Sandor Vajda

Sandor Vajda is Director of the Biomolecular Engineering Research Center at Boston University. He is also a Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Chemistry, and  Systems Engineering and Faculty Affiliate of the Center for Information and Systems Engineering.

At Boston University, he leads the Vajda Lab, which combines mathematical and computational tools to explore molecular interactions, with an emphasis on protein-protein and protein-ligand interactions.

Vajda’s early research interests were parameter estimation, system identification, and identifiability, frequently with applications to biological and chemical systems. The research in his lab focuses on molecular recognition using computational bioengineering approaches. Studying protein-protein interactions is crucial for understanding metabolic control, signal transduction, and gene regulation, whereas the ability to dock small ligands to proteins is the key to rational drug and vaccine design strategies. Accordingly, he develops computational methods and software for protein engineering and drug discovery, both for academic use and industrial applications.

Vajda received the Diploma in Electrical Engineering from the Gubkin Institute in Moscow, Russia, the Diploma in Applied Mathematics from the Eotvos Lorand University in Budapest, Hungary, and the Ph.D. degree in chemistry from the Hungarian Academy of Science. He held visiting research positions in the Department of Engineering, University of Warwick, England, and the Department of Chemistry, Princeton University. He was on the faculty of the Eotvos Lorand University, Budapest, Hungary and the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY.

In 2004, Vajda and his graduate students founded SolMap Pharmaceuticals, Cambridge, MA, a start-up company focusing on fragment-based drug design.