The New Director of VU LSC Daumantas Matulis: Our Community Is Strong and Ambitious

The Council of Vilnius University Life Sciences Center has announced that Dr Daumantas Matulis, Senior Researcher at the Institute of Biotechnology of the Vilnius University Life Sciences Center (VU LSC), has become the Director-elect.

'I thank the Council for its confidence. It will be a great challenge for me to ensure that the achievements of our Centre continue to improve at the same pace. Our community is strong and ambitious, and together we can do a lot,' said the Director-elect, introducing himself to the VU LSC community. Moreover, he thanked the current head of the VU LSC, Prof. Dr Gintaras Valinčius, for his work.

Prof. D. Matulis expressed his delight that VU LSC scientists are able to compare their achievements and research papers with those of the most known universities while having many times less small budgets.

He invited the VU LSC community to remain focused on achieving common goals and overcoming external challenges, such as the war in Ukraine.

'Let's support each other and understand that we will have to deal with challenges that might not be able to influence,' said the Director-elect.

D. Matulis was born in 1970 in Vilnius, graduated from Vilnius University in 1993 with a Bachelor's and Master's degree in Biochemistry, and completed his PhD in 1998 at the University of Minnesota, USA, where he became a postdoctoral fellow in Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Molecular Biology.

Since 2001, D. Matulis has worked for Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research and Development, a drug development company in the USA. In 2005, he returned to Lithuania and headed the Biothermodynamics and Drug Discovery Unit at the Institute of Biochemistry at the VU LSC.

Prof. D. Matulis is the President of the Lithuanian Society of Biochemists and a member of several other societies. He has been awarded the Lithuanian Science Prize international awards in foreign countries, has published over 150 scientific publications, and patented a number of inventions.

His major works include energy and biothermodynamic studies of interactions between human proteins and chemicals, structure-energy correlations, and the development of medicinal substances.