Overview

Google Scholar Profile (h-index 35)

The Molecular Biophysics Department at B.Verkin Institute for Low Temperature Physics and Engineering of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (ILTPE) was organized in 1968 on the Academician Verkin B.I. initiative. From the Department foundation, it was headed by Professor Blagoi Y.P.

Since 2000, Professor, Corresponding member of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine Karachevtsev Victor Alekseevich is the head of the Department. With his coming, a new perspective scientific direction is being actively developed, namely, research of nanobiostructures based on carbon nanomaterials (fullerenes, nanotubes, graphene and its derivatives).

The main research area of the Molecular Biophysics department is related to the field of nanobiophysics, focusing on the creation and study of the biophysical properties of nanobiostructures, which are formed as a result of the interaction of carbon nanostructures with biomolecules of various structures and various functional properties. The studies are based on a combination of modern experimental and theoretical methods, as well as on participation in international scientific cooperation.

The relevance of the research is justified by the need to obtain the full information about the nanobiostructures with unique biophysical properties thus opening up new prospects for their use in nanomedicine, pharmacology, in the development of new miniature and sensitive biosensors. Such studies are aimed at improving the level of human life, more efficient use of energy resources, and protecting the environment from harmful pollution.

To provide a modern research experimental methods such as luminescence spectroscopy in the visible and near-infrared ranges, Raman spectroscopy, low-temperature infrared spectroscopy of biomolecules isolated in matrixes of inert gases, mass spectrometry, differential spectroscopy of light absorption in the UV and visible ranges, as well as quantum-chemical calculations and computer simulation are applied. Various biochemical and nanobiotechnological methods are used to create new nanobiostructures.

At present the staff of the Department is 18 coworkers. Among them are 4 Doctors of Sciences (Karachevtsev V.A., Stepanian S.G., Kosevich M.V., Rubin Yu.V.), 9 Candidates of Sciences (PhD) (Glamazda A.Yu., Ivanov A.Yu., Karachevtsev M.V., Kurnosov N.V., Pashinskaya V.A., Plokhotnichenko A.M., Ryazanova O.A., Usenko E.L., Shelkovsky V.S.), junior researcher Boryak O.A. and 4 engineers: Valeev V.A., Voloshin I.V., Linnik A.S., Orlov. V.V.

• Professors Yu.P. Blagoi and V.A. Sorokin for the series of works "Fundamental physical properties of biopolymers that determine their functioning" (2008);
• Professor V.A. Karachevtsev for the series of works “Quantum Effects and Structural Self-Organization in New Multifunctional Nanomaterials” (2012).

In 2009 the first international scientific conference "Nanobiophysics: Fundamental and Applied Aspects" was organized due to the efforts of scientists of the Molecular Biophysics Department of the B. Verkin Institute for Low Temperature Physics and Engineering of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and the Department of Physics of Biological Systems of the Institute of Physics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. The following five conferences were organized on biannual basis in Kiev and Kharkov alternately.

1. 1. I.A. Levitsky, W.B. Euler, V.A. Karachevtsev Photophysics of Carbon Nanotubes Interfaced with Organic and Inorganic Materials, Springer-Verlag London 2012, 177 p.
2. 2. Nanobiophysics: Fundamentals and Applications, V.A. Karachevtsev (Ed.), Pan Stanford Publishing Pte Ltd., Singapore; 2015, 380 p
3. 3. Сорокін В.О.: Благой Ю.П., Веселков О.Н., Волков С.Н., Говорун Д.М.,. Євстигнєєв М.П, Жураківський Р.О. , Корнелюк О.І., Малєєв В.Я., Семенов М.О., Сорокін В.О., Харкянен В.М., Христофоров Л.М., Шестопалова Г.В. Фізичні принципи молекулярної організації і структурної динаміки біополімерів, за ред.. В.Я. Малєєв.- Х.: ХНУ імені В.Н. Каразіна, 2012. 352 с.

1. Creation and study of the biophysical properties of new nanobiostructures, which are formed due to the interaction of carbon nanotubes or graphene oxide with biomolecules of different structures.
2. Determination of the structural and energy characteristics of nanobiostructures formed by carbon nanomaterials with biopolymers or their components using spectroscopy, quantum-mechanical calculations and computer simulation.
3. Low-temperature FTIR spectroscopy of isolated biomolecules and their nanoscale complexes.
4. Mass-spectrometric studies of biological molecules.