Kloczkowski Lab

Andrzej Kloczkowski, PhD

Principal Investigator

Andrzej Kloczkowski, PhD, is a principal investigator in the Center with his research interests focusing on various aspects of computational molecular biology and structural bioinformatics. Areas of interest include system biology at multiple levels, lattice models of proteins, prediction of protein structures, protein dynamics, prediction of protein functions, protein packing and statistical potentials, prediction of binding sites, and prediction of phosphorylation sites.

Maksim Kouza, PhD

Research Scientist

Maksim Kouza, PhD, is a research scientist in the Kloczkowski lab. His project goal is to study the molecular mechanisms of protein aggregation that cause preeclampsia, a pregnancy-specific disorder, by using multi-scale computational modeling. Such modeling of key proteins involved in preeclampsia seeks to complement the experimental observations and helps to explain the physical mechanisms by which aggregates of misfolded proteins specific to preeclampsia are pathogenic and may be responsible for various clinical manifestations. Based on the results of coarse-grained and all-atom molecular dynamics simulations, the team plans to develop inhibitors: peptides that will slow down or ultimately arrest the process of self-assembly of monomers into fibrils. The proposed research will not only provide new insights into molecular origins of preeclampsia, but also for some neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases since protein misfolding is their common cause.

Maksim was awarded the Outstanding Young Scientists award from the Ministry of Science and Higher Education in Poland in 2015. When he is not working and has some free time he likes swimming and traveling.