A team of researchers led by the Head of Laboratory for Chemical Pharmacology Professor Mikhail Krasavin received funding support under the 7^th EU framework program “ERA.Net RUS Plus”. In 2018-2019, jointly with researchers from Latvia (Latvian Institute of Organic Synthesis, team leader – Raivis Žalubovskis) and Serbia (University of Belgrade, team leader – Milica Pešič), the chemists from Saint Petersburg State University will work on THIOREDIN project aimed at the discovery of new effective inhibitors of thioredoxin reductase. This enzyme has received very little attention as potential drug target despite the fact that recent research has clearly demonstrated that inhibition of this enzyme leas to selective death of cancer cells and does not affect normal cells.

Cancer – a leading cause of mortality and morbidity. The search for new so-called target therapies has enormous importance. Altogether, the ERA.Net RUS Plus program committee considered over 200 grant applications from Russian researchers and their European partners. The project from SPbSU was among 28 projects that received support. A total program budget is 11 million euro. On March 27^th, 2018 the three teams met in Belgrade, Serbia to start the project and agree on project plan and communication.