Dr. Jeff Abramson

Biography

Jeff S. Abramson is a Professor in the Department of Physiology at UCLA Medical School. He joined the faculty in January 2005. Professor Abramson originally hails from Los Angeles and has extensive international experience, having attended graduate school at Uppsala University in Sweden, where he worked in the laboratory of Iwata. He then moved to the Imperial College London for postdoctoral training in membrane protein crystallography. His research focuses on membrane transport proteins, which are critical for various biological functions. These proteins are involved in energy transduction, the modification of ion concentrations, and the active import of metabolites into cells. Despite representing 20-30% of the proteins sequenced in genomes, membrane proteins are often underrepresented in structural databases, comprising only about 0.7% of entries in the Protein Data Bank. This discrepancy arises from the challenges associated with their hydrophobic nature and their location within the phospholipid bilayer, complicating their expression, purification, and crystallization. Professor Abramson's lab is dedicated to addressing these challenges and to resolving the structures of channels and transporters. He emphasizes interdepartmental collaborations, providing an ideal environment for students to learn various techniques and interact with multiple research groups.

Research Interests