Welcome to the Boland lab!

Our group works at the intersection of Structural Biology, Molecular Biology and Cell Biology.

The main focus of our research is to understand the mechanisms underlying cell cycle progression, but we are also interested in using cryoEM as a tool to study other medical relevant drug targets.

LATEST NEWS

August '25

ANDREA HAS BEEN AWARDED AN SNSF SWISS POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWSHIP!

ANDI HAS BEEN PROMOTED TO ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR

More reasons to celebrate! Andrea has been awarded the highly competitive SNSF Swiss Postdoctoral Fellowship, with a success rate of less than 10%. Her outstanding proposal to structurally study GPCRs have paid off! Heartfelt thanks to the SNSF for their continued support of our lab’s research endeavors.

A personal message that is important to me: I am very grateful to all past and present lab members for their dedication and hard work, which have been key in my promotion to Associate Professor. The hard work, creativity, and collaboration of the team members are key to any success as group. I thank you all very much for all past and future support!

July '25

ATTRv AMYLOID STRUCTURE FROM A LIVING PATIENT! PAPER PUBLISHED.

We have determined the first-ever structure of ATTR filaments from a living patient, now deposited on bioRxiv. This work will hopefully pave the way for future structural and diagnostic work on filaments from living patients (personalised medicine). Many thanks to our collaborator Giorgia Melli and the team in Bellinzona.

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RESEARCH PROJECTS

Our Current Focus

STRUCTURE AND FUNCTION OF CELL CYCLE REGULATORY PROTEINS

MEMBRANE PROTEIN BIOLOGY

AMYLOID FIBRILS

COLLABORATIONS (ONLY GENEVA LISTED)

PUBLICATIONS

Selected publications (Boland group)

Structure of ATTRv-F64S amyloid fibrils derived from skin biopsy. Yu J*, Zhang X*, Pinton S, Vacchi E, Cavalli A, Pecoraro M, Melli G and Boland A. bioRxiv, 2025.

Substrate recognition by human separase. Yu J*, Schmidt S*, Botto M, Lee K, Ghent CM, Goodfried JM, Howe A, O'Reilly FJ, Morgan DO and Boland A. bioRxiv, 2025 (accepted in Science Advances)

Transgenerational maintenance of H3K27me3 heterochromatin is balanced by chromodomain proteins in Caenorhabditis elegans. Özdemir I, Höfler A, Delaney K, Wenda JM, Li C, Saltzman AL, Boland A and Steiner F. bioRxiv, 2025.

Positively charged specificity site in cyclin B1 is essential for mitotic fidelity. Heinzle C, Höfler A, Yu J, Heid P, Kremer N, Stengel F, Bange T, , Boland A and Mayer TU. Nature Communications. 2025 16(1): 853, and Research Square.

Structural Basis of μ-Opioid Receptor-Targeting by a Nanobody Antagonist. Yu J*, Kumar A*, Zhang X, Martin C, Raia P, Kohl A, Laeremans T, Steyaert J, Manglik A, Ballet S, Boland A and Stoeber M. Nature Communications. 2024 15(1):8687, and bioRxiv.

New structural features of the APC/C revealed by high resolution cryo-EM structures of apo-APC/C and the APC/C:CDH1:EMI1 complex. Höfler A*, Yu J*, Yang J, Zhang Z, Chang L, Grime GW, Garman EF, Boland A and Barford D. Nature Communications. 2024, and bioRxiv.

The molecular mechanisms of human separase regulation.

Yu J, Morgan DO, Boland A.Biochem Soc Transactions. 2023 Jun 28

CEMIP (HYBID, KIAA1199): structure, function and expression in health and disease.
Spataro S, Guerra C, Cavalli A, Sgrignani J, Sleeman J, Poulain L, Boland A, Scapozza L, Moll S, Prunotto M.
FEBS Journal. 2022 Aug 23

Hepatic S100A9-TLR4-mTORC1 axis normalizes diabetic ketogenesis.
Ursino G, Ramadori G, Höfler A, Odouard S, Teixeira PS, Visentin F, Veyrat-Durebex C, Lucibello G, Firnkes R, Ricci S, Vianna CR, Jia L, Dirlewanger M, Klee P, Elmquist JK, Roth J, Vogl T, Schwitzgebel VM, Jornayvaz FR, Boland A, Coppari R.
Nature Communications. 2022 13(1):4107

Structural basis of human separase regulation by securin and Cdk1-cyclin B1.
Yu J, Raia P, Ghent CM, Raisch T, Sadian Y, Cavadini S, Sabale PM, Barford D, Raunser S, Morgan DO, Boland A.
Nature. 2021 Aug;596(7870):138-142.

All our work is open access.