Dr. Katritch broad scientific interests involve development and application of computational tools to study key biological phenomena, from DNA topology and chromatin folding to understanding molecular basis of receptor signaling and drug action. Current research in his group has been focused on the structure and function of membrane proteins and specifically on the superfamily of G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs), which is targeted by more than 30% of clinical drugs. The main directions of these studies include (i) deciphering the molecular basis of GPCRs interactions with various ligands, co-factors and downstream effectors (ii) structure-based discovery and optimization of leads and tool compounds with novel functional properties, such as allosteric modulation and signaling bias, (iii) integrative structural biology combining molecular modeling with biophysical (NMR, HDX, EPR, cryo-EM) and biochemical (mutagenesis, chemical crosslinking) data, and putting this data in the context of systems biology of GPCR-mediated pathways. Ultimately this work aims at better understanding of human biology and exploring new venues for rational drug discovery.
