Leonidas Demetres D.

Professor

Biochemistry

ddleonidas-at-bio.uth.gr | 2410-565278

BSc: Department of Chemistry, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece

PhD: Structural Biochemistry, Department of Biology, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece

Post-Doc: Department of Biology & Biochemistry, University of Bath, U.K.

Senior Researcher: Institute of Organic and Pharmaceutical Chemistry, National Hellenic Research Foundation

Research Interests: Τhe general theme that underlies our work is macromolecular structural biochemistry in which structures are used as the starting point for further studies on the mechanisms of catalysis, mechanisms of inhibition, regulation, molecular recognition, and structure-based drug design. Currently our activities are directed to research on a high-throughput structure-assisted (or protein-ligand interaction) approach in drug discovery based on the combination of target structural information with parallel chemistry and molecular dynamics simulations. At present, the structures of individual biological macromolecules are studied in much detail and with a defined scientific question in mind. While this approach will certainly be continued, the new method of high-throughput in the field of structural genomics is emerging. Advances in docking and virtual ligand screening, computational chemistry and design, parallel chemistry along with technical developments in X-ray crystallography (automation in crystallogenesis, data collection in synchrotron radiation sites, data processing, and structure determination) has a major impact on functional analysis and high-throughput structure-assisted drug design. High-throughput X-ray crystallography is advancing the productivity of drug discovery by optimising drug candidates with the molecular target of interest.