Research Interests

Our research group is primarily focused on the design, synthesis, and optimization of molecular and biomolecular systems. We are equally interested in practical applications of molecular design approaches and the development of new methodologies and software for molecular design. Our research is interdisciplinary, incorporating both experimental and computational modeling techniques.

 At this moment our special interest is:

1. Design and synthesis of proteins for biomedical research, including photoactive proteins.

2. Design of biologically active small-molecule ligands for medicine and pharmacology, including photopharmacological ligands.

3. Development of general methods and software for computer-aided design of (bio)molecular systems and chemical reactions. These methods include in silico directed evolution, machine learning-based methods for developing novel molecular mechanics force fields for cofactors, methods for automated systematic search of chemical reaction paths.

Detailed information about our projects can be found on the group's website: https://msdegroup.com

Teaching

Lectures:

• Computational Modeling of Biochemical Systems
• Biophysics
• Nanobiotechnologies and Molecular Bioengineering

Our online course “Computational Chemistry from Molecular Properties to Reactions: Learning-by-Doing”:

https://openedu.ru/course/spbu/CHEMISTRY_MODELING_ENG/

Grants

2023-2026 RSF grant No. 23-73-00041 “Integrative application of directed evolution and rational design methods to obtain proteins with desired properties: molecular design of fluorescent rhodopsins”

Publications

More than 20 publications in the last 3 years, including publications made by our group and in collaboration with other research groups. The list of publications can be found on our website: https://msdegroup.com/publications