Dominik Konkolewicz
Miami University-Oxford, OH·Chemistry
Proteins that sit inside cell membranes control what enters and leaves a cell, relay signals, and are used by viruses to get inside. They make up roughly 30% of known proteins but only about 1% of solved protein structures.
- Fields
Chemistry
Biophysics
Materials Science
- Topics
membrane proteins
lipid bilayer mimetics
nanodiscs
- Grants
- 1 known grant, last ended Aug 2026
What they work on
- Synthesize a new class of polymers using controlled polymerization to tune chain length, charge and hydrophobicity, and test which designs self-assemble with lipids into well-defined discs tens of nanometers across.
- Attach spin labels, small magnetically active tags, to polymers and lipids and use electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy to measure local dynamics and distances within polymer–lipid assemblies.
- Insert membrane proteins into the polymer–lipid discs and probe the structure and dynamics of the polymer–lipid–protein complexes by magnetic resonance spectroscopy.
- Relate polymer structure to assembly behavior across a diverse polymer library to derive design rules for lipid bilayer mimetics suited to membrane protein structural studies.
More about the research
A major reason is that these proteins fall apart outside their natural fatty membrane, and the artificial membrane substitutes available today all have drawbacks: soap-like micelles are too curved to resemble a flat membrane, some systems work with only a few lipid types, vesicles are too large, protein-based scaffolds are costly and add background signal, and existing disc-forming polymers contain aromatic rings and offer little structural control.
Why it matters
Most newly approved therapeutics are developed with the help of protein structures, yet drug targets embedded in membranes remain poorly characterized. Reliable, tunable polymer–lipid nanodiscs could make these proteins easier to study structurally, supporting work on diseases from heart disease to bacterial and viral infections, and the project also trains undergraduates in polymer chemistry and biophysics.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Thorsten Schmidt
Kent State University at Kent, OH·Biophysics
Build ring-shaped DNA nanostructures that self-assemble from synthetic DNA strands and can be filled with lipids and membrane proteins, making the proteins water-soluble in a membrane-like setting.
David Cafiso
University of Virginia, VA·Biophysics
Test models of how TonB-dependent transporters such as BtuB, the vitamin B12 transporter, move nutrients across the E. coli outer membrane, using site-directed spin labeling and EPR spectroscopy on active proteins.
Yoan Simon
Arizona State University Campus Immersion, AZ·Materials Science·Early-career
Evaluate how the structure of amphiphilic triblock copolymers — stiffness, side-chain length, and interdigitation between opposing chains — governs their behavior in polymer membranes.
The school
Miami University-Oxford: 5 labs on PI Pages, $29M a year on research, 71 research doctorates a year.
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