Deep in Siberia, a community known as Akademgorodok was established as a center for scientific research. At its height, the town supported more than 65,000 scientists across various disciplines, including molecular biology and cybernetics. This environment shaped the upbringing of Kirill Medvedev, who has recently joined the University of Central Florida (UCF) as an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science.
Medvedev credits his hometown with sparking his interest in bioinformatics. “The constant exposure to open, curiosity-driven inquiry made the language of science feel as natural as the Siberian forest around us,” he said. “My passion for bioinformatics and computational biology was ignited by a fascination with three-dimensional protein structures. I realized that computational approaches are indispensable for decoding life’s molecular machines, and it set me on the path toward research in the field of computational structural biology and bioinformatics.”
His research centers on classifying and analyzing large biomedical data sets at multiple biological levels. He is teaching Discrete Mathematics at UCF this fall and aims to provide students with both practical skills and insights into scientific work. “I hope to share with my students not only the course knowledge but also my experience of being a scientist,” Medvedev said.
He emphasized ethics in science: “I believe that integrity is the defining characteristic of a scientist.”
Medvedev has developed DrugDomain, a database cataloging features of human proteins targeted by drugs. He enhanced this resource using artificial intelligence to predict protein structures, enabling mapping of post-translational modifications relevant to drug targets throughout the human proteome. His methods also involve computational modeling for cancer analysis and deep learning techniques to identify cancer subtypes.
Medvedev cited collaboration opportunities as his main reason for joining UCF: “I was interested in the University of Central Florida because it’s such a dynamic and fast-growing research hub — one that actively promotes collaboration among researchers.” He added: “Today, truly groundbreaking science cannot be done by one person, or even one lab, but only through collaboration among multidisciplinary teams.”
He received his doctoral degree from the Institute of Cytology and Genetics in 2015 before completing postdoctoral work at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center under Professor Nick Grishin.
Doctoral students interested in working with Medvedev are encouraged to contact him via email; while some background in biology or biochemistry is helpful, it is not mandatory.
