Dr. Alena Siutkina
Research topic
Structural studies of the (mito)KCa3.1 ion channel using cryo-electron microscopy
Alena studied pharmacy at the Perm State Pharmaceutical Academy in Russia, where she was involved in various medicinal chemistry projects. Therefore, she continued her scientific career there and received her doctorate in 2021 with a thesis on the synthesis and biological activity of hydrazonofuranone derivatives. In 2021, Alena went to the University of Münster for a six-month project to work on the structure-based design and synthesis of novel anticoagulants, where she continued her research as a postdoc. While working on the structure of Factor XIa, Alena became interested in structural biology and joined Chembion on October 15, 2024. As part of the collaboration with Prof. Dr. Christos Gatsogiannis group, she conducts structural studies of the KCa3.1 ion channel using cryo-electron microscopy and tomography.