A. A. Buglak defended his Ph.D. thesis at the Federal Research Center for Biotechnology RAS (Moscow). Dissertation topic: "Photobiochemistry of pterin coenzymes". At the moment, scientific interests include: 1) the study of the physicochemical properties of metal nanoclusters protected by organic ligands using quantum chemistry methods; 2) studying the photochemistry of organic and organometallic compounds using the method of quantitative structure-property relations (QSPR) and machine learning.

The main areas of research are at the intersection of physics, chemistry and biology, namely such disciplines as biophysics, biochemistry, photochemistry and computational chemistry. A. A. Buglak conducts research on the following topics:

• Gold and silver nanoclusters for detection of low molecular weight organic analytes - disease biomarkers
• Photochemistry and photophysics of pteridine compounds
• Application of QSPR and machine learning to the analysis of photodynamic activity of sensitizers

Main research methods:

• quantum chemistry
• QSPR

Main grants:

• Russian Science Foundation grant 20-73-10029 "Development and characterization of biosensor systems based on metal nanoclusters for detection of biomarkers and phototherapy of vitiligo" — 15 million rubles, 2020-2023, head.

The most significant publications over the past 5 years:

1. Buglak, A.A.; Charisiadis, A.; Sheehan, A.; Kingsbury, C.J.; Senge, M.O.; Filatov, M.A. Quantitative Structure–Property Relationship Modelling for the Prediction of Singlet Oxygen Generation by Heavy‐atom‐free BODIPY Photosensitizers. Chem. Eur. J. 2021. [DOI link]
2. Reveguk, Z.V.; Pomogaev, V.A.; Kapitonova, M.A.; Buglak, A.A.; Kononov, A.I. Structure and Formation of Luminescent Centers in Light-Up Ag Cluster-Based DNA Probes. J. Phys. Chem. C 2021, 125(6), 3542–3552. [DOI link]
3. Buglak, A.A.; Samokhvalov, A.; Zherdev, A.V.; Dzantiev, B.B. Methods and Applications of In Silico Aptamer Design and Modeling. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2020, 21(22), 8420. [DOI link]
4. Buglak, A.A.; Kononov, A.I. Comparative study of gold and silver interactions with amino acids and nucleobases. RSC Adv. 2020, 10, 34149-34160. [DOI link
5. Buglak, A.A.; Filatov, M.A.; Hussain, M.A.; Sugimoto, M. Singlet Oxygen Generation by Porphyrins and Metalloporphyrins Revisited: a Quantitative Structure-Property Relationship (QSPR) Study. J. Photochem. Photobiol. A 2020, 403, 112833. [DOI link]
6. Buglak, A.A.; Zherdev, A.V.; Dzantiev, B.B. Nano-(Q)SAR for Cytotoxicity Prediction of Engineered Nanomaterials. Molecules 2019, 24, 4537. [DOI link]
7. Reveguk, Z.V.; Khoroshilov, E.V.; Sharkov, A.V.; Pomogaev. V.A.; Buglak, A.A.; Tarnovsky, A.N.; Kononov, A.I. Exciton Absorption and Luminescence in i-Motif DNA. Sci. Rep. 2019, 9, 15988. [DOI link]
8. Buglak, A. A.; Ramazanov, R. R.; Kononov A. I. Silver cluster–amino acid interactions: a quantum-chemical study. Amino Acids 2019, 51, 855-864. [DOI link]
9. Buglak, A. A.; Shanin, I. A.; Eremin, S. A.; Lei, H.-T.; Li, X.; Zherdev, A.V.; Dzantiev, B.B. Ciprofloxacin and Clinafloxacin Antibodies for an Immunoassay of Quinolones: Quantitative Structure–Activity Analysis of Cross-Reactivities. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2019, 20 (265). [DOI link]
10. Buglak, A. A.; Telegina, T. A.;.Vorotelyak, E. A.; Kononov, A. I. Theoretical study of photoreactions between oxidized pterins and molecular oxygen. J. Photochem. Photobiol. A 2019, 372, 254-259. [DOI link]
11. Sych, T. S.; Reveguk, Z. V.; Pomogaev, V. A.; Buglak, A. A.; Reveguk, A. A.; Ramazanov, R. R.; Romanov, N. M.; Chikhirzhina, E. V.; Polyanichko, A. M.; Kononov A. I. Fluorescent Silver Clusters on Protein Templates: Understanding Their Structure. J. Phys. Chem. C 2018, 122 (51), 29549-29558. [DOI link]
12. Buglak, A. A.; Kononov, A. I. Triplet state generation by furocoumarins revisited: a combined QSPR/DFT approach. New J. Chem. 2018, 42, 14424-14432. [DOI link]
13. Sych, T. S.; Buglak, A. A.; Reveguk, Z. V.; Pomogaev, V. A.; Ramazanov, R. R.; Kononov, A. I. Which Amino Acids are Capable of Nucleating Fluorescent Silver Clusters in Proteins? J. Phys. Chem. C 2018, 122, 26275-26280. [DOI link]
14. Telegina, T. A.; Lyudnikova, T. A.; Buglak, A. A.; Vechtomova, Yu. L.; Biryukov, M. V.; Demin, V. V.; Kritsky, M. S. Transformation of 6-tetrahydrobiopterin in aqueous solutions under UV-irradiation. J. Photochem. Photobiol. A 2018, 354, 155-162. [DOI link]
15. Buglak A.A., Telegina T.A., Kritsky M.S. A quantitative structure-property relationship (QSPR) study of singlet oxygen generation by pteridines. Photochem. Photobiol. Sci. 2016, 15, 801-811. [DOI link]