Thorsten Althoff is an Associate Project Scientist in the Massaly lab. Originally from Germany, he studied Biomedical Sciences in Marburg before pursuing a Ph.D. in structural biology of membrane proteins at the Max-Planck-Institute for Biophysics in Frankfurt utilizing cryo-electron microscopy. During his postdocs, first in Portland, Oregon and then at UCLA he continued to use a wide variety of biochemical, biophysical and structural biology methods to decipher the structure and function of membrane proteins, mostly Na+-coupled transporters. After this focus on studying the molecular details of protein function, he now wants to learn how to integrate molecular findings with behavior studies and phenotypes in the whole organism.

Outside of the lab Thorsten enjoys everything that Los Angeles and California have to offer from culture to nature. He also likes cooking and traveling.