Tamir Gonen, PhD, MRSNZ

About

Tamir Gonen is a membrane biophysicist and an expert in crystallography and cryo-EM. Gonen is a professor of Biological Chemistry and Physiology at the David Geffen School of Medicine of the University of California, Los Angeles, an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and a Member of the Royal Society of New Zealand. He received a Career Development Award from the American Diabetes Association and was an Early Career Scientist of HHMI. Gonen served on several study sections of the National Institutes of Health and acted as ad hoc reviewer for several international funding agencies. In 2011 while leading a lab at the HHMI Janelia Research Campus he began developing microcrystal electron diffraction (MicroED) as a new method for structural biology. In 2017 Dr Gonen moved his laboratory to the David Geffen School of Medicine of the University of California, Los Angeles as an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and a Professor of Biological Chemistry and Physiology, where he continues studying membrane protein structure and function using cryo-EM and MicroED. With this method Dr Gonen has pushed the boundaries of cryo-EM and determined several previously unknown structures at resolutions better than 1 Å. Gonen authored more than 120 publications and several of his past trainees are now faculty around the world at top universities.

Honors

1996: Dean’s list—Organic Chemistry, University of Auckland, New Zealand
1996: Dean’s list—Inorganic Chemistry, University of Auckland, New Zealand
1997: Center for Gene Technology Research Scholarship, University of Auckland, New Zealand
1997: Dean’s List—Inorganic Chemistry, University of Auckland, New Zealand
1998: Senior prize in Biological Sciences, University of Auckland, New Zealand
1998: First class honors in Biological Sciences, University of Auckland, New Zealand
1999: University of Auckland Doctoral Scholarship, University of Auckland, New Zealand
2000: Contestable Travel Fund Award, University of Auckland, New Zealand
2001: Contestable Travel Fund Award, University of Auckland, New Zealand
2009: American Diabetes Association Career Development Award
2009: Howard Hughes Medical Institute Early Career Scientist
2010: New investigator, Science in Medicine Lecture
2012: Member, The Royal Society of New Zealand
2017: Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
2018: Chair elect, Biophysical Society cryo-EM subgroup
2023: Thermo Fisher MicroED Innovation Award
2023: A. L. Patterson award, ACA: The Structural Science Society
2023: Gerald M. Carlson lecture, Kansas University Medical Center
2024: Kaplan lecture, UC San Diego
2024: Sarkar lecture, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada
2024: Carl Brändén award, The Protein Society

Publications

2025

Lin, Jieye; Unge, Johan; Gonen, Tamir
MicroED Structures of Fluticasone Furoate and Fluticasone Propionate Provide New Insights into Their Function
In: Crystal Growth & Design, vol. 25, no. 5, pp. 1588–1596, 2025. ISSN: 1528-7483.

Lin, Jieye; Gallenito, Marc J.; Hattne, Johan; Gonen, Tamir
Ligand Screening and Discovery using Cocktail Soaking and Automated MicroED
In: bioRxiv, 2025.

Clabbers, Max T. B.; Hattne, Johan; Martynowycz, Michael W.; Gonen, Tamir
Energy filtering enables macromolecular MicroED data at sub-atomic resolution
In: Nat Commun, vol. 16, no. 1, 2025, p. 2247, 2025, ISSN: 2041-1723.

Lin, Jieye; Gallenito, Marc J.; Hattne, Johan; Gonen, Tamir
Ligand Screening and Discovery using Cocktail Soaking and Automated MicroED
In: bioRxiv, 2025.

2024

Janilkarn-Urena, Isis; Tse, Amanda; Lin, Jieye; Tafolla-Aguirre, Bliss; Idrissova, Alina; Zhang, Mindy; Skinner, Samantha G; Mostowfi, Nader; Kim, Jinah; Kalapatapu, Nikhila; Chang, Xinmin; Efthymiou, Christina; Williams, Christopher K; Magaki, Shino D; Vinters, Harry V; Gonen, Tamir; Ahmed, S Kaleem; Gukasyan, Hovhannes J; Davies, Daryl L; Seidler, Paul M
Improving the solubility of pseudo-hydrophobic chemicals through co-crystal formulation
In: vol. 4, no. 1, 2024, ISSN: 2752-6542.

