Katerina Naydenova
Lise Meitner Research Group Leader
Vita
Brief Bio
During my high-school years, I was an avid competitor in the International Physics Olympiads, which secured me a place to read the Natural Sciences Tripos (BA and MSci) at the University of Cambridge, specialising in physics. During this time, I first joined Chris Russo's group in the Structural Studies Division of the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (MRC LMB) in Cambridge as a summer student in 2016. We were having a great time, so I stayed on for another summer internship, as well as for my master's project, my PhD and a brief postdoc. We elucidated the physical principles that limit how well one can image biological molecules and we built technologies to improve the capabilities of cryogenic electron microscopy (cryoEM) for structural biologists: for example, during my PhD I developed the HexAuFoil cryoEM grids. For this work, I was awarded the Max Perutz Prize for outstanding PhD research in 2020. By the end of my PhD, in 2023, the cryoEM field was growing exponentially and hundreds of protein structures were being solved per week - and I realised it was time for a new adventure. So for my postdoc, I moved into cell biology, and joined the group of Felix Randow, also at the MRC LMB. Our group studies cell-autonomous immunity, which is the ability of non-specialised, non-immune cells to defend themselves against pathogens. We also investigate how professional cytosol-dwelling pathogens evade these host defences. Alongside my research, I also enjoy teaching at the annual Cold Spring Harbor cryoEM course in the USA.
Academic History
2023 – 2025 Career Development Fellow. Investigation of anti-bacterial innate immune signalling pathways. Felix Randow group in the PNAC Division of MRC LMB, Cambridge, UK.
2022 – 2023 Postdoctoral Fellow. Development of new methods for in situ cryogenic electron microscopy. Chris Russo group in the Structural Studies Division of MRC LMB, Cambridge, UK.
2018 – 2022 PhD in Biological Sciences. Thesis: The physical origins of specimen movement in electron cryomicroscopy and how to eliminate it. Chris Russo group in the Structural Studies Division of MRC LMB, Cambridge, UK.
2017 – 2018 MSci in Natural Sciences (Physics) from the University of Cambridge. Thesis: Spectroscopy of genetically encodable fluorescent proteins at cryogenic temperatures. Chris Russo group in the Structural Studies Division of MRC LMB, Cambridge, UK.
2016 – 2017 Research Associate (Summer Intern). Development of methods for determining, controlling, and analysing the effects of the surface energy of cryoEM specimen supports. Chris Russo group in the Structural Studies Division of MRC LMB, Cambridge, UK.
2014 – 2017 BA Hons in Natural Sciences (Physics) from the University of Cambridge, UK.