Ivana Drienovksá is assistant professor of Biomimetic Chemistry.
Drienovská Group (Chemical Biology and Biocatalysis)
The group aims to deliver versatile biocatalytic platforms with relevance for drug synthesis, sustainable chemical transformations, and chemical biology.
Research in the Drienovská Group focuses on expanding the catalytic potential of enzymes beyond what is accessible in nature. We combine genetic code expansion, protein engineering, and mechanistic enzymology to create new-to-nature biocatalysts with tailored reactivity, selectivity, and function. By incorporating non-canonical amino acids into proteins, we introduce novel chemical functionalities into enzyme active sites, enabling catalytic strategies unavailable to the natural amino acid repertoire. These approaches allow the design of artificial and hybrid catalytic systems, including organocatalytic and photocatalytic enzymes, in which non-natural functionalities are directly integrated into the protein scaffold. In parallel, we investigate fundamental questions at the interface of chemistry and biology, including how new catalytic functions emerge, how enzyme mechanisms can be reprogrammed, and how protein environments can be engineered to operate under non-natural reaction conditions.
More information about my research and publications can be found in my research portal profile
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