Biochemistry

Digestive proteases of cathepsin type are essential for survival and development of blood-feeding parasites of humans. The project is focused on these enzymes in important parasitic arthropods, trematodes and protozoa. The aim of the project is to identify and characterize the parasitic cathepsins as molecular targets for the development of novel chemotherapeutics. The research includes the following approaches: proteomics, recombinant expression and purification of proteins, enzymology, protein crystallization and molecular modeling.