Dr. Katritch is a computational biologist and computational chemist focused on development and application of 3D molecular modeling and bioinformatics tools to explore structure, function and pharmacology of membrane proteins and specifically of the GPCR superfamily.
Dr. Katritch received Ph.D. in Biophysics & Molecular Biology from Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. Following postdoctoral training at the Chemistry Department of Rutgers University, and a position of Director of Computational Biology at SiGA Technologies Inc., Dr. Katritch joined the research faculty of the UCSD School of Pharmacy and San Diego Supercomputer Center, and then Department of Integrative Structural and Computational Biology at The Scripps Research Institute.
Research in his group at USC involves deciphering molecular mechanisms of GPCR signaling, computer-assisted design of receptors with improved thermostability and other beneficial properties, as well as discovery of selective small molecule modulators of GPCR activity as chemical probes and lead candidates for drug discovery.