Alexandre Wohlkonig Email & Phone Number

Région De Bruxelles, Belgique

After establishing a structure based drug discovery platform within the laboratory of Pr J. Steyaert, I am now developing cutting-edge techniques for X-ray crystallography and drug design using antibodies (nanobodies). The laboratory exploits a particular class of antibodies found in camelidae that offers important perspectives for protein crystallization.We are developing molecular tools to stabilize elusive conformation of proteins such as the prion protein and transient protein-protein… Show more After establishing a structure based drug discovery platform within the laboratory of Pr J. Steyaert, I am now developing cutting-edge techniques for X-ray crystallography and drug design using antibodies (nanobodies). The laboratory exploits a particular class of antibodies found in camelidae that offers important perspectives for protein crystallization.We are developing molecular tools to stabilize elusive conformation of proteins such as the prion protein and transient protein-protein interactions (PPIs).One of my PhD students used nanobodies to study the structural dynamics of the Prion protein (PrPC). In this context, I initiated contacts with different partners, allowing us to develop a new system for expressing PrPC from different species (Abskharon RN, et al. 2012), thus facilitating structural studies. Human PrPC produced with our system was found to be a strong inhibitor of human prion propagation (Yuan, et al. 2013) and could be used to inhibit PrPSc propagation. In addition, we developed a new method for the crystallization of prion/antibodyComplexes (Abskharon RN, et al. 2010) (Abskharon RN, et al. 2011). This strategy was successful to crystallize a PrPC/nanobody complex, which revealed for the first time a new structural arrangement (Abskharon RN, et al. 2014).Finally, I have developed a new method to select Nanobodies that are specific for a transient protein complex. This method is now patented and we are exploiting Nanobodies for structure-based drug discovery applications. Show less

Vub (Vrije Universiteit Brussel)

After my experience in industry, I seized the opportunity to return to academia to lead aresearch team engaged in structure-based drug discovery in collaboration with theindustrial partner Galapagos NV, a Belgian biotech company specialized in the field ofdrug design. I joined the Department of Structural Biology Department of VUB/VIB underthe direction of Pr J. Steyaert. In this project, I supervised and managed a research teamof one post-doctoral fellow and a laboratory… Show more After my experience in industry, I seized the opportunity to return to academia to lead aresearch team engaged in structure-based drug discovery in collaboration with theindustrial partner Galapagos NV, a Belgian biotech company specialized in the field ofdrug design. I joined the Department of Structural Biology Department of VUB/VIB underthe direction of Pr J. Steyaert. In this project, I supervised and managed a research teamof one post-doctoral fellow and a laboratory technician. Due to industrial propertyconcerns and pending patents, the target names cannot be communicated here.In parallel to this work, I initiated a collaboration between our team and Dr Baulard’steam (Pasteur Institute of Lille, France), and Pr Deprez’s team (University of Lille2, France). They were the first to demonstrate that the sensitivity of M. tuberculosis to important antibiotics could bereprogrammed using small synthetic compounds, which inhibit the key bacterialtranscriptional regulator EthR. Together, we developed structure-based and fragment baseddrug discovery approaches, which led to the identification of highly potent EthRinhibitors that are now exploited under licence by the Swiss pharmaceutical companyBioversys, in collaboration with the TB-Alliance. Show less

Postdoctoral research staff member, structural biology, structure/function relationship, hts protein crystallisation, drug discovery, protein biochemistry.

Post doctoral fellow, structural biology, cloning, protein expression and purification, crystallisation screening, protein crystallography, data collection, data processing xds, coot, ccp4.

Phd, Molecular Biology

Thesis "Molecular study of arginine’s anaerobic catabolism regulation in Bacillus licheniformis" - Molecular biology - Microbiology.

Master’S Degree, Chemistry, Distinction

Erasmus, Chemistry