Karolin Luger is an Austrian-American biochemist and biophysicist known for her work with nucleosomes and discovery of the three-dimensional structure of chromatin.

[2][4] She also proposed that histone-DNA bonds are weaker at points where less of the histone contacts the DNA, which was confirmed by Michelle Wang in a 2009 paper.

[6] The nucleosome, a building block of the chromatin genetic material that makes up chromosomes, consists of DNA wrapped around a disk of proteins.

In 2005, Luger and Kenneth Kaye used X-ray crystallography to determine the mechanism that the virus causing Kaposi's sarcoma, a cancer that affects subdermal connective tissue, uses to spread.

[8] Since 2010, Luger has done significant studies of histones, researching the connection between their chaperone proteins and acetylation, as well as variant structures.

[2] Modifications to histones, including acetylation, methylation, and phosphorylation, are important because of their role in activating and deactivating genes.

[9] She and her research group have also developed various assays for examining chromatin structure, to augment traditional X-ray crystallography.