Daniel W Kneller

Bio

Daniel Kneller is a protein structural biologist and biochemist. His primary research focus is to investigate the inhibition, catalysis, and drug resistance mechanisms of viral protease therapeutic targets. Protonation state changes when proteins interact with ligands are directly illuminated using neutron crystallography. Another research aim is to develop new techniques to study protein-ligand complex dynamics at femtosecond-picosecond timescales using neutron vibrational spectroscopy in combination with advanced all-atom molecular dynamics simulations. These efforts aid structure-guided drug design for proteins including SARS-CoV-2 main protease and HIV-1 protease, the etiological agents of the COVID-19 and AIDS pandemics respectfully.