Valeriia Kalienkova

Valeriia Kalienkova is a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Biomedicine, University of Bergen. In the process of her scientific training Valeriia has gained a keen interest in the mechanisms of membrane transport and membrane excitability, as well as the mechanistic aspects of membrane protein function. During her doctoral work at the University of Zurich, Valeriia trained in biochemistry and structural biology of membrane proteins. During her postdoc at the University of Groningen, she gained expertise in single particle cryo electron microscopy (cryo-EM), which is a leading technique for structural characterization of membrane proteins.

In her current work, Valeriia employs cryo-EM and biochemical approaches to investigate how membrane proteins move ions and lipids into/out of the cell, and how these proteins are modulated by transmitters and drugs. Structural characterization of membrane proteins is a highly ambitious and challenging venture, with only ~7% of all unique structures solved to date representing membrane proteins. However, knowing the structure is a key to understanding the function, and to developing new therapeutics targeting these important biological molecules.