Rate My Professor Stephen Muench

Stephen Muench is an Associate Professor in Membrane Biology in the School of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Biological Sciences, at the University of Leeds. He holds the position of Professor in membrane proteins and serves as Deputy Director of the Astbury Centre for Structural Molecular Biology. Muench completed his BSc (Hons) in Biochemistry and Microbiology at the University of Sheffield in 1997, followed by a PhD in 2004 from the same university, where his research employed X-ray crystallography to develop novel anti-malarial and toxoplasmosis compounds. He conducted a brief postdoctoral study at Sheffield on the GTPase EngA before joining the University of Leeds in 2005 to specialize in electron microscopy.

Awarded an MRC Career Development Fellowship in 2010, Muench established his research group focused on the structural biology of membrane proteins. Utilizing electron microscopy, including time-resolved cryo-EM, X-ray crystallography, and innovative sample preparation methods, his work addresses challenges in resolving structures of large macromolecular complexes and their dynamics. Key advancements include electron microscopy-driven inhibitor design for targets like TRPC1 and the bc1 complex, development of time-resolved cryo-EM techniques for capturing protein states on second to microsecond timescales, enhanced understanding of sample preparation in single particle cryo-EM, and utilization of styrene-maleic acid (SMA) polymers and hybrid vesicles with block co-polymers to improve membrane protein stability. Extensive collaborations support structure-based drug design for medically relevant targets such as ABC transporters, receptor tyrosine kinases, QNOR, KCNT1 in epilepsy, and myosin. Muench teaches on the pharmacology team, covering pharmacokinetics, computer-driven drug design, and structural biology. He is a member of the Biochemical Society and British Biophysics Society. His research has amassed nearly 7,000 citations, demonstrating substantial influence in the field.