Rate My Professor Daniel Nietlispach

Daniel Nietlispach is Professor of Biomolecular NMR in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Cambridge, where he also serves as Assistant Director of Research and NMR Facility Manager. He holds a Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Cambridge and was appointed Reader in Biomolecular NMR Spectroscopy in the Department of Biochemistry in 2011. His research is dedicated to integral membrane protein biology, focusing on the structure, dynamics, and function of seven-helical membrane proteins such as G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) and microbial rhodopsins. GPCRs represent the largest family of cell surface receptors, comprising around 850 proteins that transduce extracellular signals into intracellular responses and serve as primary drug targets for numerous physiological processes. The Nietlispach Group employs solution-state NMR spectroscopy to characterize the conformational dynamics of these proteins, their activation mechanisms, and the influence of environmental factors like lipids on function. This includes studies on the agonist-dependent conformational landscapes of GPCRs, such as the β1-adrenergic receptor, and the development of novel membrane mimetic systems.

Key methodological advancements from his laboratory include compressed sensing reconstruction techniques for multidimensional NMR spectra, enabling higher resolution from undersampled data (Bostock, Holland, and Nietlispach, Journal of Biomolecular NMR, 2017), and adaptable phospholipid membrane mimetics using saposin nanoparticles for NMR studies of membrane proteins (Chien et al., Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2017). Prominent publications feature investigations into partial agonism via multiple equilibria in the β1-adrenergic receptor (Solt et al., Nature Communications, 2017), conformational plasticity of ligand-bound GPCR complexes using 19F NMR (Frei et al., Nature Communications, 2020), and characterization of denatured states of sensory rhodopsin II (Tan et al., Journal of Molecular Biology, 2019). Additional contributions encompass the role of NMR in mapping GPCR conformational landscapes (Bostock, Solt, and Nietlispach, Current Opinion in Structural Biology, 2019). Nietlispach's scholarly impact is evidenced by over 6,485 citations and an h-index of 42, reflecting his substantial influence on biomolecular NMR and membrane protein structural biology within the School of the Biological Sciences.