Rate My Professor Robert Konrat

Robert Konrat is a Professor of Structural Biology in the Department of Structural and Computational Biology at the University of Vienna and Group Leader at the Max Perutz Laboratories. He completed his studies in Chemistry at Karl-Franzens University of Graz, obtaining both his diploma and PhD in 1987. After a postdoctoral fellowship at the Institute de Chimie Organique, Universite de Lausanne from 1989 to 1991, he served as Universitätsassistent at the Institute of Organic Chemistry, Leopold-Franzens University of Innsbruck from 1993 to 2001. Since 2001, he has held the position of Full Professor at the University of Vienna's Institute of Biomolecular Structural Chemistry, now the Department of Structural and Computational Biology, and Guest Professor at the University of Innsbruck's Center for Molecular Biophysics. He has also been a visiting scientist at the University of Toronto and held visiting professorships at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, University of Barcelona, and University of California, San Diego.

Konrat's research centers on computational biology and biomolecular NMR spectroscopy, focusing on the structural dynamics, conformational ensembles of intrinsically disordered proteins, protein-ligand interactions, and fragment-based drug design. His work addresses protein plasticity and biological processes relevant to diseases including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and infectious diseases like COVID-19. Notable publications include "High-resolution structural information of membrane-bound α-synuclein provides insight into the MoA of the anti-Parkinson drug UCB0599" (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2023), "PI by NMR: Probing CH-π Interactions in Protein-Ligand Complexes by NMR Spectroscopy" (Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 2020), "The Anti-Histamine Azelastine, Identified by Computational Drug Repurposing, Inhibits Infection by Major Variants of SARS-CoV-2" (Frontiers in Pharmacology, 2022), and "Compensatory adaptations of structural dynamics in an intrinsically disordered protein complex" (Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 2014). Awards include the Novartis Prize for Chemistry (2000), Preis der Landeshauptstadt Innsbruck für wissenschaftliche Forschung (1998), and second place Houska Prize (2023). He is an elected corresponding member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and has supervised eighteen PhD students.