Last Friday, Alexander Veljko Fejzagić defended his dissertation extremely successfully. In his doctoral thesis, Alexander advanced the research in the group 'Secondary Metabolism Enzymology' in the field of vanadium-dependent haloperoxidases. He developed fluorescence assays and worked in the HaloEnz consortium (BioSC) on new haloperoxidases, including one that suffers less from substrate inhibition. However, Alex's contribution to IBOC is not limited to his scientific findings; he has also been active as a laboratory manager in enzymology. We thank Alex in particular for his direct and unsparing but always contructive words. In this way, he made an important contribution to guiding the institute through the pandemic.
Meanwhile, Boehringer benefits from Alex's expertise and inventiveness. We are pleased that your talents were quickly recognised.
We thank you for your time together, your commitment and wish you all the best for the next steps. Thank you also for having so much confidence in a young working group at that time.
Alex's scientific findings:
[1] A. V. Fejzagić et al. Molecules 2019, 24, 4008; 'Halogenating Enzymes for Active Agent Synthesis: First Steps Are Done and Many Have to Follow'
[2] A. V. Fejzagić et al. ChemistryOpen 2020, 9, 959-966; 'A Fluorescence‐Based Assay System for the Determination of Haloperoxidase‐Activity Using a Two‐Dimensional Calibration Approach'
[3] N. Huwa [...] A. V. Fejzagić et al., Biomolecules 2022, 12, 1126; 'The Crystal Structure of the Defense Conferring Rice Protein Os JAC1 Reveals a Carbohydrate Binding Site on the Dirigent-like Domain'
[4] N. Porta, A. V. Fejzagić et al., Catalysts 2022, 12, 1195; 'Identification and Characterization of the Haloperoxidase VPO-RR from Rhodoplanes roseus by Genome Mining and Structure-Based Catalytic Site Mapping'