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Veronika completed her PhD in Chemistry at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln under the supervision of Dr. James Takacs. In her PhD thesis work, Veronika studied oxime-directed catalytic asymmetric transformations and discovered reaction conditions for highly substituted olefins with formation of unprecedented hydroboration and hydrogenation products. After completing her PhD and a brief stint at Genentech, Veronika joined Amit Choudhary's lab at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard as a Damon Runyon Fellow.
While at Broad, Veronika designed and synthesized first-in-class phosphorylation-inducing bifunctional small molecules (PHICS) that enabled kinases to introduce known and novel phosphorylations on the target proteins. These proof-of-concept studies demonstrated that induction of proximity between kinase and protein-of-interest can lead to therapeutically relevant functional outcomes and became the foundation of the bifunctional molecule-focused platform company Photys Therapeutics. Veronika has also collaborated with scientists from Stuart Schreiber, David Liu, Eric Fisher, Benjamin Ebert and Bridget Wagner groups and co-authored several patents and publications focused on reduction of PROTAC off-targets, relocalization of target proteins with small bifunctional molecules, targeted transcriptional regulation, design of prodrugs and Zn-ionophores, as well as development of novel compact protein degradation tags (degrons) via phage-assisted continuous evolution. Discoveries that Veronika contributed to during her work at Broad Instituted are being actively explored to develop novel therapeutics for treatment of cancer, infectious diseases and diabetes.
Veronika is now a scientist at General Proximity, supporting chemistry and platform teams, prioritizing targets, and exercising her experience in proximity-induction by designing and testing new bifunctional molecules. In her free time, Veronika likes kayaking, watching stand-up comedy, reading fiction, searching for “the best Ramen place,” and exploring various art exhibits.
