Maksym’s work is dedicated to the simulations of the HBV and HIV capsid-small molecule complexes. Previous works have shown that Capsid Assembly Allosteric Modulators for the HBV can be effective at subnanomolar concentrations, and also be effective at curing chronic HBV in both human and mice.

Unfortunately, most potent in vitro scaffold heteroaryldihydropyrimidine scaffold (HAP) derivatives, with some examples having submicromolar EC50s, what is > 300 times more potent compared to Novira’s scaffold recently successful in stage 1, are very toxic.

The aim of Maksym’s work is to learn the underlying allosteric conformational change that makes HAP scaffolds so efficient, and use this knowledge to make Capsid Assembly Allosteric modulators de novo.

Maksym’s work is supported by JW Fulbright grant for graduate research. The experimental part of the work is possible due to collaboration with Dr. Schinazi at Emory University.