Nitsche Group

Designing peptides and small proteins that bind cancer-cell receptors and diagnostic or therapeutic radiometals directly, without large chelators, for use in cancer theranostics.

Metallopeptides are promising next-generation diagnostics and therapeutics in oncology and beyond. This project uses phage display to discover metal-binding peptides for rapid metallopeptide screening.

Designing metallopeptoid biomimetic catalysts using non-endogenous metals, building on our discovery that short metal-binding peptides act as mini-enzymes with Michaelis-Menten kinetics.

Investigating how multi-cysteine and selenocysteine-containing peptides interact with thiophilic metals such as bismuth, to selectively construct multicyclic peptide architectures via reversible metal coordination.

This project targets broad-spectrum antiviral drug development by designing and testing molecules that inhibit viral proteases—key enzymes in RNA virus replication—using covalent “warheads” like alpha-ketoamides to identify new therapeutic leads.