Kristian Want -

I'm a current postdoc working jointly across the Meisel Lab and Pandelia Lab at Brandeis University, studying the biochemistry and underlying genetics of mitochondrial diseases. Particularly, I'm interested in characterizing the late-acting pathways that assemble, deliver, and regulate Fe-S clusters, alongside exploring related clinical diseases in model organisms and recombinant systems. To explore this field, I combine in vitro biochemical reconstitution with in vivo C. elegans genetics.

My previous Ph.D. research was carried out under the mentorship of Benoit D'Autreaux at the Institute for Integrative Biology of the Cell (I2BC), with my doctorate in Biochemistry and Structural Biology being awarded by the University Paris-Saclay. This research was initially focused on the design of novel therapeutics in the form of short peptides and small molecules to treat the rare disease Friedreich’s Ataxia (FRDA). As the projects progressed, I focused on characterising the interactions and activity of FXN and FDX2 during the assembly of [2Fe-2S] clusters using a combination of biochemical and biophysical techniques. Ultimately, this led to the discovery that FDX2 has an unexpected auto-inhibitory role during [2Fe-2S] synthesis, and, in collaboration with the lab of Véronique Monnier at Université Paris Cité, decreasing its concentration significantly extends life span in a FRDA model of D. melanogaster. Taken together this work is succeeded by a first author publication in Nature.

I was awarded my BSc and MBiol in Biochemistry from the University of Leeds. My Master's project focused on discerning the mechanism of electron transfer from a redox-active c-type cytochrome to an AA10-type lytic polysaccharide monooxygenase (LPMO), performed under the guidance of Dr. Glyn Hemsworth. This was subsequently nominated by the University of Leeds for the Royal Society of Biology Top Master’s Project Award.

Find my latest publication here: Nature (2026)