Konstantin Ichtchenko graduated from the Department of Chemistry, Lomonosov Moscow State University in 1981. He got his PhD from Shemyakin/Ovchinnikov Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, USSR Academy of Sciences in 1988, defending thesis on primary structure and function of cGMP phosphodiesterase involved in light perception by rhodopsin-transducin-cGMP phosphodiesterase cascade. From 1991 till 1997 he was doing his postdoctoral research in UT Southwestern Medical Center, first in the laboratory of Drs. Michael Brown and Joseph Godlstein, and consequently in the laboratory of Dr.Thomas Sudhof. He was responsible for the first successful expression and crystallographic characterization of the LDL receptor extracellular domain, done in collaboration with three Nobel laureates. Dr. Ichtchenko has also made major contributions to the discovery of neuroligins, molecules that are involved in synaptogenesis, and with yet another Nobel laureate, to the pre- and post-synaptic mechanisms of action of alpha-latrotoxin (black widow spider toxin). Dr. Ichtchenko is a widely acknowledged expert on protein engineering, and the molecular mechanisms of inter-neuronal and neuromuscular communication. His current scientific interests are centered on understanding the molecular mechanisms controlling exocytosis and endocytosis at nerve termini, and in designing molecular tools that enable the individual steps and components mediating these events to be dissected.