The research of our group is focused on peptide-, protein- and carbohydrate-based therapeutics. Nature provides a fascinating and powerful system of basic building blocks (e.g., amino acids, monosaccharides) to generate a large and diverse variety of physiologically active agents ranging from hormones and cytokines to antimicrobial peptides and glycoproteins. Whereas the direct use of peptides, proteins and carbohydrates for therapeutic purposes has long been considered challenging, recent development in the design, production, formulation and administration of such compounds led to a resurgence of biopharmaceuticals. Starting from natural templates or screening efforts, and utilizing tools from biotechnology, protein engineering, computational and medicinal chemistry and structural biology, our group designs and refines peptide-, protein- and carbohydrate-based molecules with potential therapeutic value. The targeting of therapeutic entities to the ideal cellular or molecular target defines another important aspect of our research activities.
Our expertise includes:
– Computer-aided drug design of novel biologically active compounds
– Structure-based design of enzyme inhibitors, receptor agonists and antagonists
– Hit-to-lead optimisation of affinity and selectivity
– Optimisation of physicochemical and pharmacokinetic properties
– in vitro assays on various enzymes, receptors and cell-based systems
– in vivo assays in relevant mouse models