Ilse Maraval
Group leader, structural biology. I build proteins that read DNA, and I teach a course about how we see things too small to see.
Ilse Maraval · photographed at the benchI study how cells decide which genes to use, and I build proteins that make that decision for them.
I trained as a physicist, built my first microscope during my master’s, and moved into biology when I realised the most interesting optics problem was inside the nucleus. My PhD measured how transcription factors search DNA one molecule at a time. As a postdoc I solved the first cryo-EM structure of a designed zinc-finger activator on its target.
Since 2019 I have led an eleven-person group at the Kessrow Institute. We combine protein design, structural biology and live imaging, and we share every structure, plasmid and script we make.
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The short version of a long CV. The full PDF has every grant, student and committee.
Associate Professor, Kessrow Institute
Group leader since 2019, tenured in 2024.
Structural biology · 11 peopleGroup leader, Kessrow Institute
Started the lab with one microscope and two students.
ERC Starting GrantPostdoc, Laboratory of Molecular Structure
First zinc-finger activator solved on DNA by cryo-EM.
EMBO FellowshipPhD in Biochemistry
How transcription factors find their sites, measured one molecule at a time.
Thesis prizeMSc Physics
Moved from optics to biology by way of a microscope I built.
With distinctionGrants, prizes and teaching
Four rules we actually keep
Show the raw data
Every figure links to the images it came from. If we can’t show it, we don’t claim it.
Publish the negatives
Designs that failed go in the supplement. Someone else will need them.
Teach before you delegate
Nobody runs a method they haven’t done with a mentor at least three times.
Leave at six
Good science needs rested people. The microscope queue is booked, not camped on.
Bring us a question worth a microscope
Collaborate
You have a system, we have the structures. Most of our papers start with an email like yours.
Join the lab
PhD and postdoc places open twice a year. Read how we work, then tell us what you want to learn.
Invite a talk
Seminars, keynotes and school visits. I say yes to one outreach event a month.