Mamuka Kvaratskhelia PhD

Dr. Kvaratskhelia trained at Moscow State University, Russia; John Innes Center, England; University of Dundee, Scotland; and with Dr. Stuart Le Grice at Drug Resistance Program, NCI-Frederick, USA before starting his own program at the Ohio State University. Through his PhD and postdoctoral years Dr. Kvaratskhelia has been trained as a biochemist with a strong emphasis on studying protein-protein and protein-nucleic acid interactions. Since the beginning of his independent research career at the Ohio State University in 2003, his primary research focus has been to better understand the structure and function of HIV-1 integrase as a therapeutic target. He has developed extensive expertise in understanding retroviral integrases: their catalytic role in the virus life cycle, integration site selection in host cell chromosomes, and interactions with cognate cellular cofactors such as LEDGF/p75 and BET proteins (Sharma et al, 2013, PNAS).