Poul Nissen is the center director of the PUMPkin Centre and professor at the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Aarhus University.

Poul Nissen's research group uses methods such as X-ray crystallography, electron microscopy, electrophysiology, biochemical methods, cell biology, and bioinformatics to study membrane proteins. The focus of their research is on active transport schemes across the membrane, specifically on P-type ATPases (such as Na⁺,K⁺-ATPase, Ca²⁺-ATPase and H⁺-ATPase), but focus is also on other membrane pumps such as the heavy metal pumps. Also the structure and function of transporters like the serotonine transporter and receptors of the sortilin/SorLA-family are studied. Furthermore, Poul Nissen's research group is investigating structure-based approaches in drug discovery and design.

Poul Nissen has a background in crystallographic studies of translation factors and the ribosome. He became interested in P-type ATPases when he returned back to Denmark from his postdoctoral stay at Yale University where he worked on unraveling the structure and function of the ribosome in the laboratory of 2009 Nobel Prize laureate Thomas A. Steiz.

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