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Niels Volkmann

Niels Volkmann

· Professor of Biongineering Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Biomolecular Science and Engineering

University of California, Santa Barbara · Bioengineering

Active 1990–2026

h-index53
Citations11.4k
Papers18644 last 5y
Funding$160.5M1 active

Academic metrics are sourced from OpenAlex and public funding records; values may differ from Google Scholar.

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About

Niels Volkmann is a Professor of Bioengineering at UC Santa Barbara, with a focus on the development and application of innovative computational, artificial intelligence, and data science tools to bridge information between the atomic and cellular scales. His work covers more than six orders of magnitude from Ångstroms to tens of microns, emphasizing the integration of data science with biological and engineering principles. His research aims to create new methodologies for understanding complex biological systems through advanced computational approaches.

Research topics

  • Cell biology
  • Biochemistry
  • Biology
  • Chemistry
  • Biophysics
  • Medicine
  • Physics

Selected publications

  • High-resolution yeast actin structures indicate the molecular mechanism of actin filament stiffening by cations

    Communications Chemistry · 2024-07-30 · 6 citations

    articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

    Actin filament assembly and the regulation of its mechanical properties are fundamental processes essential for eukaryotic cell function. Residue E167 in vertebrate actins forms an inter-subunit salt bridge with residue K61 of the adjacent subunit. Saccharomyces cerevisiae actin filaments are more flexible than vertebrate filaments and have an alanine at this position (A167). Substitution of this alanine for a glutamic acid (A167E) confers Saccharomyces cerevisiae actin filaments with salt-depen…

    PublisherOA PDFDOI

  • Harmonizing the Generation and Pre-publication Stewardship of FAIR Image Data

    PubMed · 2024-01-23 · 2 citations

    preprintOpen access

    . This White Paper details a comprehensive set of requirements for integrated image data and metadata management - from acquisition through dissemination - ensuring the contextual information necessary for assessing quality, interpreting scientific validity, and enabling meaningful reuse remains intrinsically linked to the data throughout its lifecycle. Critically, it recognizes that generating harmonized, well-annotated publicly available corpora of FAIR bioimage data requires these datasets to…

    PublisherOA PDFDOI

  • CryoEM Workflow Acceleration with Feret Signatures

    International Journal of Molecular Sciences · 2024-07-11 · 1 citations

    articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

    Common challenges in cryogenic electron microscopy, such as orientation bias, conformational diversity, and 3D misclassification, complicate single particle analysis and lead to significant resource expenditure. We previously introduced an in silico method using the maximum Feret diameter distribution, the Feret signature, to characterize sample heterogeneity of disc-shaped samples. Here, we expanded the Feret signature methodology to identify preferred orientations of samples containing arbitra…

    PublisherOA PDFDOI

  • The GoldX Fiducial Eraser

    International Journal of Molecular Sciences · 2024-07-06 · 1 citations

    articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

    Gold nanoparticles with sizes in the range of 5-15 nm are a standard method of providing fiducial markers to assist with alignment during reconstruction in cryogenic electron tomography. However, due to their high electron density and resulting contrast when compared to standard cellular or biological samples, they introduce artifacts such as streaking in the reconstructed tomograms. Here, we demonstrate a tool that automatically detects these nanoparticles and suppresses them by replacing them…

    PublisherOA PDFDOI

  • Structure And Dynamic States of Actin Filaments

    Preprints.org · 2026-04-29

    preprintOpen accessSenior author

    Actin, a highly conserved and ubiquitous eukaryotic protein, underlies essential cellular processes including motility, shape maintenance and muscle contraction. Its dynamic transition between monomeric and filamentous states is powered by ATP hydrolysis, which undergoes structural rearrangements that accelerate turnover in filaments and serve as a measure of filament aging. A wide range of actin binding proteins (ABPs) regulate polymerization, depolymerization, and network organization. Recent…

    PublisherDOI

Recent grants

Frequent coauthors

  • Dorit Hanein

    239 shared

  • Mark F. Swift

    Scintillon Institute

    79 shared

  • Armel Bezault

    Université Paris Cité

    48 shared

  • Cécile Sauvanet

    Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique et aux Énergies Alternatives

    40 shared

  • Borja Rodríguez de Francisco

    Centro Nacional de Biotecnología

    37 shared

  • Karen Anderson

    35 shared

  • Xiaoping Xu

    Second People’s Hospital of Yibin

    34 shared

  • Fernando Vilela

    Université Paris Cité

    24 shared

Education

  • Ph.D.

    Max Planck Institute

  • B.S.

    University of Hamburg

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