Nicolas, William J.; Gillman, Cody; Weaver, Sara J.; Clabbers, Max T. B.; Shiriaeva, Anna; Her, Ampon Sae; Martynowycz, Michael W.; Gonen, Tamir
Comprehensive microcrystal electron diffraction sample preparation for cryo-EM
In: Nat Protoc, 2024, ISSN: 1750-2799.

Ruma, Yasmeen N.; Bu, Guanhong; Hattne, Johan; Gonen, Tamir
MicroED structure of the C11 cysteine protease clostripain
In: Journal of Structural Biology: X, vol. 10, pp. 100107, 2024, ISSN: 2590-1524.

Liu, Xiaoyu; Xia, Xian; Martynowycz, Michael W.; Gonen, Tamir; Zhou, Z. Hong
Molecular sociology of virus-induced cellular condensates supporting reovirus assembly and replication
In: Nat Commun, vol. 15, no. 1, 2024, ISSN: 2041-1723.

Lin, Jieye; Unge, Johan; Gonen, Tamir
MicroED Structures of Fluticasone Furoate and Fluticasone Propionate Provide New Insights to Their Function
In: bioRxiv, 2024.

Lin, Jieye; Bu, Guanhong; Unge, Johan; Gonen, Tamir
An Updated Structure of Oxybutynin Hydrochloride
In: Advanced Science, 2024, ISSN: 2198-3844.

Clabbers, Max T. B.; Hattne, Johan; Martynowycz, Michael W.; Gonen, Tamir
Energy filtering enables macromolecular MicroED data at sub-atomic resolution
In: bioRxiv, 2024.

Lin, Jieye; Bu, Guanhong; Unge, Johan; Gonen, Tamir
Uncovering the Elusive Structures and Mechanisms of Prevalent Antidepressants
In: Advanced Therapeutics, 2024, ISSN: 2366-3987.

Lin, Jieye; Bu, Guanhong; Unge, Johan; Gonen, Tamir
An Updated Structure of Oxybutynin Hydrochloride
In: bioRxiv, 2024.

Gillman, Cody; Bu, Guanhong; Danelius, Emma; Hattne, Johan; Nannenga, Brent L.; Gonen, Tamir
Eliminating the missing cone challenge through innovative approaches
In: Journal of Structural Biology: X, vol. 9, pp. 100102, 2024, ISSN: 2590-1524.

Nicolas, William J.; Shiriaeva, Anna; Martynowycz, Michael W.; Grey, Angus C; Ruma, Yasmeen; Donaldson, Paul J; Gonen, Tamir
Structure of the lens MP20 mediated adhesive junction
In: bioRxiv, 2024.

Unge, Johan; Lin, Jieye; Weaver, Sara J; Her, Ampon Sae; Gonen, Tamir
Compositional Analysis of Complex Mixtures using Automatic MicroED Data Collection
In: Advanced Science, 2024, ISSN: 2198-3844.

Xia, Xian; Sung, Po-Yu; Martynowycz, Michael W.; Gonen, Tamir; Roy, Polly; Zhou, Z. Hong
RNA genome packaging and capsid assembly of bluetongue virus visualized in host cells
In: Cell, 2024, ISSN: 0092-8674.

Bu, Guanhong; Danelius, Emma; Wieske, Lianne H. E.; Gonen, Tamir
Polymorphic Structure Determination of the Macrocyclic Drug Paritaprevir by MicroED
In: Advanced Biology, vol. 8, iss. 5, pp. 2300570, 2024, ISSN: 2701-0198.

Gillman, Cody; Bu, Guanhong; Danelius, Emma; Hattne, Johan; Nannenga, Brent; Gonen, Tamir
Eliminating the Missing Cone Challenge through Innovative Approaches
In: bioRxiv, 2024.

Ruma, Yasmeen N; Bu, Guanhong; Gonen, Tamir
MicroED structure of the C11 cysteine protease Clostripain
In: bioRxiv, 2024.

