Michael Gennadyevich Petukhov

Education:

2009 - D.Sc. in Biophysics from St. Petersburg State Polytechnical University. Thesis was devoted to theoretical and experimental investigations of molecular mechanisms of protein thermostability at high temperature.

1992 - Ph.D. in Biophysics from Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT). Thesis was devoted to theoretical investigation of molecular mechanisms of carbohydrase action by molecular modeling of protein-polysaccharide interactions.

1977-83 M.D. in Physics from Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT).

Research Positions:

2000- + Chief Scientist and Group Leader in the Laboratory of Macromolecular Biophysics, Department of Molecular and Radiation Biophysics, Petersburg Institute of Nuclear Physics, NRC "Kurchatov Institute", Gatchina, St. Petersburg, Russia. Chief Scientist at Institute of Nanobiotechnologies, St. Petersburg Polytechnical University, St. Petersburg, Russia.

2003-2014 Professor at Biophysics department, St. Petersburg Polytechnical University, St. Petersburg, Russia.

1997- 2000 Postdoctoral fellow, laboratory of Dr. L. Serrano, European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Heidelberg, Germany.

1994- 1996 Postdoctoral fellow, laboratory of Prof S. Yoshikawa, Osaka National Research Institute (ONRI), Agency of Industrial Science and Technology, Osaka, Japan.

1983-94 Researcher, Pacific Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry (PIBOC), the Russian Academy of Sciences, Vladivostok, Russia.

Grants and awards:

2015 The award named after I.V. Kurchatov in the field of scientific research from National Research Center "Kurchatov Institute".

2000-2021 Many research grants from the Russian Academy of Sciences, Russian Foundation for Basic Research, Russian Ministry of Education and Science, Russian Science Foundation and from St. Petersburg Government.

1997-1999, 2005 Long and short term research fellowships from European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO), Heidelberg, Germany.

1994-1996 Two year research grant from Foreign Researcher Invitation Program of the Agency of Industrial Science and Technology, Japan.

Main interests: Current scientific interests mainly are in molecular modeling of proteins, DNA and its complexes with recent focus on mechanisms of protein folding, hydration, stability at high temperatures and biotechnological applications including:

1) Investigation of factors affecting stabilization of alpha-helices in proteins and short peptides;

2) Development of a new method of global sequence optimization for rational design of alpha-helices in peptides and proteins with optimal arrangement of intra-helical interactions. CD measurements of helical content of peptides with optimized sequences indicate that the helical potential of protein amino acids is high enough to allow formation of stable alpha-helices in peptides as short as of 10 residues in length;

3) Design and experimental testing of highly thermostable mutants of Glucoamylase from the fungus Aspergillus awamori, one of most widely used industrial enzymes.

4) Development of a new hydration potential for molecular dynamics and conformational analysis of proteins.