Assistant Professor

gatic (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 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 - Molecular Biology

houmin (at) usc.edu

Houming received his Bachelor degree at Southern University of Science and Technology(SUSTech), Shenzhen, China. His undergraduate work focused on a very unique subfamily of G protein-coupled receptor(GPCR): Adhesion GPCR. His work aimed to investigate the biochemical and structural characterization of BAI3-C1QL1 interaction for selecting single-winner climbing fiber. During his time at SUSTech, he learned experimental skills regarding molecular cloning, cell culture, protein expression, protein purification and protein interaction. Also, he has experience on crystal screening and negative staining EM for structural studies. Houming was admitted into the MCB PhD program at USC and joined Dr. Gati’s lab in August 2023. He will continually study the structural basis of several synaptic transmission related GPCR for his graduate thesis.

Graduate Student - Chemistry

mranjbar (at) usc.edu
ORCID: 0000-0002-0395-8260
Google Scholar: Citations

Mohsen received his PharmD degree from Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Iran in 2016. His thesis was the synthesis of benzoxazole derivatives as antimicrobial and antifungal agents. Additionally, he worked on homology modeling for the H2 receptor. He got his master’s degree in chemistry and chemical biology from the University of New Mexico in 2023, where he worked with Dr. Elaine Bearer on using machine learning and data mining to identify genes that could be important in autophagy machinery. After completion of his studies at UNM, he joined PhD program in chemistry at USC in August 2023.

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

Joining early 2026 from University of Copenhagen

Rotation Student (QCB)

yujixue (at) usc.edu

Yuji Xue received his B.S. in Chemistry from Macalester College in 2025. During the summer of 2024, he conducted research with the group of Hiro Matsunami at Duke University, where he studied the stereoselectivity of human olfactory receptors using a combination of in vitro assays and in silico molecular simulations. Through the work, he developed interest in protein structure and conformational dynamics, particularly in the context of GPCR function. After graduating, Yuji joined the QCB PhD program at USC and is currently rotating in the Gati Lab to further explore the structural and dynamic mechanisms of GPCRs using computational and structural approaches.

Saif Khan (2021-2025, graduate student)

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 Janssen R&D

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

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