Lin, Jieye; Bu, Guanhong; Unge, Johan; Gonen, Tamir
Uncovering the Elusive Structures and Mechanisms of Prevalent Antidepressants
In: bioRxiv, 2024.

2023

Lin, Jieye; Unge, Johan; Gonen, Tamir
Unraveling the Structure of Meclizine Dihydrochloride with MicroED
In: Adv Sci (Weinh), pp. e2306435, 2023, ISSN: 2198-3844.

Walsh, Martin A; Nannenga, Brent L; Gonen, Tamir; Sexton, Patrick M; Wootten, Denise; Chiu, Wah; Sun, Fei; Carragher, Bridget; Potter, Clinton S; Agard, David; Burley, Stephen K
The next decade in structural biology
In: Structure, vol. 31, no. 11, pp. 1284–1288, 2023, ISSN: 1878-4186.

Danelius, Emma; Bu, Guanhong; Wieske, Lianne H E; Gonen, Tamir
MicroED as a Powerful Tool for Structure Determination of Macrocyclic Drug Compounds Directly from Their Powder Formulations
In: ACS Chem Biol, 2023, ISSN: 1554-8937.

Hattne, Johan; Clabbers, Max T. B.; Martynowycz, Michael W.; Gonen, Tamir
Electron counting with direct electron detectors in MicroED
In: Structure, 2023, ISSN: 0969-2126.

Lin, Jieye; Unge, Johan; Gonen, Tamir
Distinct Conformations of Mirabegron Determined by MicroED
In: Adv Sci (Weinh), pp. e2304476, 2023, ISSN: 2198-3844.

Bai, Xiao-Chen; Gonen, Tamir; Gronenborn, Angela M; Perrakis, Anastassis; Thorn, Andrea; Yang, Jianyi
Challenges and opportunities in macromolecular structure determination
In: Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol, 2023, ISSN: 1471-0080.

Bu, G; Danelius, E; Wieske, L. H; Gonen, T
Polymorphic Structure Determination of the Macrocyclic Drug Paritaprevir by MicroED
In: bioRxiv, 2023.

Lin, Jieye; Unge, Johan; Gonen, Tamir
Unraveling the Structure of Meclizine Dihydrochloride with MicroED
In: bioRxiv, 2023.

Hattne, Johan; Clabbers, Max T. B.; Martynowycz, Michael W.; Gonen, Tamir
Electron counting with direct electron detectors in MicroED
In: Structure, 2023, ISSN: 0969-2126.

Lin, Jieye; Unge, Johan; Gonen, Tamir
Distinct Conformations of Mirabegron Determined by MicroED
In: Adv Sci (Weinh), pp. e2304476, 2023, ISSN: 2198-3844.

Bu, G; Danelius, E; Wieske, L. H; Gonen, T
Polymorphic Structure Determination of the Macrocyclic Drug Paritaprevir by MicroED
In: bioRxiv, 2023.

Lin, Jieye; Unge, Johan; Gonen, Tamir
Unraveling the Structure of Meclizine Dihydrochloride with MicroED
In: bioRxiv, 2023.

Nannenga, Brent L.; Gonen, Tamir
The 2023 Structural Biology Summit at UCLA
In: Structure, vol. 31, pp. 1–2, 2023, ISSN: 0969-2126.

Haymaker, Alison; Bardin, Andrey A.; Gonen, Tamir; Martynowycz, Michael W.; Nannenga, Brent L.
Structure determination of a DNA crystal by MicroED
In: Structure, 2023, ISSN: 0969-2126.

Shiriaeva, Anna; Martynowycz, Michael W; Nicolas, William J; Cherezov, Vadim; Gonen, Tamir
MicroED structure of the human vasopressin 1B receptor
In: bioRxiv, 2023.

Gonen, Tamir
Reflections on two decades of MicroED development
In: RefleXions, no. 2, pp. 7–8, 2023.

Gillman, Cody; Nicolas, William J; Martynowycz, Michael W; Gonen, Tamir
Design and implementation of suspended drop crystallization
In: IUCrJ, vol. 10, iss. 4, 2023, ISSN: 2052-2525.

