2026 VAI Structural Biology Symposium

Dr. Huilin Li studies how cells copy DNA, build and modify proteins, and maintain their internal health — processes that are essential for life and often disrupted in disease. His work reveals how these molecular systems function at the most fundamental level, providing insights relevant to major public health challenges such as tuberculosis, cancer and neurological disorders. Dr. Li has been a leader in visualizing complex biological machinery for more than three decades.

Dr. Travis Walton studies the cellular cytoskeleton, which provides structure and stability to cells. Problems with this critical architecture can contribute to a wide range of human diseases. Dr. Walton’s lab uses leading-edge imaging technologies to identify vulnerabilities in the cytoskeleton that can lead to novel diagnostic and therapeutic targets.

Dr. Yang Yang employs the latest imaging technologies to illuminate how disease-related proteins misfold and assemble in neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. Her research has revealed the structures of critical protein filaments found in patient brain tissue, and provides fundamental insights that can inform the development of improved diagnostic and treatment strategies.

Dr. Gongpu Zhao joined Van Andel Institute in 2016, where he helped launch the Cryo-EM Core and facilitate its development into a central resource for structural biology research. He came from a postdoctoral fellowship in the Peijun Zhang Laboratory at the University of Pittsburgh, where he played a leading role in determining the structure of the HIV-1 capsid, the outer “shell” of the virus. At Van Andel Institute, Dr. Zhao focuses on advancing cryo-electron microscopy technologies, with particular emphasis on developing new sample preparation workflows, in situ cryo-ET methods and imaging strategies that enable high-resolution structural analysis.

Dr. Cianfrocco has been a long-time member of the cryo-EM community over the past 20 years. His laboratory leverages its cryo-EM expertise, in combination with single-molecule imaging, to determine molecular mechanisms of microtubule-based transport. Beyond structural biology projects, the Cianfrocco lab also builds cyberinfrastructure for structural biology and develops approaches to automate cryo-EM instrument control.

Prof. Wen Jiang earned his bachelor’s degree in physics from Peking University, followed by a master’s degree in biophysics from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He then completed his Ph.D. in cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) at Baylor College of Medicine, where he also pursued postdoctoral training in the same laboratory. He established his independent research group at Purdue University in 2005 as an assistant professor, later receiving tenure and rising to associate and then full professor. In 2025, his laboratory relocated to Penn State University, where he currently holds the Dorothy Foehr Huck and J. Lloyd Huck Chair in Structural Biology. Since his Ph.D. work, Dr. Jiang’s research has centered on developing new cryo-EM methods and exploring their applications. While his early investigations focused primarily on virus structures, his group in recent years has concentrated on determining the structures of protein amyloids extracted from post-mortem brain tissues of patients affected by neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease, Down syndrome, and others.

Shyamal Mosalaganti was born and raised in India. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in chemistry from the Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning before moving to Germany as an International Max Planck Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Physiology in Dortmund. There, in the laboratory of Stefan Raunser, he investigated the structure and function of membrane proteins. During his doctoral training, he also collaborated with Andrea Musacchio’s group to elucidate the architecture of key components of the human kinetochore.

Inspired by the transformative advances in cryo-electron microscopy, Mosalaganti pursued postdoctoral research at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg in the laboratory of Martin Beck. His work contributed to mapping the symmetric core of the human nuclear pore complex and advanced the emerging field of in situ structural biology.

Now leading his laboratory at the University of Michigan Life Sciences Institute, Mosalaganti integrates cryo-electron microscopy and cellular biology to capture macromolecular complexes in their native cellular context, with a particular focus on lysosomal function, positioning, and inter-organelle communication.