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Konstantin Severinov

Professor, Director of the Center for Data-Intensive Biomedicine and Biotechnology
Center for Data-Intensive Biomedicine and Biotechnology

Konstantin is a professor at the Molecular Biology and Biochemistry department at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, and a head of laboratory at the Waksman Institute for Microbiology. He also heads a Laboratory of genetic regulation of prokaryotic mobile genetic elements at the Institute of Molecular Genetics at the Russian Academy of Sciences and a Laboratory of molecular genetics of microorganisms at the Institute of Gene Biology at the Russian Academy of Sciences.

He is a member of the Science and Technology Council of the Russian Nanotechnology corporation and a consultant for 7 biotech companies and several Russian government agencies. He has produced over 200 peer-reviewed publications and 6 patents.

Konstantin works on genetic, biochemical, and structural analyses of transcription mechanism and regulation in bacteria. He also studies the regulation of macromolecular synthesis during the process of bacteriophage infection and various molecular interactions between bacteriophages and their host bacteria. Another main direction of his research involves analysis of antibacterial peptides called microcins: their structures, mechanisms of function, evolution, and the use as new antibiotics.

Research
Publications
Awards
Research Group
Teaching
Media
Summary in Russian / Краткая справка

RNA transcription
Bacterial RNA polymerase structure-function and mechanism
Bacteriophage development and interactions with bacterial hosts
Structure-activity analysis of antibacterial peptides
Studies of bacterial diversity in extreme environments

Zenkin, N., Naryshkina, T., Kuznedelov, K., and Severinov, K. (2006) The molecular mechanism of replication primer synthesis by RNA polymerase. Nature, 439, 617-620
Zenkin, N., Yuzenkova, Y., and Severinov, K. (2006) Transcriptional proofreading through a ribozyme-like activity of the nascent transcript. Science, 313, 518-520
Zenkin, N., Kulbachinskiy, A., Yuzenkova, Y., Mustaev, Bass, I., Severinov, K., and Brodolin, K. (2007) Region 1.2 of the RNA polymerase σ subunit modulates recognition of the -10 promoter element. EMBO J., 26, 955-964
Pavlova, O., Mukhopadhyay, J., Sineva, E., Ebright, R. H., and Severinov, K. (2008) Systematic structure-activity analysis of microcin J25. J. Biol. Chem., 283, 25589-25595
Van de Vijver, P., Vondenhoff, G. H. M., Kazakov, T., Semenova, E., Kuznedelov, K., Metlitskaya, A., Van Aerschot, A., and Severinov, K. (2009) Synthetic Microcin C analogs targeting different aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases. J. Bacteriol., 191, 6273-6280
Pougach, K., Semenova, E., Bogdanova, E., Datsenko, K.A., Djordjevic, M., Wanner, B. L., and Severinov, K. (2010) Transcription, transcript processing and function of E. coli CRISPR locus. Mol. Microbiol., 77, 1367-1379
Mekler, V., Pavlova, O., and Severinov, K. (2011) The interaction of E. coli RNA polymerase σ70 subunit with promoter elements in the context of free σ70, RNA polymerase holoenzyme, and the β’-σ70 complex. J. Biol. Chem., 286, 270-279
Semenova, E., Jore, M. M., Datsenko, K. A., Semenova, A., Westra, E. R., Wanner, B. L., van der Oost, J., Brouns, S. J. J., and Severinov, K. (2011) A crRNA seed sequence governs CRISPR interference. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 108, 10098-10103
Agarwal, V., Tikhonov, A., Metlytskaya, A., Severinov, K., and Nair, S. (2012) Structure and function of a serine carboxypeptidase adapted for degradation of the protein synthesis inhibitor Microcin C7. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 109, 4425-30
Datsenko, K. A., Pougach, K., Tikhonov, A., Wanner, B. L., Severinov, K., and Semenova, E. (2012) Prior encounters dramatically stimulate adaptive bacterial CRISPR immune response to viruses. Nature Commun., 3, 945

Fulbright Senior Scholar (2010)
Fellow of American Academy of Microbiology (2009)
The Russian Science Support Foundation Prize (2008, 2009)
Doctor of Sciences, Russian Academy of Sciences, cum laude, (2006)
10th Johnson & Johnson Discovery Award (1997)
The Burroughs Welcome Fund Career Award in Biomedical Sciences (1996-2002)

Ekaterina Savitskaya
Senior Research Scientist

Daria Artamonova
Research Scientist

Ignat Goryanin
Research Scientist

Evgeny Klimuk
Research Scientist

Olga Musharova
Research Scientist

Julia Piskunova
Research Scientist

Vasily Sitnik
Research Scientist

Iana Fedorova
Junior Research Scientist

Victor Fedorchuk
Research Intern

Victor Mamontov
Research Intern

Natalia Morozova
Research Intern

Dmitry Sutormin
Research Intern

Dmitrii Travin
Research Intern

Darya Tsibulskaya
Research Intern

Basic Molecular Biology Techniques

Number of ECTS credits: 3
Course Classification: Science, Technology, and Engineering

Course description:

The course provides hand-on experience with the general techniques used in the molecular biology/biotechnology lab. The goal of the course is to teach students good laboratory practice and rational planning of the experimental work.
There are three different levels to the course (basic, advanced and research).

Prerequisites:
The course requires basic knowledge of molecular and cellular biology.

Advanced Molecular Biology Techniques
Number of ECTS credits: 3
Course Classification: Science, Technology, and Engineering

Course description:
The course provides experience with the scientific project planning and implementation in the molecular biology/biotechnology lab.The goal of the course is to teach students good laboratory practice and rational planning of the experimental work.

Prerequisites:
Basic knowledge of standard molecular biology techniques (PCR, electrophoresis, cloning, protein expression/purification).

Advanced Molecular Biology Techniques 2 (research)

Number of ECTS credits: var
Course Classification: Science, Technology, and Engineering

Course description:
This project-based course provides experience with scientific project planning and implementation in the molecular biology/biotechnology lab. Course-based research projects are geared towards the background and experience of students.
The goal of the course is to teach students good laboratory practice and rational planning of the experimental work.

Prerequisites:
Basic knowledge of molecular and cellular biology as well as minimal wet lab experience.

Molecular Biology Seminar

Number of ECTS credits: 2
Course Classification: Science, Technology, and Engineering

Course description:
A research paper-based course where recent papers in the field are presented by students and critically discussed by the class led by instructor.

Prerequisites:
General Molecular Biology course.

1. “How can we change availability of the modern medicine genomic analysis?”, 17/11/2014

2. “Gene transcription”, 05/11/2014

3. “Protein folding”, 17/10/2014

4. “Genetic variations in bacteria”, 14/10/2014

5. Talk about the principles of sugar substitutes, experiments with laboratory mice and human microbiota, 13/10/2014

6. “Transfer of the biological signals”, 09/10/2014

7. “How does the mammal’s intestinal microflora protection mechanism works?”, 03/10/2014

8. “Macromolecules interactions”, 01/09/2014

9. Talk about the problems of biology teaching at school, 20/08/2014

10. “Systems biology and antibiotics crisis”, 04/07/2014

11. “Science sexism”, 04/06/2014