Dr. Ludmila Buzhansky in 2002 completed her Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry within Tel Aviv University’s School of Chemistry. She then joined the FP5 Chemag-EU international multidisciplinary consortium as a post-doc research fellow in the Chemistry Department at Bar-Ilan University. For three years, working with Prof. Jean-Paul Lellouche, Dr. Buzhansky focused her research on developing and commercializing functional bionanomaterials for applications in biology, health, and diagnostics. In 2006 Dr. Buzhansky was appointed to head the chemistry laboratory at Scent Detection Technologies Ltd., a nanotech startup that developed an artificial-nose-like device. At SDT she supervised organic and analytical chemistry and electrochemistry units.
The following year Dr. Buzhansky was engaged by Prof. Ehud Gazit to set up, build and lead the organic synthetic chemistry lab at the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology within the Faculty of Life Sciences at Tel Aviv University. Dr. Buzhansky led a broad range of projects, including three major industry- and EU-funded projects: (i) Development of Alzheimer's disease therapeutics (QSAR-based design, synthesis and assay of new lead compound analogs). The program was funded by Merz Pharma GmbH; (ii) Design and synthesis of a library of tumor-selective analogs of a native somatostatin for active therapeutic and diagnostic targeting, in frame of SaveMe, a large-scale international collaborative consortium, recognized by the Seventh Framework Program as a Success Story project. (iii) Design of a synthetic scheme and accomplishment of total synthesis of 9-cis beta-carotene, novel therapeutic molecules for neuroretinal-degeneration diseases. The project, a collaboration with Dr. Ygal Rotenstreich at the Maurice and Gabriela Goldschleger Eye Institute of Sheba Medical Center within Tel Hashomer Hospital, was the winning program within the National Network of Excellence in Neuroscience, established and funded by Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd.
Additionally, Dr. Buzhansky has led and supervised a series of academic and collaborative industrial-academic projects. These include:
- Synthesis of de-novo-designed diverse families of chemical chaperons, a new concept drug candidate
- Development and characterization of an innovative bioengineering material: a natural-synthetic polymeric nanofiber hydrogel hybrid comprised of hyaluronic acid and the intrinsic self-assembling peptide FmocFF (N-fluorenylmethoxycarbonyl-di-phenylalanine). The project was a collaboration with Prof. Zvi Nevo of the Faculty of Medicine at Tel Aviv University’s School of Medicine;
- Development of conceptually novel hydrogel-based nanoparticles for controllable drug delivery;
- Development and synthesis of several series of 1,4-naphthoquinon-2-yl-l-tryptophan (NQTrp) analogs with the goal of improving small-molecule inhibitors of Aβ aggregation for treating Alzheimer’s disease;
- Led biomed sub-projects within the Focal Technology Area on Nanomedicines for Personalized Theranostics. This is a consortium of 11 research laboratories at several universities aimed develop nanometer-sized drug-delivery systems for theranostics (therapy and diagnostics) of angiogenesis-dependent diseases such as cancer, inflammation and cardiovascular diseases in a personalized manner.
Now, as managing director at the Blavatnik Center for Drug Discovery, leading efforts to solve problems and implement solutions, Dr. Buzhansky plays a key role on the Center’s Chemistry Team.
