Early during my scientific career, I focused on studying protein-protein interactions by computational methods. During my PhD, I shifted my focus to protein-small molecule interactions and their modulation in the context of computer-aided drug design for neglected tropical diseases. As a passionate Linux-user and administrator, I moved on to dive into aspects of databases, data management and FAIR data (data that is Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable).

My postdoctoral research at UEF finally connects all my expertise in data-intensive drug discovery projects, dedicated to anti-viral, anti-bacterial and anti-protozoal research. My projects involve, for example, semi-automated docking studies of several hundreds of targets and billion-scale virtual screening, where I utilize powerful combinations of computer-aided drug discovery and modeling techniques, programming, databases and machine-learning – and all that – naturally – penguin-powered.