Stepan S. Denisov
PhD
Postdoctoral Researcher
My research is focused on chemokine-binding peptides and proteins. Chemokines are small secreted proteins which regulate cell recruitment. They play a particularly important role in the development of inflammation. In my research we are exploring opportunity of blocking chemokines as a therapeutic approach for inflammation-driven diseases.
During my PhD at Maastricht University I studied tick chemokine-binding proteins - evasins. In the result we solved structures of two evasins and unraveled the molecular basis of their anti-chemokine activity.
After getting PhD I received a two-year postdoctoral Kootstra Fellowship from UMC+ and Maastricht University. During these two years I was leading a research project focused on screening chemokine-binding cyclic D-peptides from combinatorial phage libraries.
In 2021 a Rubicon Fellowship from the Dutch Research Council was granted to me to fund a two-year postdoctoral position in the lab of prof. Bhattacharya. In Oxford University I am going to explore applicability of directed evolution in order to improve chemokine-binding peptides derived from pathogen and viral proteins.
Key publications
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SecScan: a general approach for mapping disulfide bonds in synthetic and recombinant peptides and proteins
Journal article
Denisov SS. et al, (2019), Chemical Communications, 55, 1374 - 1377
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A mitochondria-targeted protonophoric uncoupler derived from fluorescein
Journal article
Denisov SS. et al, (2014), Chem. Commun., 50, 15366 - 15369
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Structural characterization of anti-CCL5 activity of the tick salivary protein evasin-4
Journal article
Denisov SS. et al, (2020), Journal of Biological Chemistry, 295, 14367 - 14378
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Tick saliva protein Evasin-3 modulates chemotaxis by disrupting CXCL8 interactions with glycosaminoglycans and CXCR2
Journal article
Denisov SS. et al, (2019), Journal of Biological Chemistry, 294, 12370 - 12379
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CXCL17: The Black Sheep in the Chemokine Flock
Journal article
Denisov SS., (2021), Frontiers in Immunology, 12
Recent publications
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Discovery and pharmacophoric characterization of chemokine network inhibitors using phage-display, saturation mutagenesis and computational modelling.
Journal article
Vales S. et al, (2023), Nat Commun, 14
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Extracellular vimentin mimics VEGF and is a target for anti-angiogenic immunotherapy
Journal article
van Beijnum JR. et al, (2022), Nature Communications, 13