Hattne, Johan; Clabbers, Max T. B.; Martynowycz, Michael W.; Gonen, Tamir
Electron-counting in MicroED
In: bioRxiv, 2023.

Lin, Jieye; Unge, Johan; Gonen, Tamir
Distinct Conformations of Mirabegron Determined by MicroED
In: bioRxiv, 2023.

Unge, Johan; Lin, Jieye; Weaver, Sara J; Her, Ampon Sae; Gonen, Tamir
Autonomous MicroED data collection enables compositional analysis
In: ChemRxiv, 2023.

Nguyen, Chi; Lei, Hsiang-Ting; Lai, Louis Tung Faat; Gallenito, Marc J; Mu, Xuelang; Matthies, Doreen; Gonen, Tamir
Lipid flipping in the omega-3 fatty-acid transporter
In: Nat Commun, vol. 14, no. 1, pp. 2571, 2023, ISSN: 2041-1723.

Gillman, Cody; Patel, Khushboo; Unge, Johan; Gonen, Tamir
The structure of the neurotoxin palytoxin determined by MicroED
In: bioRxiv, 2023.

Haymaker, Alison; Bardin, Andrey A; Gonen, Tamir; Martynowycz, Michael W; Nannenga, Brent L
Structure determination of a DNA crystal by MicroED
In: bioRxiv, 2023.

Gillman, Cody; Martynowycz, Michael; Nicolas, William Jules; Gonen, Tamir
Design and implementation of suspended drop crystallization
In: bioRxiv, 2023.

Danelius, Emma; Porter, Nicholas J.; Unge, Johan; Arnold, Frances H.; Gonen, Tamir
MicroED Structure of a Protoglobin Reactive Carbene Intermediate
In: J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2023, ISSN: 1520-5126.

Martynowycz, Michael W; Shiriaeva, Anna; Clabbers, Max T B; Nicolas, William J; Weaver, Sara J; Hattne, Johan; Gonen, Tamir
A robust approach for MicroED sample preparation of lipidic cubic phase embedded membrane protein crystals
In: Nat Commun, vol. 14, iss. 1, no. 1, pp. 1086, 2023, ISSN: 2041-1723.

Danelius, Emma; Patel, Khushboo; Gonzalez, Brenda; Gonen, Tamir
MicroED in drug discovery
In: Curr Opin Struct Biol, vol. 79, pp. 102549, 2023, ISSN: 1879-033X.

2022

Clabbers, Max T. B.; Martynowycz, Michael W.; Hattne, Johan; Gonen, Tamir
Hydrogens and hydrogen-bond networks in macromolecular MicroED data
In: J Struct Biol X, vol. 6, pp. 100078, 2022.

Danelius, Emma; Porter, Nicholas J.; Unge, Johan; Arnold, Frances H.; Gonen, Tamir
MicroED structure of a protoglobin reactive carbene intermediate
In: bioRxiv, 2022.

Clabbers, Max T. B.; Martynowycz, Michael W.; Hattne, Johan; Nannenga, Brent L.; Gonen, Tamir
Electron-counting MicroED data with the K2 and K3 direct electron detectors
In: J Struct Biol, vol. 214, iss. 4, 2022.

Martynowycz, Michael W.; Shiriaeva, Anna; Clabbers, Max T. B.; Nicolas, William J.; Weaver, Sara J.; Hattne, Johan; Gonen, Tamir
A robust approach for MicroED sample preparation of lipidic cubic phase embedded membrane protein crystals
In: bioRxiv 2022, visited: 26.07.2022.

Clabbers, Max T. B.; Martynowycz, Michael W.; Hattne, Johan; Nannenga, Brent L.; Gonen, Tamir
Electron-counting MicroED data with the K2 and K3 direct electron detectors
In: bioRxiv, 2022.

Nguyen, Chi; Lei, Hsiang-Ting; Lai, Louis Tung Faat; Gallenito, Marc J.; Matthies, Doreen; Gonen, Tamir
Lipid flipping in the omega-3 fatty-acid transporter
In: bioRxiv 2022, visited: 01.06.2022.

Martynowycz, Michael W.; Gonen, Tamir
Unlocking the potential of microcrystal electron diffraction
In: Physics Today, vol. 75, iss. 6, pp. 38–42, 2022.

