About our group
The main focus of the Konvalinka group is identification, validation and characterization of traditional or novel therapeutic targets for the diagnostics and treatment of viral diseases and cancer. We combine several approaches to achieve these goals including synthetic chemistry, chemical biology, structural biology and biochemistry. Our models involve HIV, HBV, Zika, Dengue and other human viruses, prostate cancer, human glioblastoma and other severe pathological conditions. We use wide variety of methodologies spanning from organic synthesis, molecular modelling and medicinal chemistry, recombinant protein production in various organisms, enzymology and X-ray and NMR structure analysis to mammalian cell cultures, xenografts of human tumors and transgenic mice. Recently, our group developed novel chemical biology tools based on the conjugates of specific ligands with either biocompatible polymers or DNA oligonucleotides (iBodies, DIANA). They could be used for identification, isolation, visualization and quantification of a variety of protein targets and for high-throughput testing of their inhibitors and ligands. Using these tools, we search for novel inhibitors of known target enzymes (tumor and viral enzymes) as well as for new therapeutic targets.
