Shwetha Srinivasan

Shwetha Srinivasan is a postdoctoral scholar in Professor Merritt Maduke’s lab in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology. Her long-term goal is to elucidate molecular mechanisms in the brain by integrating high-resolution visualization with functional studies. Her current research focuses on ion channels in neurons and glia, revealing how their structures shape function and are modulated by partner proteins, nucleotide cofactors, and membrane lipids. In collaboration with Prof. Wah Chiu, she is developing a native-state structural biology platform that preserves membrane proteins in their physiological environment, enabling visualization of ion-channel complexes in their native context. Shwetha received her PhD in Chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with Prof. Gabriela Schlau-Cohen, where she characterized signal transduction in epidermal growth factor receptors in membrane environments using single-molecule spectroscopy.