Dimitry Korkin

Assistant Professor

Computer Science

As a computational biologist and bioinformatician, Korkin combines molecular biology with computer algorithms to study how proteins interact, in particular interactions between pathogens and their hosts. He conducts computer modeling, runs simulations and makes predictions. His products are new hypotheses for biologists, to be later verified through experiments. Recently his lab developed an automated “text-mining engine” capable of crawling through the abstracts of the hundreds of thousands of papers cataloged by the scientific publisher PubMed. His “engine,” a computer program, uses artificial intelligence to locate papers which focus on his interest - the proteins that play a role in host-pathogen interactions. Korkin has also developed an automated method capable of predicting the key proteins in bacterial infections, on a whole genome scale. This is a first step toward designing new drugs to target these proteins, which could lead to cures for diseases such as tuberculosis, dysentery and typhoid fever.