Lead Investigator Bio

Areas of expertise: Structural biology, cryo-EM, synaptic receptors, ion channels

Click here for the Du and Lü Labs' joint site

Dr. Juan Du earned her Diploma degree in chemistry from University of Goettingen and a Ph.D. from the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Freiburg in Germany. While there, she determined the structure of a key enzyme required for gluconeogenesis and revealed new facets of the membrane transporter FocA. In 2012, she joined the Gouaux Lab at Oregon Health & Science University’s Vollum Institute, where her work focused on characterizing excitatory triheteromeric NMDA receptor as well as inhibitory glycine receptor using cryo-EM and electrophysiology. She is now an assistant professor in the Center for Cancer and Cell Biology at Van Andel Institute.

2020 Pew Scholars in Biomedical Sciences

2020 Sloan Research Fellow in Neuroscience

2019 Klingenstein-Simons Award in the Neuroscience

2019 McKnight Scholar Award for neuroscience

2018 Van Andel Institute Employee Impact Fund

2012 Arthur Lüttringhaus Prize

2011 Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Self-Financed Students Abroad