Iban Ubarretxena‐Belandia

Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York Structural Biology Center

Papers

Total Citations

110

H-Index

About

Iban Ubarretxena-Belandia is a structural biologist whose research has made significant strides in advancing the methodology for determining the structures of membrane proteins — molecules that are central to cell physiology and represent targets for a growing number of therapeutic drugs. His work has focused primarily on developing high-throughput and automated approaches to two-dimensional (2D) crystallization and electron crystallography, fields that are critical for resolving the atomic-scale architecture of these notoriously difficult-to-study proteins. Among his most influential contributions is a high-throughput screening strategy for 2D crystallization trials of membrane proteins, cited 44 times, which dramatically accelerated a process that had long been a bottleneck in structural biology. Building on this, he co-developed automated electron microscopy pipelines for evaluating crystallization outcomes, works that have collectively garnered over 60 citations and transformed what was once a labor-intensive endeavor into a streamlined, reproducible workflow. His 2012 overview of high-throughput electron crystallography methods further cemented his role as a methodological innovator in the field. Ubarretxena-Belandia's research equips the scientific community with powerful tools for unlocking membrane protein structures, with direct implications for drug discovery and disease treatment.