Members

Cornelius Gati
Assistant Professor

gati (at) usc.edu

ORCID ID: 0000-0003-3693-7009

Google Scholar: Citations

Twitter: @CorneliusGati

CV: CV-Gati

Cornelius performed his PhD work in the group of Henry Chapman at the Center for Free-Electron Laser Science at DESY, Germany. The focus of his PhD was the development of the technique of serial crystallography at modern X-ray light sources, namely third generation synchrotrons and X-ray Free-Electron Lasers.

After his PhD he moved on to do a PostDoc in the lab of Sjors Scheres at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK, where he learnt everything about single particle cryoEM. From 2018-2020 he was an independent group leader at SLAC National lab and the Stanford School of Medicine.

In 2022, Cornelius joined USC as an Assistant Professor for Biological Sciences. He also holds a joint appointment with the Departments of Chemistry, Pharmacy and Pharmacological Sciences, and Quantitative and Computational Biology.

Mohsen Ranjbar
Graduate Student, Chemistry

mranjbar (at) usc.edu
ORCID: 0000-0002-0395-8260
Google Scholar: Citations

Mohsen received his PharmD degree from Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Iran in 2016. His thesis was the synthesis of benzoxazole derivatives as antimicrobial and antifungal agents. Additionally, he worked on homology modeling for the H2 receptor. He got his master’s degree in chemistry and chemical biology from the University of New Mexico in 2023, where he worked with Dr. Elaine Bearer on using machine learning and data mining to identify genes that could be important in autophagy machinery. After completion of his studies at UNM, he joined PhD program in chemistry at USC in August 2023.

Houming Zhu
Graduate Student, Biology

houmingz (at) usc.edu

Houming received his Bachelor degree at Southern University of Science and Technology(SUSTech), Shenzhen, China. His undergraduate work focused on a very unique subfamily of G protein-coupled receptor(GPCR): Adhesion GPCR. His work aimed to investigate the biochemical and structural characterization of BAI3-C1QL1 interaction for selecting single-winner climbing fiber. During his time at SUSTech, he learned experimental skills regarding molecular cloning, cell culture, protein expression, protein purification and protein interaction. Also, he has experience on crystal screening and negative staining EM for structural studies. Houming was admitted into the MCB PhD program at USC and joined Dr. Gati’s lab in August 2023. He will continually study the structural basis of several synaptic transmission related GPCR for his graduate thesis.

Aaliyah Tyson
Graduate Student, Chemistry

ast_803 (at) usc.edu

Twitter: @803Ast

Aaliyah obtained a B.S. in Biochemistry from Loyola Marymount University in 2022. During her time at Loyola Marymount University she joined the group of David Moffet to study protein aggregation in the context of type 2 diabetes. In his lab, she participated in the lab’s efforts of screening  molecules to identify inhibitors of IAPP. Upon completing her undergraduate studies in 2023, she joined the Chemistry program at USC and subsequently the Gati lab. In the Gati lab she will complete her graduate research using cryoEM to investigate GPCR structure at the atomic scale to gain insight on the connection between their interactions with ligands and signaling partners and the pharmacological properties of these receptors.

Daniel Styrpejko
Graduate Student, Biology

styrpejk (at) usc.edu

Twitter: @DannyStyrpejko

Danny received his Bachelor of Science in Cellular/Molecular Biology at the University of California, San Diego. He then joined Math Cuajungco’s lab at California State University, Fullerton where he studied zinc transporters. His thesis work focused on the zinc transporter Transmembrane Protein 163 (TMEM163) and its relation to the SLC30 family of zinc efflux transporters. This work ultimately led to the discovery of interacting partners for TMEM163 as well as colocalization data between these interacting partners. He subsequently earned a Master of Science for this work and then joined the Molecular and Computational Biology(MCB) program in August 2022. In the Gati Lab, he will study GPCR structures using cryoEM in order to elucidate structural changes based on different ligands.

Omar Salah
Undergraduate Student, Chemistry

omarsala (at) usc.edu

Twitter: @omarsalahcapa

Omar Salah is a third-year undergraduate majoring in Chemistry (Chemical Biology) with two minors in Health Care Studies and Applied Analytics. He is from San Diego, California, and aims to attend graduate school with future goals of becoming a physician-scientist by M.D/Ph.D. Omar joined the Gati lab to gain an understanding of cryo-EM as a novel tool for high-resolution protein structural characterizations and to expand upon his knowledge of structural biology in preparation for a future career in research. Outside of the lab, Omar enjoys doing chemistry experiments, reading science fiction, and trying new foods around LA.

Ravi Yadav
Postdoctoral Fellow

raviyada (at) usc.edu

ORCID ID: 0000-0003-2879-0465
Google Scholar: Citations
Twitter: @YadavR21

Ravi Yadav received a Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech) in Biotechnology degree from Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, India, and his Ph.D. in biomolecular structure and biophysics (w/Nicholas Noinaj) from Purdue University, Indiana, USA. His graduate work focused on understanding iron import mechanism of outer membrane proteins, LbpA and LbpB, in pathogenic Neisseria. He used X-ray crystallography and cryo-electron microscopy to obtain structures of LbpA/B with human lactoferrin leading to understanding of protein-protein interactions and conformational changes associated with iron extraction from lactoferrin. Additionally, he studied the cationic antimicrobial peptide lactoferricin binding to LbpB using small-angle X-ray scattering and isothermal titration calorimetry. Ravi joined the Gati lab as a postdoc in June 2022 and is investigating complement receptor signaling and neurotransmitter transporters. Outside of the lab, Ravi likes to try new restaurants, and goes for hikes and long drives.

Saif Khan
Graduate Student, Biology

saifkhan (at) usc.edu

ORCID ID: 0000-0002-3604-2670
Google Scholar: Citations
Twitter: @sfk_usc

Saif completed his undergraduate studies in biochemistry at the University of Bath. During his program, he spent a placement year in Vinit Mahajan’s group at the University of Iowa, where he gained experience in X-ray crystallography and SAXS to pursue structures of calpain-5. Following his studies, he moved to the University of Iowa’s Protein and Crystallography Facility as a visiting scholar. There, he spent most of his time pursuing a cryoEM structure of a receptor histidine kinase incorporated in nanodiscs.
Saif joined the MCB program at USC in August 2021 and will be completing his graduate research in the Gati lab. His work will focus on important GPCR’s implicated in substance abuse.