
High-level teamwork for a better molecular understanding of muscle wasting
Structural biologist and Humboldt Fellow Alexey Amunts will be researching age-related bioenergetics together with MPI Director Stefan Raunser
Alexey Amunts, previously Professor at Stockholm University, will explore new innovative research ideas in the field of mitochondrial structures at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Physiology in Dortmund as part of the Humboldt Research Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. Together with Stefan Raunser, Director of the Department of Structural Biochemistry, he will investigate the structural and functional consequences of problems such as muscle ageing by examining mitochondrial structures using electron cryo-tomography. The studies could contribute to understanding of age-related muscle wasting, a major medical burden for ageing societies.
Alexey Amunts is an expert in mitochondrial biochemistry. He has been highlighted as “Cell scientist to watch” by the Journal of Cell Science in 2021. Studies from his lab have revealed fundamental insights into bioenergetics, the process of converting energy mainly occuring in mitochondria. His research focused on the assembly of mitoribosomes, the synthesis of bioenergetic proteins, and the function of biophysical machineries responsible for chemical energy conversion.
Amunts and Raunser aim to combine their expertise in the field of mitochondrial biology and electron cryo-tomography (cryo-ET) to analyze the structural and functional consequences of muscle aging by examining mitochondrial membrane structures in a variety of muscle samples harboring mutations typical of human age-related diseases and related questions.
„We will profit from each other’s experience in the fields of membrane proteins, single particle cryo-EM and cryo-ET. Having Alexey with his experience directly on-site in our lab will act as a catalyst for the project”, says Raunser.
“Our collaborative approach will aim to provide a deeper understanding of the compositional and structural rearrangements within native mitochondria, offering molecular insights that cannot be obtained by cell culture or in vitro biochemical studies“, says Amunts.
About Alexey Amunts
Alexey Amunts received his doctorate from Tel Aviv University in 2011 for his work on the X-ray crystal structure of a plant photosystem I in the laboratory of Nathan Nelson. He then joined Venki Ramakrishnan's laboratory at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) in Cambridge, UK, as a postdoc, where he used cryo-EM to study ribosomes from human and yeast mitochondria. In 2016 Alexey started his independent laboratory at the Stockholm University as a SciLifeLab fellow. His laboratory studies the mechanisms, assembly and evolution of bioenergetic complexes. In 2019, Alexey was selected for the EMBO Young Investigator Programme and also received the Cancer Foundation Junior Investigator Award, as well as funding from the ERC, the Wallenberg Foundation and SSF Future Leaders.