Anita Kovacs

B.S. in Chemistry, Bioinorganic Chemistry program
University of Szeged, Szeged, Hungary

M.S. in Chemistry, Pharmaceutical Chemistry program
University of Szeged, Szeged, Hungary

Ph.D. in Theoretical Medicine
University of Szeged, Szeged, Hungary

Medicinal Chemistry lecture and lab

Organic Chemistry lecture and lab

General Chemistry lecture and lab

Preparatory Chemistry lecture and lab

Dr Kovacs is an Assistant Professor in Medicinal and Organic Chemistry at Wenzhou-Kean University since 2020 August. She received her B.S. in Chemistry degree in Bioinorganic Chemistry in 2010, her M.S. in Chemistry degree in Pharmaceutical Chemistry in 2012 and her PhD degree in Theoretical Medicine in 2019, all of them at University of Szeged, Hungary.

She has been involved in several research and basic drug discovery programs since 2010. Her first job was chemical synthesis and to identify key chemical procedures by using bioinformatic databases. Later she joined to develop novel chemical synthetic approaches to prepare drug-like compounds and she was also involved in synthesizing different heterocyclic compounds.

One of her main projects was to make different luciferin derivatives. She has skills for different chemical solutions, including peptide synthesis and medicinal chemistry. She had been one of the key persons in the analytics of different projects with her experience in HPLC and mass spectrometry technologies.

She had taught Medicinal Chemistry for 10 years for Medical and Dentistry students.

She has joined as a Visiting Assistant Professor to Dr Lixiong Dai’s research group at Wenzhou Institute of Chinese Academy of Sciences in February 2021. She is working on metal ion chelates for biomedical imaging and therapy applications.

• development of protecting group combinations for the synthesis of trifunctional amino acids containing O-Glycopeptides
• synthesis of Urocortin-3 fragments and analogues with potential anti-amnesic effects
• synthesis of Cathelicidin fragments and analogues with potential antimicrobial effects
• development of synthesis methods for peptide-6-amino-D-luciferin conjugates for detection of peptidase activity

• analysis of enzyme kinetics and metabolism with liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry
• PACAP stability testing
• synthesis of cysteic acid containing peptides
• metal ion chelates for biomedical imaging and therapy applications

PUBLICATION LIST

• Imidazo[1,2-b]pyrazole-7-Carboxamide Derivative Induces Differentiation-Coupled Apoptosis of Immature Myeloid Cells Such as Acute Myeloid Leukemia and Myeloid-Derived Suppressor Cells

Edit Kotogány, József Á.Balog, Lajos I. Nagy, Róbert Alföldi, Valeria Bertagnolo, Federica Brugnoli, András Demjén, Anita K. Kovács, Péter Batár, Gabriella Mezei, Renáta Szabó, Iván Kanizsai, Csaba Varga, László G. Puskás and Gábor J. Szebeni; Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2020, 21(14), 5135; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms21145135

• Stability Test of PACAP in Eye Drops

Anita K. Kovacs, Tamas Atlasz, Dora Werling, Edina Szabo, Dora Reglodi, Gabor K. Toth, Journal of Molecular Neuroscience, https://doi.org/10.1007/s12031-020-01532-9, accepted on the 12th of March 2020

• Single cell mass cytometry revealed the immunomodulatory effect of cisplatin via downregulation of splenic CD44+, IL-17A+ MDSCs and promotion of circulating IFN-γ+ myeloid cells in the 4T1 metastatic breast cancer model

József Á. Balog, László Hackler Jr., Anita K. Kovács, Patrícia Neuperger, Róbert Alföldi, Lajos I. Nagy, László G. Puskás, Gábor J. Szebeni; Int J Mol Sci. 2019 Dec 25;21(1). pii: E170. doi: 10.3390/ijms21010170.

• Synthesis of N-peptide-6-amino-D-luciferin conjugates with optimized fragment condensation strategy

Anita K. Kovács, Péter Hegyes, Gábor J. Szebeni, Krisztián Bogár, László G. Puskás, Gábor K. Tóth; Int J Pept Res Ther (2018), doi.org/10.1007/s10989-018-9768-8

• Synthesis of N-peptide-6-amino-D-luciferin Conjugates

Anita K. Kovács, Péter Hegyes, Gábor J. Szebeni, Lajos I. Nagy, László G. Puskás, Gábor K. Tóth; Front. Chem. (2018), doi: 10.3389/fchem.2018.00120

• Lewis acid-catalyzed diastereoselective synthesis of multisubstituted N- acylaziridine-2-carboxamides from 2H-azirines via Joullié–Ugi three-component reaction

Anikó Angyal, Andras Demjen, Edit Wéber, Anita K. Kovacs, Janos Wolfling, Laszlo G. Puskas, Ivan Kanizsai; J. Org. Chem., (2018), doi: 10.1021/acs.joc.7b03189

• Antiamnesic properties of analogs and mimetics of the tripeptide human urocortin 3

Gyula Telegdy, Anita Kármen Kovács,·Kinga Rákosi, Márta Zarándi, Gábor K. Tóth;

Amino Acids (2016) 48:2261–2266, doi: 10.1007/s00726-016-2268-2

GRANTS

• 2021 – ongoing IRSPG202110 Wenzhou-Kean University 2021 Internal (Faculty/Staff) Research Support Programs, Synthesis of luminescence based peptide probes 50 000 RNB – Principal Investigator
• 07.01-2020.07.31. 2018-2.1.3-EUREKA-2018-00016 Functional genomic and enzymatic profiling of mitochondria from oxidative stressed biological samples 335 000 USD – Participant
• 04.01- 2021.10.31 Ministry of Human Capacities, Hungary grant 20391-3/2018/FEKUSTRAT, Drug research 154 411 USD – Participant
• 09 01-2020.11.29 EFOP-3.6.2-16-2017-00006 Live Longer, Selective peptide ion channel blockers 132 770 USD – Participant
• 07.01 -2022.06.30 MTA TKI Biomimetic systems 487 857 USD – Participant
• 09.22-2021.08.28 GINOP 2.3.2-15-2016-00014 Evolutionarily optimized antibacterial foldamers: from chemical building blocks to system biology. 241 120 USD – Participant
• 05.02-2021.01.30 GINOP 2.2.1-15-2016-00009 Reagent and service package for the investigations of drug ADME properties 183 268 USD – Participant
• 12.01-2017.11.31 National Brain Research Program KTIA_13_NAP-A-llI/8. Drug Development Program: Inhibitors of Neurodegeneration and Enhancers of Cognition and Mood 328 547 USD – Participant
• 01.01-2014.09.30 GOP-1.1.1-11-2012-0454 Optimalization and application of modern test methods of metabolism and tissue distribution in preclinical research and development of active pharmaceutical ingredients 416 000 USD – Participant

CREATIVE WORK

• Science Seminars and Undergraduate/Graduate Biotechnology Symposium Committee member