About us

Cristina Paulino, originally from Portugal, studied biochemistry at the Heinrich-Heine University in Dusseldorf, Germany. She conducted her Master Thesis at the Max-Planck Institute of Molecular Physiology in Dortmund, Germany, and graduated in 2008. During her undergraduate and following doctoral studies at the Max-Planck Institute of Biophysics in Frankfurt, Germany, she was trained in membrane protein biology. Under the supervision of Werner Kühlbrandt, a pioneer in the field, she became proficient in electron cryo-microscopy (cryo-EM) and obtained her PhD with distinction (summa cum laude) in 2014. Building upon her expertise, she implemented the technique of cryo-EM in the group of Raimund Dutzler (University of Zurich, Switzerland) during her postdoctoral studies. In 2017 she obtained a tenure-tracked position as an Assistant Professor and became head of the cryo-EM unit at the Groningen Biomolecular Sciences and Biotechnology Institute (GBB), University of Groningen, The Netherlands.

Cristina was awarded a PhD Fellowship from the Portuguese Science and Technology Foundation FCT, a Postdoc Fellowship from the University of Zurich, a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships, a NWO Veni grant and a NWO Start-Up grant. In 2020 she was awarded the NVBMB prize, from the Dutch Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology that recognises the work of highly talented young independent PIs in the field. Within The Netherlands Electron Microscopy Infrastructure roadmap (NEMI), she heads the national single-particle cryo-EM flagship node and is member of the executive board.

Her interdisciplinary research combines structural data, determined by high-resolution single particle cryo-EM, with the functional characterization of target proteins. Her main interest is focused on elucidating the structure-function relationships that explain the mechanism of action of membrane transporters and channels.

Apart from science, Cristina is a devoted mentor and advocate for women. Read more about her here: Biophysics Profile or download her CV.