Dr. Alexander Yakunin research interests revolve around understanding protein function. His studies involve enzyme discovery and enzyme genomics, enzymatic screening of unknown proteins for functional annotation, biochemical and structural characterization of novel enzymes. Dr. Yakunin also studies novel industrial enzymes for applications in bioremediation and biotechnology.

Dr. Yaunin earned a M.Sc. degree in Molecular Biology at the Moscow State University in 1978. He then joined the Institute of Basic Biological Problems (former Institute of Photosynthesis) in Pushchino (Russia) where he studied nitrogen and hydrogen metabolism in photosynthetic bacteria with Dr. Ivan Gogotov. In 1987, he got his Ph.D. in Microbiology from the Institute of Microbiology (Moscow, Russia) for his work on regulation and enzymology of nitrogen fixation in Rhodobacter. He then continued his work as a Senior Researcher at the Institute of Basic Biological Problems (Pushchino, Russia) in the field of microbial nitrogen and hydrogen metabolism. From 1992 to 2002, Alex worked as a post-doctoral fellow and research associate with Dr. Patrick Hallenbeck at the University of Montreal where he studied enzymology and genetics of nitrogen fixation in Rhodobacter.