Prof.Andrea Brancale Laboratories - STSM hosting lab - Prague

Hosting Lab for STSM within teh CA21111

Host institution:

Name: University of Chemistry and Technology in Prague (UCT Prague)

Affiliation: Prof. Andrea Brancale, Department of Organic Chemistry, University of Chemistry and Technology Prague, Prague 6 16628, Czech Republic. 

Country: Czech Republic

Lab description

Prof. Brancale’s molecular modelling facility offers excellent molecular modelling hardware (including 3 HPC workstations with 32 cores and a high-end GPU Card each) and software (Schrodinger; MOE; LeadIt, Amber; Gromacs, Openeye, Molecular Discovery). In addition, the researchers in the group have full access to two Czech supercomputing facilities: MetaCentrum (https://metavo.metacentrum.cz/en/about/index.html), and the IT4Innovations National Supercomputing Centre (https://www.it4i.cz/en/about/about-it4i). Prof. Brancale’s chemistry laboratory is well equipped for the common synthetic procedures as well as the work in the inert atmosphere and the advanced separation techniques and analytical techniques (e.g. flash chromatography, UPLC). For structure confirmation, there are two NMR spectrometers available at the Department of Organic chemistry, 400MHz for 1H NMR quick check (Agilent) and 400MHz with an autosampler for longer measurements (Jeol). For determination of compound purity, HPLC/HRMS (UltiMate 3000, Dionex, and MicrOtof QIII, Bruker), are available for applicant’s use.

Hosting Lab selection motivation

The aims of the proposed project are perfectly alligned with the objectives of Cost Action CA21111 WG1 “OneHealthdrugs” which aims to develop new drugs for the treatment of vector-borne diseases in a more sustainable approach. Brancale’s group has a strong focus on computer-aided drug design applied to drug discovery. Their research activity is mainly focused on the development of new antiviral drugs in a more rationale way aided by computational techniques. For this reason, a STSM in his group can allow me to acquire competence in computational methods that can be applied for the discovery of new antiparasitic compounds to be then tested by laboratory members from the same CA21111 network. Moreover, UCT Prague is among the largest educational and research institutions of its kind in Central and Eastern Europe with an international environmental stimulates the exchange of experiences and knowledge. Lastly, the group’s facilities for drug discovery and the experience of Prof. Brancale on the computational field make the selection of this group a wise choice to conduct a STSM.