I am from Indonesia and received my master’s and doctoral degrees in Biomolecular Engineering from Tohoku University as a MEXT scholar. My research has focused on membrane transport and protein regulation particularly in Escherichia coli. In September 2026, I joined the De Novo Biomolecular Design Laboratory at the Institute of Multidisciplinary Research for Advanced Materials (IMRAM), Tohoku University, as an Assistant Professor.
Assistant Professor ELLEN
| Campus | Katahira campus |
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| Laboratory |
De Novo Biomolecular Design
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| Tel | +81-22-217-5848 |
| ellen.c7＠tohoku.ac.jp | |
| Website | https://www2.tagen.tohoku.ac.jp/lab/degrado/ https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=WJfi97wAAAAJ&hl=en https://researchmap.jp/ellen.tanudjaja |
| Career |
1. Ellen Tanudjaja, Haoyu Zhang, Tadaomi Furuta, Masaru Tsujii, Yasuhiro Ishimaru, and Nobuyuki Uozumi. Functional characterization of an additional transmembrane domain unique to TrkG and TrkH in Escherichia coli. Bioscience, Biotechnology, and Biochemistry, zbaf101. (2025).
2. Ellen Tanudjaja, Naomi Hoshi, Kaneyoshi Yamamoto, Kunio Ihara, Tadaomi Furuta, Masaru Tsujii, Yasuhiro Ishimaru & Nobuyuki Uozumi. Two Trk/Ktr/HKT-type potassium transporters, TrkG and TrkH perform distinct functions in Escherichia coli K-12. Journal of Biological Chemistry, 299(2):102846 (2023). 3. Ellen Tanudjaja, Naomi Hoshi, Yi-Hsin Su, Shin Hamamoto & Nobuyuki Uozumi. Kup-mediated Cs+ Uptake and Kdp-driven K+ Uptake Coordinate to Promote Cell Growth During Excess Cs+ Conditions in Escherichia coli. Scientific Reports, 7: 2122 (2017). |
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| Selected Publications |
2019.10 JSPS Postdoctoral Fellow, Biomolecular Engineering Department, Tohoku University.
2021.04 Specially Appointed Assistant Professor, Biomolecular Engineering Department, Tohoku University. 2026.09 Assistant Professor, Institute of Multidisciplinary Research for Advanced Materials, Tohoku University |
| Activities in Academic Societies |
The Society for Biotechnology, Japan (SBJ); The Japanese Biochemical Society (JBS); Japan Society for Bioscience, Biotechnology, and Agrochemistry (JSBBA).
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Recent Activities
My research background is in ion transport in microorganism, with a strong foundation in experimental biology. I am now excited to build on this experience by designing new proteins. Studying natural proteins has given me a foundation for understanding how protein structure and regulation relate to function, as well as how to test whether a designed works as intended.
Recent advanced in AI and the growing availability of protein sequence and structural data are opening new possibilities for protein design. In the de novo biomolecular design laboratory, I combine my experience in experimental biology with computational approaches to explore these possibilities. My goal is to design proteins that control ion transport in new ways, and that could eventually support therapeutic applications.