Ruud Hovius

Ruud Hovius is a Maître d'enseignement et de recherche (Researcher) at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) within the School of Basic Sciences and the Institute of Chemical Sciences and Engineering. His work focuses on membrane protein structure and function, particularly serotonin and nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, utilizing fluorescence imaging, single-molecule techniques, and biophysical assays.

Research interests:

• Protein structure and expression
• Membrane receptor activation mechanisms
• Fluorescence spectroscopy and imaging
• Signaling pathway analysis
• Single-molecule biophysics

Teaching contributions include courses on biochemistry, cellular signaling, and experimental biophysics at EPFL and the European School on Nanosciences & Nanotechnologies (ESONN) in Grenoble. He has mentored PhD student Joachim Piguet and collaborated on microfluidic single-cell analysis and membrane protein stabilization projects.

Publications span structural biology (Nature, Nature Communications), receptor pharmacology (Pharmacological Reviews), single-molecule imaging (ACS Nano), and neuropharmacology (Neuron). Recent work explores DNA-protein complexes and real-time molecular dynamics.