Dr Alisa Glukhova
Alisa Glukhova is a Russian-born biochemist and structural biologist with a PhD in Chemical Biology from the University of Michigan, USA, and postdoctoral training at the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences in Victoria. Alisa joined the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in 2020 as laboratory head in the Structural Biology division, with conjoint appointment as a Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Biochemistry and Pharmacology at the University of Melbourne. Alisa is recognised internationally as expert in imaging techniques such as x-ray crystallography and cryo-electron microscopy.
Alisa’s laboratory focuses on understanding how cells sense and respond to various signals at the atomic level and harnessing this knowledge for translational drug discovery programs. Her passion lies in using advanced structural biology approaches to understand human diseases on the cellular and sub-cellular level. Using imaging techniques that unveil atomic-level details of cellular signalling systems in near-native states, she aims to identify previously unappreciated targets for drug discovery in cancer.
With an outstanding publication record, Alisa has 11 first or last author publications in top-tier journals like Cell, Nature, Blood, and Nature Communications. In 2022 she received the prestigious Gottschalk Medal from the Australian Academy of Sciences for contributions to the structural biology of G protein-coupled receptors, a class of signalling receptors that are driving the treatments against cancers, diabetes, heart disease and inflammatory diseases. She was also awarded a coveted CSL Centenary Fellowship in 2021 and NHMRC Emerging Leadership Level 2 Investigator Grant in 2025.