Ladislau Kovari

Ladislau Kovari is a Professor and Associate Chair in the Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology & Immunology at Wayne State University School of Medicine. His research focuses on structural biology, viral protease inhibition, and overcoming drug resistance in HIV-1 and Hepatitis C virus (HCV) through biochemical and computational methods.

Education:

• Ph.D., University of Tennessee (1992)
• Fellowship in Structural Biology (X-ray Crystallography) at Purdue University (1992-1997)

Research interests include:

• Mechanisms of HIV and HCV drug resistance
• Structure-function studies of viral proteins
• Crystallographic analysis of protease-inhibitor interactions
• Development of next-generation antiviral compounds
• Protein flexibility and molecular recognition
• Multidrug-resistant viral strains

Recent publications highlight advancements in:

• Coronavirus protease inhibition (SARS-CoV-2 PLpro and 3CLpro)
• Antiviral strategies for norovirus and Zika virus
• Structural modeling of drug resistance mutations
• Thermal stability studies of epigenetic enzymes
• Crystallographic exploration of protease-substrate complexes
• Computational screening for broad-spectrum inhibitors

His lab collaborates with institutions like Argonne National Laboratory and utilizes the Life Sciences Collaborative Access Team (LS-CAT) synchrotron facility for X-ray crystallography.