Thorsten Althoff is a junior postdoc at the Max-Planck-Institut für Biophysik in Frankfurt where he also did his PhD under the supervision of Werner Kühlbrandt.
During his thesis he studied a 1.7 MDa mitochondrial supercomplex of the respiratory chain in amphipols by electron cryo-microscopy. He could show that interactions between the constituting complexes I, III2 and IV is largely mediated by lipids. The arrangement of the proteins in the supercomplex supports the idea of directed substrate transfer by the shortest pathway.
Currently, he is reconstituting the supercomplexes into liposomes for structural and functional studies in a membrane system. Beside this he is interested in the structure/function relationship of secondary active transporters and respiratory complexes.
Max-Planck-Institut für Biophysik
Strukturbiologie
Max-von-Laue-Str. 3
60438 Frankfurt
GERMANY
Mail : thorsten.althoff(at)biophys.mpg.de
Lab Web page: http://www.biophys.mpg.de/en/institute/structural-biology.html