About me

Hello, my name is Povilas and I am a Senior Bioinformatics Data Scientist at BenevolentAI. I have contributed to a number of projects associated with drug design, development and action. You can find my resume here.

Research

I have started my research career at a time when interdisciplinarity was a way to go. I graduated BSc Biophysics at Vilnius University in Lithuania. At the Vilnius University Insitute of Biotechnology, Department of Biothermodynamics and Drug Design led by Prof. Daumantas Matulis I investigated the basic principles of hydrophobic effect (one of the key forms of interaction between drugs and their targets) using detergents as a simple model. During this time I gradually shifted my focus to molecular modelling and cheminformatics.

After graduation, I had an opportunity to do a year internship at The Houston Methodist Research Institute, Department of Nanomedicine. Here I investigated compatibility principles between drugs and nanoparticles as well as possible mechanism behind cancer prevention using NSAIDs (Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, think aspirin).

After coming back to Lithuania I have continued working at the Department of Biothermodynamics and Drug Design. Here I have established a database of several hundred ligands developed at the department as well as their cheminformatics analysis routines.

As a Wellcome Trust PhD student in Dr. Filipe Cabreiro and Dr. Kevin Bryson groups at UCL I have developed experimental and computational approaches to investigate Drug-Host-Microbiota-Diet interaction in a C. elegans-E. coli model. I have created data analysis, modelling and visualisation pipelines in R & Python for high-throughput omics studies. This work has resulted in two publications in Cell.

Currently I work as a Senior Bioinformatics Data Scientist at BenevolentAI. I contribute to the development of disease endotyping and patient stratification methods which rely on omics data.

Interests

In my free time I practice Wu style Tai Chi Chuan, travel as much as I can, go on an occassional diving trip and savour fine things in life (friends, food, books and art). My resolution is to live as happily, healthy and long as I can. stiklainiai

Publications

Pryor R., Norvaisas P. et al. “Host-Microbe-Drug-Nutrient Screen Identifies Bacterial Effectors of Metformin Therapy”, Cell, vol. 178, pp. 129-1312. Sep. 2019.
Norvaisas P. & Cabreiro F. “Pharmacology in the Age of the Holobiont”, Current Opinion in Systems Biology, vol. 10, pp. 34–42. May 2018.
Scott, T. A., Quintaneiro, L. M., Norvaisas, P., Lui, P. P. et al. “Host-Microbe Co-metabolism Dictates Cancer Drug Efficacy in C. elegans”, Cell, vol. 169, no. 40, pp. 1–15. Apr. 2017.
Hastings J. et al. “WormJam: A consensus C. elegans Metabolic Reconstruction and Metabolomics Community and Workshop Series”, Worm, vol. 6, no. 2, e1373939, Apr. 2017.
Skvarnavicius G. et al., “High pressure spectrofluorimetry – a tool to determine protein-ligand binding volume”, Journal of Physics Conference Series 2017, col. 950, no. 4, pp. 42001, 2017.
Norvaisas P. et al., “The protein kinase promiscuities in the cancer-preventive mechanisms of NSAIDs”, European Journal of Cancer Prevention, vol. 25, no. 1, pp. 77-84, Jan. 2016.
Zubriene A. et al., “Intrinsic thermodynamics of 4-substituted-2,3,5,6-tetrafluorobenzenesulfonamide binding to carbonic anhydrases by isothermal titration calorimetry”, Biophysical Chemistry, vol. 205, no. 8, pp. 51-65, Oct. 2015.
Timm D. et al., “Intrinsic Thermodynamics-Structure Correlation of Carbonic Anhydrase Inhibitors”, Biophysical Journal, vol. 108, no. 2, pp. 217, Jan. 2015.
Dudutiene V. et al., “Discovery and characterization of novel selective inhibitors of carbonic anhydrase IX”, Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, vol. 55, no. 22, pp. 9435-9446, Nov. 2014.
Norvaisas P. & Ziemys A., “The role of payload hydrophobicity in nanotherapeutic pharmacokinetics”, Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences, vol. 103, no. 7, pp. 2147-56, Mar. 2014.
Norvaisas P., Kojic M., Milosevic M. \& Ziemys A. “Prediction and analysis of drug delivery systems: from drug-vector compatibility to release kinetics”, CRS Newsletter, vol. 30, no. 5, pp. 14-15, Sep. 2013.
Norvaisas P. & Kisdi E., “Revisiting Santa Rosalia to unfold a degeneracy of classic models of speciation”, The American Naturalist, vol. 180, no. 3, pp. 388-393, Sep. 2012.
Norvaisas P., Petrauskas V., & Matulis D., “Thermodynamics of cationic and anionic surfactant interaction”, The Journal of Physical Chemistry B, vol. 116, no. 7, pp. 2138-44, Feb. 2012.

Contact me

Feel free to contact me via email: povilas.norvaisas drawing gmail.com