Dan Stærk
Professor
Peptides and Proteins, Department of Drug Design and Pharmacology, University of Copenhagen
Biography
Professor Dan Staerk is heading the Natural Products Research group and Copenhagen Small-Molecule NMR Center. His research interests include discovery of small-molecule and peptide-based drug leads from natural sources like medicinal plants, marine organisms, and microorganisms, with disease areas covering type 2 diabetes, infectious diseases (antibacterial and antifungal compounds), and cancer. Another line of research includes sustainable drug discovery as well as development of sustainable functional food from sources like food by-products and biosynthetically modified organisms. A central part of his research is development and application of new state-of-the-art bioanalytical techniques for advanced chemical and pharmacological profiling of complex extracts. This includes high-resolution bioactivity profiling and ligand fishing for identification of bioactive constituents in crude extracts - followed by HPLC-PDA-HRMS-SPE-NMR analysis for full structural identification.
