Drug expert is guest scientist at the IPB

Professor Athanassios Giannis has joined the IPB as a guest scientist in the Department of Bioorganic Chemistry in April 2020. The Greek-born scientist studied medicine and chemistry and holds a professorship for Organic Chemistry and Natural Products Chemistry at the University of Leipzig since 2002. Prof. Giannis is an expert in phloroglucinoles, which are extracted from St. John's wort as active ingredients against mental diseases and are also being investigated in the project group Neuroactives at the IPB. He also specializes in Protac inhibitors. These are small molecules that induce, as proteolysis-targeting chimeras, the selective degradation of specific proteins within cells. Protacs have great potential for the development of new drugs. Professor Giannis will support the IPB for the next five years in this development of suitable drugs and molecular probes. We wish him much success!