Session 4 Bio SPM
Dr. Köhler obtained her PhD in Biophysics from Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria, in the group of Prof. Peter Hinterdorfer (Department of Applied Experimental Biophysics). In late 2016, she joined UCLouvain in Belgium as a postdoctoral researcher in the Nanobiophysics Lab led by Prof. David Alsteens, where she investigated the molecular mechanisms underlying virus–receptor interactions.
In 2022, she secured a competitive Leibniz Junior Research Group grant to establish the Mechanoreceptors junior research group at Leibniz-LSB@TUM, and in 2024 she was appointed TUM Junior Fellow at the Technical University of Munich. Her interdisciplinary group combines atomic force microscopy, nanodisc single-molecule analysis, molecular modelling, and human sensory trials to elucidate the molecular basis of oral texture perception mediated by mechanoreceptors. In addition, this sensory-biophysics platform is applied to broader food and flavour research questions, such as the binding of food-derived ligands to their cognate taste receptors.