Martynowycz, Michael W; Clabbers, Max T B; Hattne, Johan; Gonen, Tamir
Ab initio phasing macromolecular structures using electron-counted MicroED data
In: Nat Methods, vol. 19, iss. 6, pp. 724–729, 2022, ISSN: 1548-7105.

Porter, Nicholas; Danelius, Emma; Gonen, Tamir; Arnold, Frances
Biocatalytic Carbene Transfer Using Diazirines
In: ChemRxiv, 2022.

Porter, Nicholas J; Danelius, Emma; Gonen, Tamir; Arnold, Frances H
Biocatalytic Carbene Transfer Using Diazirines
In: J Am Chem Soc, 2022, ISSN: 1520-5126.

Clabbers, Max T. B.; Martynowycz, Michael W.; Hattne, Johan; Gonen, Tamir
Hydrogens and hydrogen-bond networks in macromolecular MicroED data
In: bioRxiv, 2022.

Clabbers, Max T B; Shiriaeva, Anna; Gonen, Tamir
MicroED: conception, practice and future opportunities
In: IUCrJ, vol. 9, no. Pt 2, pp. 169–179, 2022, ISSN: 2052-2525.

Gallenito, Marc J; Gonen, Tamir
Studying membrane proteins with MicroED
In: Biochem Soc Trans, vol. 50, no. 1, pp. 231–239, 2022, ISSN: 1470-8752.

2021

Gonen, Tamir; Nannenga, Brent (Ed.)
cryoEM: Methods and Protocols
In: Springer US, 2021, ISBN: 978-1-0716-0965-1.

Martynowycz, Michael W; Clabbers, Max T B; Unge, Johan; Hattne, Johan; Gonen, Tamir
Benchmarking the ideal sample thickness in cryo-EM
In: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, vol. 118, no. 49, 2021, ISSN: 1091-6490.

Clark, Lisa J.; Bu, Guanhong; Nannenga, Brent L.; Gonen, Tamir
MicroED for the study of protein–ligand interactions and the potential for drug discovery
In: Nat Rev Chem, vol. 5, pp. 853–858, 2021.

Martynowycz, Michael W.; Clabbers, Max T. B.; Hattne, Johan; Gonen, Tamir
Ab initio phasing macromolecular structures using electron-counted MicroED data
In: bioRxiv, 2021.

Martynowycz, Michael W; Gonen, Tamir
Protocol for the use of focused ion-beam milling to prepare crystalline lamellae for microcrystal electron diffraction (MicroED)
In: STAR Protoc, vol. 2, no. 3, pp. 100686, 2021, ISSN: 2666-1667.

Martynowycz, Michael W.; Shiriaeva, Anna; Ge, Xuanrui; Hattne, Johan; Nannenga, Brent L.; Cherezov, Vadim; Gonen, Tamir
MicroED structure of the human adenosine receptor determined from a single nanocrystal in LCP
In: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, vol. 118, no. 36, pp. e2106041118, 2021.

Martynowycz, Michael W.; Clabbers, Max T. B.; Unge, Johan; Hattne, Johan; Gonen, Tamir
Benchmarking ideal sample thickness in cryo-EM using MicroED
bioRxiv, 2021.

Mu, Xuelang; Gillman, Cody; Nguyen, Chi; Gonen, Tamir
An Overview of Microcrystal Electron Diffraction (MicroED)
In: Annu Rev Biochem, vol. 90, pp. 431–450, 2021, ISSN: 1545-4509.

Lei, Hsiang-Ting; Mu, Xuelang; Hattne, Johan; Gonen, Tamir
A conformational change in the N Terminus of SLC38A9 signals mTORC1 activation
In: Structure, vol. 29, no. 5, pp. 426–432.e8, 2021.

Danelius, E; Gonen, T
Protein and Small Molecule Structure Determination by the Cryo-EM Method MicroED
In: Owens, Raymond J. (Ed.): vol. 2305, pp. 323–342, 2021.

