Our People
Dr Jani Bolla
Dr Jani Bolla
- Fellow and Tutor in Biochemistry
- Louise Johnson Associate Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry
I am a Fellow and Tutor in Biochemistry at St Peter’s College and the first Louise Johnson Associate Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry in the Department of Biochemistry. I studied Chemical Sciences at Pondicherry University before completing my doctoral research at Iowa State University. I moved to Oxford in 2015 to join Professor Dame Carol Robinson’s group in the Department of Chemistry as a postdoctoral research associate. In 2021, I was awarded a Royal Society University Research Fellowship to establish my research group in the newly formed Department of Biology. I was also a Stipendiary Lecturer in Biochemistry at New College from 2022 to 2025. In 2026, I joined the Department of Biochemistry and St Peter’s as Fellow and Tutor in Biochemistry.
Teaching
At St Peter’s, I teach undergraduate Biochemistry across a range of topics, particularly in the cellular, molecular, physical and mechanistic aspects of the subject. I also supervise Part II, Master’s and DPhil students in the Department of Biochemistry.
Research
Biological membranes, composed largely of lipids and proteins, enable cells to maintain environments distinct from their surroundings. In eukaryotes, membranes also permit compartmentalisation and functional specialisation within organelles. Most organelles are enclosed by a single membrane, but endosymbiotic organelles such as mitochondria and chloroplasts retain a double envelope derived from their bacterial ancestry. This additional membrane barrier creates greater regulatory complexity, requiring coordinated transport, assembly and quality control while preserving membrane integrity.
My research examines how lipids and proteins are transported across and assembled into the double-envelope membranes of Gram-negative bacteria and chloroplasts. By studying these systems in parallel, we aim to distinguish deeply conserved principles from features that have diverged since endosymbiosis. To address these questions, my group combines structural mass spectrometry approaches, including native mass spectrometry and hydrogen–deuterium exchange mass spectrometry, with cryo-electron microscopy to define membrane-envelope machineries in distinct functional states and to understand their dynamics.
You can explore his latest publications here.