Diana Monteiro, PhD Joins Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute

Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute (HWI), an international leader in structural biology, announced that Diana Monteiro, PhD has joined the Institute as a research associate.

Monteiro will be working with HWI teams to establish a new synthetic chemistry laboratory to complement the Institute’s work in biochemistry and structural biology. It is the first lab of its kind at HWI. Her main focus is to develop unique chemical tools that will enable the direct imaging of molecular machines as they work in real time. These cutting edge time-resolved structural biology experiments provide new opportunities for the development of novel therapies.

“Our work focuses on bridging the gap between chemistry and biology. The integration of this new chemistry effort within HWI provides the interchange of skills and ideas across the two disciplines, making HWI the ideal environment to push the boundaries of structural biology and drug design and bring these challenging projects to life,” said Monteiro.

Monteiro joins HWI from the Center for Ultrafast Imaging at the University of Hamburg in Germany, where, as a postdoctoral research fellow, she worked on the development reliable microfluidic platforms to minimize the use of samples during time-resolved structural biology. “Proteins can be tricky to produce in the lab. They are our most precious assets in these experiments. Reducing sample consumption has played a key role in overcoming the current limited application of these techniques” said Monteiro.

HWI CEO Dr. Edward Snell noted that “Dr. Monteiro is addressing two key research areas needed to develop tools that help go from glimpses of how disease attacks the body into movies of that process. This allows us to watch the process, see how to stop it, and develop new therapies for treatment and cure. Dr. Monteiro is collaborating nationally and internationally on this effort and developments in Buffalo will help impact the world.”

Monteiro holds a Master of Science in Medicinal Chemistry from the University of Leeds, where she also earned a doctorate in Structural Molecular Biology from the university’s Astbury Centre.