Chris Gisriel grew up in the Maryland/Virginia/DC area. After high school, he joined the military, and was honorably discharged after completing a tour of duty in Bagram, Afghanistan, in 2004. A few years later, he moved to Arizona, receiving a B.S. in Biochemistry from Arizona State University (ASU) in 2013, during which he began his research career in the study of membrane proteins involved in photosynthesis.

Chris stayed at ASU for graduate school in the laboratory of Kevin Redding. During that time, Gisriel solved the first molecular structure of a Type I anoxygenic reaction center, providing a structural basis for better understanding the evolution of photosynthesis. He received his Ph.D. in 2017, and his scholastic success was recognized by ASU’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences by naming him a 2017 CLAS Leader, the 2017 Outstanding Graduate, and awarding him a Graduate Excellence Award.

Gisriel performed a brief postdoctoral position at ASU’s Biodesign Center for Applied Structural Discovery in Petra Fromme’s lab. There, he gained experience in 1) X-ray Free Electron Laser (XFEL) crystallography, exploring the ability for fast data collection at XFELs for understanding the structure of large protein complexes, and 2) cryo-electron microscopy, elucidating the first structure of a far-red light-acclimated photosystem.

Gisriel then performed his primary postdoctoral position at Yale University’s Department of Chemistry in Gary Brudvig’s laboratory. He studied far-red light photoacclimation in the photosystems and both photoactivation and water oxidation in photosystem II by elucidating molecular structures using cryo-EM.

Gisriel opened his independent laboratory at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Biochemistry in the Fall of 2024. The Gisriel Lab explores the molecular bases of diverse photosynthetic protein complexes to (a) generate a basic understanding of fundamental biochemistry, (b) engineer bio-based solar fuel catalysts, and (c) develop novel methods for data interpretation in cryo-EM. Gisriel is an awardee of the NIH Pathway to Independence Award (K99/R00), an ARCS Scholar, and specializes in structural biology and spectroscopic techniques applied to photosynthetic systems.