Results of the LIOS and BMC Grant Calls for Proposals

For the Academic Career Grants competition, a total of 60 project applications were submitted – 40 competing for postdoctoral grants and 20 – for scientist (professor) grants. Funding has been approved for 20 postdoctoral grants and 15 scientist (professor) grants.

Approved Postdoctoral Grants

1. Marija Skvorcova. Focused library comprising bioisosteres of hydrolytic transition state of aspartic protease (No. 05/OSI/PG)
2. Anna Ņikitjuka. Boron Heterocycles-containing Carbonic Anhydrases Inhibitors: Applications as Anticancerous or Anti-infective agents (No. 16/OSI/PG)
3. Kaspars Megnis. Investigation of therapy-induced transcriptome variations to promote cardiomyocyte senescence reversal (No. 17/BMC/PG)
4. Kalvis Brangulis. Structural and functional characterization of the β-barrel assembly machinery complex from the Lyme disease causing agent Borrelia burgdorferi – an essential component for the biogenesis of the outer membrane (No. 26/BMC/PG)
5. Olga Bobiļeva. Small-Molecule Inhibitors of METTL1 (No. 29/OSI/PG)
6. Kaspars Leduskrasts. Next Generation Two-Photon Absorption Luminophores by Utilizing Through-Space Charge Transfer (No. 30/OSI/PG)
7. Jānis Leitāns. Crystallographic Fragment Screening for Novel Scaffold Development Targeting Tumor-Associated Human Carbonic Anhydrase IX and XII (No. 35/BMC/PG)
8. Jānis Rūmnieks. Studies of structure and assembly of prolate bacteriophage particles (No. 37/BMC/PG)
9. Ram Kumar Nagarajan. Construction of Fluorinated Organoboron Compounds (CARGO) (No. 38/OSI/PG)
10. Aleksandrs Pustenko. Synthesis of novel thioredoxin reductase and carbonic anhydrase inhibitors as potential anticancer agents (No. 41/OSI/PG)
11. Karīna Narbute. Effects of extracellular vesicles of pathogenic gut bacteria on brain-vascular barrier permeability (No. 44/BMC/PG)
12. Zigmunds Orlovskis. Investigating the role of small RNAs and their targets in mycorrhiza-mediated plant-to-plant signals towards improved pathogen tolerance. (No. 45/BMC/PG)
13. Anna Lielpētere. Development of Electrodes Coated with Polymer-bound Redox Mediators for Electrocatalytic Synthesis (No. 47/OSI/PG)
14. Jekaterīna Ivanova. Inhibitors of selenoenzyme TrxR1 as anti-cancer agents with novel mechanism of action (No. 49/OSI/PG)
15. Kristīne Krūkle-Bērziņa. Design and crystallization of cyclodextrin metal-organic frameworks using template-directed synthesis (No. 50/OSI/PG)
16. Teodors Panteļejevs. Exploration of novel DNA damage response targets for cancer therapy (No. 59/OSI/PG)
17. Rihards Aleksis. Development and applications of new 14N solid-state NMR methods for characterization of biological molecules (No. 64/OSI/PG)
18. Nikhil Agrawal. Deciphering Bacterial Functional Amyloid PSM-α3: Self-Assembly Dynamics and Mutational Impact via Molecular Dynamics Simulation (No. 65/OSI/PG)
19. Diāna Zeļencova-Gopejenko. Identification of covalent and non-peptidomimetic plasmepsin V inhibitors as potential antimalarial leads (No. 67/OSI/PG)
20. Alisa Kazarina. Oral microbiome changes induced by mouthwash formulations containing Latvian-grown Coriandrum sativum essential oil versus its primary constituent, linalool (No. 72/BMC/PG)

Approved Scientist (professor) Grants

1. Edgars Sūna. Novel synthetic approach toward enantiopure aza-analogues of sulfonamides and sulfones (No. 02/OSI/ZG)
2. Liene Grigorjeva. Development of “greener” C-H bond functionalization methodology using cobalt catalysis (No. 04/OSI/ZG)
3. Pāvels Arsenjans. Development of selective PKM2 and PARP1 inhibitors (No. 07/OSI/ZG)
4. Gints Šmits. Novel PBD warheads for antibody-drug conjugate anti-cancer therapy (No. 08/OSI/ZG)
5. Kaspars Tārs. Investigations of ssRNA phage interactions by cryo-EM (No. 09/BMC/ZG)
6. Aija Linē. The good, the bad and the unknown – the effects of circulating extracellular vesicles on various cell types constituting the breast cancer microenvironment (No. 10/BMC/ZG)
7. Jānis Veliks. Fluorine into 3D Space: Development of Non-planar Fluorobenzene Bioisosteres (No. 14/OSI/ZG)
8. Vita Rovīte. Characterization of Cancer-Associated Fibroblasts in Gastroenteropancreatic Neuroendocrine Tumors using spatial transcriptomics (No. 25/BMC/ZG)
9. Andris Zeltins. Plant Virus-like particles for use in cancer immunotherapy: establishing a test system (No. 31/BMC/ZG)
10. Raitis Bobrovs. Harnessing Adenosine Mimetic Groups for Drug Development (No. 34/OSI/ZG)
11. Raivis Žalubovskis. Development of Novel Inhibitors of Metalloenzymes as Anti-Cancer Agents (No. 40/OSI/ZG)
12. Kristaps Jaudzems. Structural and biophysical analysis of tau filament-antibody complexes (No. 42/OSI/ZG)
13. Indriķis Krams. Stress-induced metabolic shifts in Drosophila melanogaster: establishing a new research group in the Latvian Biomedical Research and Study Centre (No. 55/BMC/ZG)
14. Anna Zajakina. Development of chimeric antigen receptor macrophages (CAR-M) and modeling of macrophage intratumoral infiltration in breast cancer model (No. 56/BMC/ZG)
15. Emilio Parisini. Exploring enzyme-based biohybrid materials as platforms for diabetes monitoring applications (No. 74/OSI/ZG)