Uladzimir (Vladi) Barayeu
Uladzimir has received a Diploma with distinction in Pharmaceutical Chemistry in Minsk, Belarus. In Minsk, he specialized in free radical chemistry under the supervision of Oleg Shadyro. He then obtained a fellowship to pursue a Master’s course in molecular spectroscopy at Lille1 University in France and Leipzig University in Germany under the supervision of Maria Fedorova. For his PhD, he obtained a Helmholtz fellowship and joined the lab of Tobias Dick at German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg, Germany. For his PhD thesis, he was awarded The Richtzenhain Doctoral Prize. After finishing his PhD, Uladzimir joined the lab of the pioneer of sulfur redox biology Takaaki Akaike in Sendai, Japan as a Humboldt-JSPS fellow. In the summer of 2024, Uladzimir joined the Max Plank Institute of Polymer Research as a Group Leader.
Research interests
Free radical reactions occur constantly in living systems and are tightly controlled. Biomolecules such as proteins and lipids are modified by radicals. Collagen undergoes free radical reactions when chemical bonds are broken under mechanical stress. Using EPR and mass spectroscopy analysis, we study the modification products and how these modifications affect the collagen structure. Another radical process is lipid peroxidation and the resulting cell death ferroptosis. Using cellular and liposomal model systems, we study how lipid peroxidation is initiated in cells and how it is controlled. One of the major radical defense systems relies on poly-sulfur species. We study how poly-sulfur species control the cellular landscape of free radical reactions. The fundamental understanding of free radical processes in living systems would allow us to develop new approaches to control them in pathological conditions when they go out of balance.