The Latvian Academy of Sciences (LZA) has awarded one of the most significant science achievements in Latvia in 2021 to our study “Development of a method for structural characterization of antigens coupled to virus-like particles in vaccine formulations”.
On June 13, 2019 we lost our colleague Edvards Liepiņš, an outstanding scientist, NMR spectroscopist, teacher and mentor. The journal Chemistry of Heterocyclic Compounds has published our In Memoriam in his honour.
In preparation for the celebration of Latvia’s 100th anniversary on 18th November 2018, the national TV was interviewing young scientists, who have returned to Latvia after spending several years abroad, among them, our group leader Kristaps Jaudzems.
On February 16, 2018 the Latvian Academy of Sciences (LZA) and the Science Foundation held the award ceremony of the most significant science achievements in Latvia in 2017. One of the prizes was awarded to Kristaps Jaudzems and Martins Otikovs for “Determination of the molecular mechanism of spider silk formation and assessment of the degree of biomimicry of artificial spider silk spinning”.
Kristaps Jaudzems receives the diploma from Inese Čakstiņa.
Latvian Academy of Sciences has announced 12 most important achievements of 2017 in Latvian science. Among them is our study on the determination of the molecular mechanism of spider silk formation and assessment of the degree of biomimicry of artificial spider silk spinning, which was carried out in collaboration with Karolinska Institute in Sweden (Karolinska Institutet) and Institute of Analytical Sciences in France (Institut des Sciences Analytiques).
Spider silk is a high-performance material with perspective applications in a range of areas from biomedicine to construction. The spiders spin their web from silk fibres that are made of proteins. Thus far, the process of the spider silk fibre formation was incompletely understood, making it difficult to develop effective technologies for the production of artificial spider silk. Researchers at LIOS have studied the process of native spider silk spinning and established the mechanism of molecular transformations that ensure controlled conversion of soluble silk proteins into solid fibres. The acquired knowledge was used to assess the degree of biomimicry of state-of-the-art approaches for artificial spider silk spinning, allowing to propose improved technologies for the production artificial spider silk.
The achievement was featured in the newspaper Latvijas Avīze, as well as on national TV (LTV Rīta Panorāma) and on skaties.lv.
