advancements in the field.