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.
