Associate Professor

gati (at) usc.edu

ORCID ID: 0000-0003-3693-7009

Google Scholar: Citations

BlueSky: @gati.bsky.social

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 2021, Cornelius joined USC as an Assistant Professor, and since 2026 is an Associate Professor for Molecular and Cellular Biosciences. He also holds a joint appointment with the Departments of Chemistry, Pharmacy and Pharmacological Sciences, and Quantitative and Computational Biology.

Senior Staff Scientist

Co-Director, Structural Biology Core

gyewon.han (at) usc.edu

Dr. Gye Won Han received her B.S. and M.S. in Chemistry from Ewha Womans University in Seoul, South Korea, and trained in Crystallography at the University of Pittsburgh, where she earned her Ph.D.

She conducted postdoctoral research at UC San Diego and UCLA before joining The Scripps Research Institute, where she served as a Scientific Associate at the Joint Center for Structural Genomics (JCSG), working on high-throughput structure determination of soluble proteins, and later as a Staff Scientist in the GPCR Network, focusing on membrane protein structures. In 2015, she joined the Bridge Institute at the University of Southern California, where she has served as Co-Director of the Structural Biology Core (SBC) since 2019.

Dr. Han specializes in X-ray crystallography and cryo-electron microscopy, with a focus on the structure determination and refinement of membrane proteins. She has co-authored over 150 peer-reviewed publications and is named a Highly Cited Researcher by Clarivate Analytics.

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.

Graduate Student - PIBBS

zzhang96 (at) usc.edu

Zixin earned his B.S. in Biochemistry from UCLA in 2020 and his M.H.S. in Biochemistry from Johns Hopkins University in 2021. His undergraduate research focused on elucidating interactions between actin and actin-binding proteins. During his graduate training at Johns Hopkins, Zixin investigated mechanisms underlying the pathogenesis of leukemia and inflammatory bowel disease, developing a strong interest in immune signaling pathways. In 2023, he joined the Medical Biophysics Program under PIBBS at the USC Keck School of Medicine. His graduate research will employ cryoEM to investigate the structural and pharmacological basis of complement receptor signaling to better understand how ligand engagement and downstream signaling partners drive immune responses.

PostDoc

sayuripa (at) usc.edu

Sayuri obtained her B.S in Biochemistry at California State University Northridge. As an undergraduate she worked in Dr. Ravinder Abrol's lab where she learned to apply molecular dynamics simulations to understand chaperone protein activation. She completed her PhD at Keck School of Medicine of USC in the lab of Dr. Ansgar Siemer. At USC her work focused on elucidating the highly flexible domains of alpha-synuclein, an amyloid fibril and hallmark of Parkinson's disease, using solid-state NMR, EPR, and molecular dynamics simulations. In the Gati lab, she hopes to learn and apply cryoEM to understand GPCR pharmacology.

Rotation Student - Neuroscience

ywang804 (at) usc.edu

Yijin received her B.S. in Neuroscience from the University of California, Los Angeles, with a minor in Bioinformatics. At UCLA, she worked in several research settings spanning systems neuroscience, stroke recovery, and cancer-related biology. In Dr. Alcino Silva’s lab, she studied microglia-neuron interactions in memory linking, identified a 24-hour post-learning window as a critical time point, and also worked on microglial depletion and repopulation experiments in middle-aged mice to examine age-related memory deficits. In Dr. Tom Carmichael’s lab, she led behavioral assays to study post-stroke motor recovery in mice, with a focus on SIK2 inhibition as a therapeutic target for ischemic stroke recovery. At USC, Yijin is interested in interdisciplinary training that combines neuroscience with structural and mechanistic approaches in translational biomedical research.

PostDoc

jcn_662 (at) usc.edu

Joining May 2026 from University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

Visiting student

Anita received her B.Sc. in Cell and Molecular Biology from California State University, Northridge. At CSUN, she joined Dr. Ravinder Abrol's lab, where she focused on the mechanism of receptor-mediated activation of Gs protein using computational modeling and molecular dynamics simulations. In the Gati lab, she will be applying computational tools paired with experimental approaches to investigate GPCR pharmacology. 

Postdoc

Joining soon from Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, China.

Incoming Graduate Student - Molecular Biology

Xun obtained her B.S. in Pharmacy (Medicinal Chemistry) from China Pharmaceutical University in 2023, where she conducted research in Dr. Tao Lu’s lab on the discovery of kinase inhibitors and PROTAC degraders. She then completed her M.S. degree at Shanghai Jiao Tong University in Dr. Jian Zhang’s lab from 2023 to 2026. During this period, her research focused on integrating MD simulation, medicinal chemistry and chemical biology approaches to identify cryptic allosteric sites, elucidate allosteric signal propagation and discover allosteric/ biased modulators targeting GPCR and undruggable enzymes. From 2025 to 2026, she joined Dr. Bryan L. Roth lab in the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill as a research assistant to study GPCR pharmacology. In 2026, Xun will join Dr. Gati lab as an incoming PhD student of USC Molecular Biology Program. Her research will focus on a synergistic application of cryoEM structures, computational modeling, peptide/small molecule probes and pharmacology to depict the allosteric/biased signaling landscape of GPCR.

Undergraduate researcher

forampat (at) usc.edu

Foram is a second-year undergraduate student at the University of Southern California, majoring in Biochemistry on the Pre-Medicine track. She is interested in exploring how biochemical and structural approaches can be used to better understand protein function and signaling in human health and disease.

Undergraduate researcher

zfarring (at) usc.edu

Zach is a sophomore Neuroscience major and pre-medical student at the University of Southern California. His interests focus on the structural and molecular determinants of neurological pathology. He is particularly motivated by the translation of basic science into innovative treatment methodologies that improve clinical patient outcomes.

Saif Khan (2021-2025, graduate student), now Lead Researcher in Babu Lab - St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital

Jaskaran Singh (2024-2025, undergraduate researcher)

Ravi Yadav (2022-2025, PostDoc), now PostDoc in Mchaourab Lab - Vanderbilt University

Omar Salah (2023-2024, undergraduate researcher), now graduate student at CalTech

Anthony Chen (2022-2023, undergraduate researcher), now graduate student at Taiwan International Graduate Program (TIGP)

Tristan Mitchell (2022-2024, undergraduate researcher), now medical student at University of Hawai’i

Zenia Motiwala (2021-2024, PostDoc), now Senior Scientist at Amgen

Nanda Aduri (2019-2022, PostDoc), now Senior Scientist at The Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson

Xinyu Xiang (2018, undergraduate researcher), now graduate student at Stanford University

Jesse Coe (2018-2020, PostDoc), now Senior Scientist at KBI Biopharma