Eva Smorodina

TL;DR: I'm a PhD with a computational structural biology background and expertise in protein design, molecular modeling, and drug discovery across academia, industry, and investments, currently enhancing my skills in entrepreneurship and VC and contributing to bio- and eco-tech innovation and education. I'm a computational structural biologist with a diverse background in protein design and molecular modeling. Currently, I'm a PhD Research Fellow in Immunology at the University of Oslo (UiO). My global goal is to understand how molecular structures determine their function and to apply this knowledge to create novel molecules using complementary computational and experimental techniques. My academic journey began at the Faculty of Bioengineering and Bioinformatics at Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU), where I quickly gravitated toward research. Over the years, I have worked with a wide range of systems (such as small molecules, RNA, DNA, membrane systems, intrinsically disordered proteins, antibodies, and designed proteins) across multiple laboratories in different countries. These include Virtual Structural Biology Group at MSU (Russia), Strodel Group at Forschungszentrum Jülich (Germany), Ovchinnikov Lab at Harvard (USA), Laboratory of Molecular Architecture at MIT (USA), Computational and Systems Immunology Lab at UiO (Norway), and Baker Lab at IPD (USA). Outside academia, I've been actively engaged in roles related to industry, investments, and entrepreneurship. I've gained valuable practical experience at several biotech companies (BIOCAD, Biosim.AI, 310.ai), where I advanced my skills in chemoinformatics, molecular dynamics, and artificial intelligence for drug design. Apart from that, I'm part of a volunteering, non-profit organization called Nucleate, which empowers the next generation of bio- and eco-tech leaders by educating today’s academic trainees. The educational topics cover entrepreneurship, IP, innovation, business development, fundraising, and spin-outing, among others. At Nucleate, I'm the co-Director of Partnerships at the Global Virtual Activator and co-Managing Director of the emerging chapter of Nucleate in Norway. Additionally, I'm an Investment Fellow at Amino Collective, a Berlin-based investment firm focused on new biotech breakthroughs, where I provide technical consulting on protein design, AI in biotech, and computational structural biology and am involved in various early-career VC activities (due diligence, founder calls, sourcing, pitch deck analysis, and more).