Dr. Nikita A. Kuznetsov works at the Institute of Chemical Biology and Fundamental Medicine, Novosibirsk, Russia as the Head of the laboratory. He is a Doctor of Chemical Sciences and a specialist in the field of physical chemistry and conformational dynamics of biopolymers, kinetics of enzymatic processes, and molecular mechanisms of biocatalysis.His main research areas include 1) development and experimental approbation of a comprehensive methodology for studying the mechanisms of enzymatic reactions based on kinetic, thermodynamic, and mutational analyses of changes in the conformation of enzymes and substrates in real time; 2) insight into mechanisms and features of the action of various base excision repair enzymes and the molecular nature of the elementary stages ensuring the specificity of DNA glycosylases, AP endonucleases, and DNA polymerase beta; 3) methods for determining the activity of human base excision repair enzymes as well as DNA dioxygenases to determine the cell repair status; 4) mechanisms of action of a number of viral proteases and method for screening the enzyme activity, which allows for the selection of inhibitor compounds; 5) mechanisms of action of human AlkB-like DNA dioxygenases responsible for the dealkylation of nitrogenous bases; 6) mechanisms of action of DNA polymerases of the A, B, and X structural families and the creation of mutant and chimeric forms of these enzymes as promising tools for the targeted synthesis of nucleic acids.
