Francisco J. Barrantes, M.D., Ph.D.
Area:
neuron; synapses; neurotransmitter receptors; acetylcholine receptor; superresolution microscopy; lipid-protein interactions; fluorescence
Website:
index/en/uca/instituto-de-investigaciones-biomedicas/laboratorios-de-investigacion/laboratorio-de-neurobiologia-molecular/Google:
"Francisco Barrantes"Bio:
- Current position: Professor and Head, Laboratory of Molecular Neurobiology, Institute of Biomedical Research UCA-CONICET, Catholic University of Argentina, Av. Alicia Moreau de Justo 1600, C1107AFF Buenos Aires, Argentina. rtfjb1@gmail.com
Ph.D. with Prof. E. De Robertis, Faculty of Medicine, University of Buenos Aires. Postdoctoral research with Prof. Gregorio Weber at the Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and with Dr. Thomas Jovin at the Department of Molecular Biology, Max-Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen, Germany, with short intermissions at the Unité de Neurobiologie, Institut Pasteur, Paris, as an EMBO fellow with Prof. Jean-Pierre Changeux.
He subsequently joined with Bert Sakmann and Erwin Neher as head of a new group stemming from the departments of Molecular Biology, Neurobiology, and Molecular Systems, respectively, at the Max-Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen. They were awarded a five-year period as leaders of a scientifically independent group within the institute. During this period, Dr. Barrantes undertook structural work on the acetylcholine receptor, producing the first images of the membrane-bound protein at 2.0 nm resolution using low-dose electron microscopy, in collaboration with Peter Zingsheim and Joachen Frank. The identification of the ligand-recognition site on the two *-subunits of the receptor at 1.8 nm resolution also stems from this period. In collaboration with Dr. Derek Marsh, they described for the first time the lipid microenvironment of the membrane-bound receptor using ESR techniques, discovering receptor-immobilized lipid.
Upon returning to his home country, he was appointed head of the Institute of Biochemistry, professor at the Department of Biology and Biochemistry of the local university, and subsequently chairholder of the UNESCO Chair of Biophysics and Molecular Neurobiology (1999-2009).
His membership in scientific academies includes: Natl. Acad. of Medicine, Argentina; Natl. Acad. of Sciences, Argentina; Academy of Sciences, Brazil; World Academy of Sciences (TWAS); European Academy of Sciences; Indian Science Academy; Latin American Academy of Sciences (ACAL). Council member of the International Union of Pure and Applied Biophysics (IUPAB), International Society for Neurochemistry, and Latin American Academy of Sciences, for two consecutive periods in all cases. He is currently Vice-president of the World Academy of Sciences (Trieste) for a second period.
Prof. Barrantes received prizes and awards from: Daniel Goytía Award, Arg. Assoc. for the Adv. Sciences (1971); Fellow, Wellcome Trust, UK (1970); Bernardo Houssay Award (1987); TWAS (1988); Fellow, Neuroscience Inst., N. York (1986); Fellow, John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation (1990); Alexander von Humbold Stiftung Award, Germany (1999); “Sarojini Damodaran International Trust", India (2002); Konex Award in Molecular and Cell Biology, Argentina (2003); Fulbright Scholar, Harvard Medical School (2004); Prémio União Latina, Lisboa, Portugal (2006); Miguel Lillo Medal (2008); Human Frontier Sci. Progr.; Royal Society, UK; De Robertis Medal, Consacration Medal of the Academy of Sciences of Argentina (2011), and most recently the TWAS Medal (2013).
Prof. Barrantes has supervised 23 Ph.D. theses, 19 CONICET career researchers, and more than 50 technicians. When he was head of CONICET-Bahía Blanca, his responsibilities included the coordination of 10 research institutes in different disciplines, with over 800 scientists.
In 1991-1992, Prof. Barrantes spent a sabbatical period with Prof. Nigel Unwin at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology, MRC, Cambridge, as a Royal Society Guest Research Fellow and a Human Frontier Research Fellow.
During 1999-2001 Prof. Barrantes was the recipient of a British Council-Fundación Antorchas collaborative grant with Prof. Anthony Watts, Dept. of Biochemistry, Oxford University. He was a member of St. Hugh´s College during this period.
Until 2014 Prof. Barrantes was the co-recipient of the European Union “LAEL” (Latin America-European Liaison) grant within the Program “People” awarded jointly to the International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA) in Trieste, Italy, and the University of Cambridge, U.K.
Dr. Barrantes’ fields of expertise are: acetylcholine receptors; molecular neurobiology; biophysics and biochemistry of synaptic receptors. Dr. Barrantes has published over 200 papers, 400 short communications, 60 review chapters, and two books on nicotinic receptors and effects of cholesterol on receptors and ion channels.
One of the overall goals of his current research is to establish structure-functional correlations, and determine the role of protein-lipid interactions in the function of synaptic receptors, particularly the acetylcholine receptor, the best-studied example of a ligand-gated ion channel. His group applies a highly intertwined combination of molecular genetics, cell biology, electrophysiology and various spectroscopy and microscopy techniques, including super-resolution optical microscopy (nanoscopy). In 2008, with the help of Prof. Stefan Hell (Nobel awardee in Chemistry 2014) and collaborators, Prof. Barrantes constructed the first super-resolution microscope in Latin America.
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