Dr. Yifan Cheng is currently an Investigator of Howard Hughes Medical Institute and a Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics at University of California San Francisco (UCSF). He received his Ph.D. degree in 1991 from Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). From 1991 to 1996, he continued his research in solid state physics and electron microscopy as a postdoctoral fellow at University of Oslo (NTNF Fellow) and Max-Planck-Institute of Metal Research (Alexander von Humboldt Fellow). In 1996, he changed his research direction to structural biology, and received further training in cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) from Professors Kenneth Taylor at Florida State University and Yoshinori Fujiyoshi at Kyoto University. In 1999, he joined the laboratory of Thomas Walz to setup a cryo-EM operation at Harvard Medical School. He started his independent career in 2006, joining the faculty of UCSF and has stayed there ever since. He has been an HHMI Investigator since 2015. He is the recipient of the Christian B. Anfinsen Award from The Protein Society (2018) and Anatrase Membrane Protein Award from Biophysical Society (2026), elected members of the American Academy of Arts and Science (2019) and National Academy of Sciences (2020).

 

His laboratory uses cryo-EM to study structures of biological macromolecules, particularly integral membrane proteins and dynamic complexes. In addition, development of cryo-EM methodology for structural biology is also a long-lasting interest of his laboratory. Previous works of his laboratory include developments of algorithms to correct electron beam-induced image motion and determination of the first atomic structure of TRPV1 by single particle cryo-EM, etc.

Amir Yacoby is a Professor of Physics and Applied Physics at Harvard University. He received his bachelor’s degree in the field of Aerospace engineering and then transitioned into Physics. Following a Master’s degree in theoretical Physics, Yacoby received his PhD in experimental condensed matter physics in 1994 from the Weizmann Institute of Science.

Professor Yacoby is a member of the National Academy of Science, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Fellow of the American Physical Society, member of the American Academy for Advancement of Science and an external member of the Max Plank Society.

Professor Yacoby works to develop new experimental techniques to explore quantum matter and uses these techniques to obtain new insights into their underlying quantum mechanical properties.

John Jimah is an Assistant Professor of Molecular Biology at Princeton University. His laboratory investigates the molecular mechanisms of membrane remodeling in human cells and eukaryotic parasites, using cryo-electron microscopy and tomography (cryo-EM and cryo-ET) alongside biochemical and cell biological approaches.

 

He has contributed to our understanding of the structural mechanisms by which membrane architecture is maintained or remodeled, including how human dynamin assembles to drive membrane fission during endocytosis, how dynamin organizes actin during cell-cell fusion, and how the bacterial β-barrel assembly machinery mediates outer membrane protein folding. He also studied the malaria parasite protein CelTOS, a multistage vaccine target, and how it disrupts host membranes to enable parasite traversal through host cells. Dr. Jimah earned his B.A. in Molecular Biology from Colgate University and his Ph.D. in Biology and Biomedical Sciences from Washington University in St. Louis, and he completed postdoctoral training at the National Institutes of Health. His work has been recognized by the Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship and the NIGMS MOSAIC K99/R00 award. Overall, his research seeks to define structural principles of membrane remodeling across diverse cellular contexts.