Darius Szablowski

As a person driven by curiosity and wide-ranging interests, I aim to combine the pursuit of knowledge with a desire to help people and contribute to improving global health. I believe many of the health challenges humanity faces today can be addressed through advances in the natural sciences, especially when different disciplines are integrated. In particular, computer science plays a crucial role in managing and analyzing the vast complexity of biological systems, including molecular interactions.

My PhD focuses on the computation of binding kinetics for binder design. As a PhD-student of the SynthImmune Excellence cluster we work specifically on the development of peptide-based immunogens for overcoming malaria. The goal is to develop chemically modified, conformation-biased novel epitopes that can elicit anti-malarial immunization. Methodologically, we are working with the enhanced sampling molecular dynamics method called τRAMD, and a method for the unsupervised determination of conformations that influence residence time and other computational approaches. We want to optimize kinetic parameters of the epitopes, specifically the residence time of epitopes on antibodies and cell surface receptors involved in immune system activation.