Helena Safavi
Associate Professor
Department of Biomedical Sciences, Molecular Cardiology and Membrane Proteinsthe, University of Copenhagen in Denmark
Biography
Compounds from animal venoms are invaluable in research, providing important drug leads and helping to reveal critical signaling pathways in health and disease. While past discoveries are significant, the future holds even greater potential. Our research focuses on accelerating the discovery and characterization of venom compounds using advanced computational and experimental tools.
We apply transcriptomics, proteomics, and novel software to uncover bioactive peptides from over 100 venomous marine snails. Our focus is on peptides resembling human hormones, such as venom insulins and neurotensins, which offer rapid pathways from research to therapeutic applications. Notably, we identified Con-Ins G1, a venom insulin from Conus geographus used for prey capture, which provides insights into insulin receptor activation and diabetes treatment. We are also exploring venom-derived GPCR ligands for their therapeutic potential and developing optimized venom peptide production system.
