Cell Biology Program

The Christina Gladkova Lab

Research

Christina Gladkova, PhD

Assistant Member, Cell Biology Program, SKI

Assistant Professor

The Gladkova lab aims to uncover the principles that govern the shape, distribution and movement of organelles, with the ultimate goal of understanding how organelle architecture supports cellular function. This is essential, because defects in organelle maintenance cause neurodegeneration, and altered organelle architecture is a hallmark of many diseases including cancer.

To discover the mechanisms and signals that control organelle architecture, we reduce cellular complexity by building synthetic organelle probes in living cells. These isolate specific organelle behaviours, for example mitochondrial microtubule-based transport. We combine this in-cell reconstitution approach with traditional reconstitution methods (biochemistry, structural biology) and microscopy to study native organelles across different physiological contexts.

Learn more about the science: https://gladkovalab.com

Publications Highlights

Gladkova C*, Paez-Segala MG, Grant WP, Myers SA, Wang Y, Vale RD* (2026). A molecular switch for coordinating kinesin and dynein transport of mitochondrial cargo. Science, 393(6811), 601–606. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aeh1475

Gladkova C, Maslen SL, Skehel JM, & Komander D* (2018). Mechanism of parkin activation by PINK1. Nature, 559(7863), 410-414. PMCID: PMC6071873. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-018-0224-x

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People

Christina Gladkova, PhD

Assistant Member, Cell Biology Program, SKI

Assistant Professor

The Gladkova lab studies the mechanisms and signals that reshape cellular organelle architecture in response to physiological stimuli.
Postdoctoral training, UCSF & HHMI Janelia Research Campus (2025)
PhD, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, University of Cambridge (2019)

[email protected]: Email Address

Members

Nibras Ahmed

Graduate Student

Jorel Padilla

Research Scholar

Natalie Perez

Research Technician

Richie Singh

Senior Administrative Assistant

Achievements

Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund Fellowship (2019)
EMBO Long-Term Fellowship (2019)
Max Perutz Student Prize, MRC LMB (2018)

Open Positions

To learn more about available postdoctoral opportunities, please visit our Career Center

To learn more about compensation and benefits for postdoctoral researchers at MSK, please visit Resources for Postdocs

General Opportunities

We look forward to hearing from enthusiastic candidates at all career stages. To apply, please reach out to Christina Gladkova, PhD: [email protected].

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Get in Touch

[email protected]

Lab Head Email

Disclosures

Members of the MSK Community often work with pharmaceutical, device, biotechnology, and life sciences companies, and other organizations outside of MSK, to find safe and effective cancer treatments, to improve patient care, and to educate the health care community. These activities outside of MSK further our mission, provide productive collaborations, and promote the practical application of scientific discoveries.

MSK requires doctors, faculty members, and leaders to report (“disclose”) the relationships and financial interests they have with external entities. As a commitment to transparency with our community, we make that information available to the public. Not all disclosed interests and relationships present conflicts of interest. MSK reviews all disclosed interests and relationships to assess whether a conflict of interest exists and whether formal COI management is needed.

Christina Gladkova discloses the following relationships and financial interests:

No disclosures meeting criteria for time period

The information published here is a complement to other publicly reported data and is for a specific annual disclosure period. There may be differences between information on this and other public sites as a result of different reporting periods and/or the various ways relationships and financial interests are categorized by organizations that publish such data.

This page and data include information for a specific MSK annual disclosure period (January 1, 2025 through disclosure submission in spring 2026). This data reflects interests that may or may not still exist. This data is updated annually.

Learn more about MSK’s COI policies here. For questions regarding MSK’s COI-related policies and procedures, email MSK’s Compliance Office at [email protected].

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