Ladislau C. Kovari

Dr. Ladislau Kovari obtained his Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology from the University of Tennessee, USA. Before his doctoral training, he studied Biochemistry (B.S. and M.S. degrees) at the University of Bucharest, Romania. He completed his postdoctoral studies at Purdue University, USA, and was a team member solving the crystal structure of the HIV-1 capsid protein p24. He has been a faculty member at Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit, Michigan, USA, for the past 25 years. As a Professor of Biochemistry, Microbiology, and Immunology, he has focused his research on viral proteases, antiviral drug design, mechanisms of antiviral resistance, and X-ray crystallographic studies of protein-ligand complexes. Dr. Kovari also serves as Associate Chair of the Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology, and Immunology at Wayne State University School of Medicine. His earlier work has centered on HIV-1 protease and integrase drug resistance mechanisms. Dr. Kovari is on sabbatical leave at the University of Michigan, USA, this year. He completed two previous sabbaticals, the first at Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Inc., working as a member of the HCV drug telaprevir team, and a second sabbatical at NIH, working on next-generation HIV-1 protease inhibitors in the laboratory of Dr. Hiroaki Mitsuya. His current research focus involves studies of SARS-CoV-2 antivirals, particularly the design, synthesis, and testing of CoV-2 3CL and PL protease inhibitors in collaboration with Dr. Raymond Schinazi’s group at Emory University and Dr. Navnath Gavande’s group at Wayne State University.