HKI-Kolloquium

Summary:

Prof Alexander Dömling (ERA Chair of Innovative Chemistry Group at the Palacky University Olomouc) devotes his academic life to the design and discovery of bioactive compounds for difficult targets such as protein protein interactions, transcription factors, or RNA. He studied multi-component reactions with Ivar Ugi at the Technical University Munich (PhD), and with Barry Sharpless at The Scripps Research Institute (PD). At the University of Pittsburgh, he became associate and full professor and he introduced the “google-like” web-based technology ANCHOR.QUERY together with Carlos Camacho. ANCHOR.QUERY can screen very large (billions) of virtual compounds in just seconds for pharmacophores and based on key interacting fragments, e.g. large amino acid side chains of amino acids (in PPIs). Interestingly the resulting virtual hits can be instantaneously synthesized using convergent and fast multicomponent reaction chemistry in order to test the virtually generated hypothesis. Another development is the technology platform Automated, miniaturized and accelerated drug discovery (AMADEUS) which was recently rewarded by an ERC Advanced grant. Here a fundamentally novel approach towards preclinical drug discovery and development is introduced by blending Instant Chemistry, nL dispensing, HT purification, HTS and machine learning. The indication areas Alexander Dömling is interested in are cancer immunology, infectious diseases and metabolic disorders. He has published more than 300 scientific articles, reviews and applied for >70 patents. Additionally, Alexander Dömling is a serial entrepreneur trying to make the expression “from bench to bedside” become true. - alexander.domling(at)upol.cz