Final report

Major part of the research program has basic research character. In the field of statistical mechanics the analogy between percolation model and lattice spin systems was drawn. Also the fractal dimensions of linear and branched polymers were determined. In the field of bioinformatics short sequence repeats were studied in nucleotide sequences. The results were published in high ranked international scientific journals. The members of the program research team have organized in the year 2000 a workshop Statistical Mechanics of Complex Systems which was financed by the Ministry of Science and Technology of Republic of Slovenia and Management Committee of COST D9 Action. The workshop was attended by prominent scientist from Europe and United States of America. The members of the program research group attended several international scientific conferences where they presented their results. Structure - based design (SBDD) which constitutes the cycle of molecular design - chemical synthesis - biological testing - that was introduced in recent years, was applied to the active compounds whose targets is a wide list of enzyme systems, including thrombin, protein tyrosine kinase, beta lactamase and DNA gyrase. The active compounds mentioned belong to the class of potential anticoagulants, antiproliferative compounds and antiinfective compounds. The work was acompanied with simultaneous tests of three dimensional structure of the complex enzyme - inhibitor with x-ray diffraction or NMR method. Such an approach is effective and comparable to combinatorial chemistry synthesis supported by high throughput screening which is practiced by large international pharmaceutical companies.