Mazlum Budak
Ph.D. Student
Curriculum Vitae
since 2023
PhD student at the Computational Biochemistry Group at IBI-7: Structural Biochemistry, Forschungszentrum Jülich, Germany.
2022 – 2023
Research Internship at the Sanchez Garcia group, TU Dortmund, Germany.
2017 – 2020
MSc in Biochemistry at the University of Bielefeld, Germany. The MSc thesis was supervised by Prof. Dr. Harald Gröger/ Prof. Dr. Takayoshi Arai (Chiba University, Japan)
2014 – 2017
BSc in Biochemistry at the University of Bielefeld, Germany. The BSc thesis was supervised by Prof. Dr. Norbert Sewald
Contact Details
Forschungszentrum Jülich
IBI-7: Structural Biochemistry
52425 Jülich
Germany
Tel.: +49 2461 61-9477
Email: m.budak@fz-juelich.de
Research interests
- Computer-aided drug design of radiopharmaceuticals for specific cancer diseases
- Investigation of the SAR (Structure-Activity Relationship) and simulation of various physiological parameters
Ph.D. Project
In collaboration with the University Hospital Düsseldorf, we aim to develop and optimize novel radiopharmaceuticals in Jülich using computer-aided systems and MD simulations. Our goal is to investigate the affinity of these radiopharmaceuticals for tumor markers on cancer cells, particularly PSMA (prostate-specific membrane antigen) and FAP (fibroblast activation protein-α). FAP is expressed in over 90% of human epithelial tumors and holds promise as a therapeutic target for breast cancer. PSMA is overexpressed in prostate tissues and serves as an effective diagnostic and therapeutic target for prostate cancer. Our research focuses on understanding the binding behavior of the newly designed radiopharmaceuticals to these tumor markers and investigating the structure–activity relationship. Additionally, through docking experiments and various molecular simulation parameterizations, we intend to calculate and explore the physiological and energetic forces acting on the radiopharmaceuticals to evaluate their therapeutic potential.