Martynowycz, M W; Gonen, T
Studying Membrane Protein Structures by MicroED
In: Schmidt-Krey, Ingeborg; Gumbart, James C. (Ed.): vol. 2302, pp. 137–151, 2021.

Martynowycz, M W; Gonen, T
Microcrystal Electron Diffraction of Small Molecules
In: J Vis Exp, no. 169, 2021.

Halaby, Steve; Martynowycz, Michael W.; Zhu, Ziyue; Tretiak, Sergei; Zhugayevych, Andriy; Gonen, Tamir; and Martin Seifrid,
Microcrystal Electron Diffraction for Molecular Design of Functional Non-Fullerene Acceptor Structures
In: Chem. Mater., vol. 33, no. 3, pp. 966–977, 2021.

Martynowycz, Michael W.; Gonen, Tamir
Ligand Incorporation into Protein Microcrystals for MicroED by On-Grid Soaking
In: Structure, vol. 29, no. 1, pp. 88–95.e2, 2021.

2020

Martynowycz, M W; Khan, F; Hattne, J; Abramson, J; Gonen, T
MicroED structure of lipid-embedded mammalian mitochondrial voltage-dependent anion channel
In: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, vol. 117, no. 51, pp. 32380–32385, 2020.

Zhu, Lan; Bu, Guanhong; Jing, Liang; Shi, Dan; Lee, Ming-Yue; Gonen, Tamir; Liu, Wei; Nannenga, Brent L.
Structure Determination from Lipidic Cubic Phase Embedded Microcrystals by MicroED
In: Structure, vol. 28, no. 10, pp. 1149–1159.e4, 2020.

Nannenga, Brent L.; Gonen, Tamir
Microcrystal electron diffraction methodology and applications
In: MRS Bulletin, vol. 44, pp. 956–960, 2020.

Martynowycz, Michael W.; Khan, Farha; Hattne, Johan; Abramson, Jeff; Gonen, Tamir
MicroED structure of lipid-embedded mammalian mitochondrial voltage dependent anion channel
In: bioRxiv, 2020.

Danelius, E; Halaby, S; van der Donk, W A; Gonen, T
MicroED in natural product and small molecule research
In: Nat Prod Rep, vol. 38, no. 3, 2020.

Richards, Logan S.; Millán, Claudia; Miao, Jennifer; Martynowycz, Michael W.; Sawaya, Michael R.; Gonen, Tamir; Borges, Rafael J.; Usón, Isabel; Rodriguez, Jose A.
Fragment-based determination of a proteinase K structure from MicroED data using ARCIMBOLDO_SHREDDER
In: Acta Crystallogr D Biol Crystallogr., vol. 76, no. 8, pp. 703-712, 2020.

Nguyen, Chi; Gonen, Tamir
Beyond protein structure determination with MicroED
In: Curr. Opin. Struct. Biol., vol. 64, pp. 51–58, 2020.

Martynowycz, Michael W.; Gonen, Tamir
Efficient, high-throughput ligand incorporation into protein microcrystals by on-grid soaking
In: bioRxiv, 2020.

Martynowycz, M W; Hattne, J; Gonen, T
Experimental Phasing of MicroED Data Using Radiation Damage
In: Structure, vol. 28, no. 4, pp. 458–464, 2020.

Wolff, A M; Young, I D; Sierra, R G; Brewster, A S; Martynowycz, M W; Nango, E; Sugahara, M; Nakane, T; Ito, K; Aquila, A; Bhowmick, A; Biel, J T; Carbajo, S; Cohen, A E; Cortez, S; Gonzalez, A; Hino, T; Im, D; Koralek, J D; Kubo, M; Lazarou, T S; Nomura, T; Owada, S; Samelson, A J; Tanaka, T; Tanaka, R; Thompson, E M; van den Bedem, H; Woldeyes, R A; Yumoto, F; Zhao, W; Tono, K; Boutet, S; Iwata, S; Gonen, T; Sauter, N K; Fraser, J S; Thompson, M C
Comparing serial X-ray crystallography and microcrystal electron diffraction (MicroED) as methods for routine structure determination from small macromolecular crystals
In: IUCrJ, vol. 7, no. Pt 2, pp. 306–323, 2020.