2023-08-05 16:29:52
Five prominent Argentine scientists were awarded the prestigious Konex Award for their contributions in the discipline of Biochemistry and Molecular and Cellular Biology. They are Beatriz Caputto, Diego de Mendoza, Marcelo Rubinstein, Alejandro Schinder and Alejandro Vila.
The jury selected the 100 most outstanding figures of Argentine Science and Technology during the last decade (2013-2022). In other words, in this 44th edition, five experts were chosen in each of the 20 disciplines related to science.
“His countless hours of study in laboratories have driven valuable advances in science, both nationally and internationally, and his research has been recognized for its excellence, allowing a better understanding of biological processes and the development of innovative therapies,” says Dr. Konex statement.
Research in biochemistry and molecular and cell biology has allowed a better understanding of the underlying mechanisms of diseases, which has led to the discovery and development of more effective treatments. The five Argentine scientists have led pioneering research receiving various awards and recognitions.
The Award Winning Scientists are:
Beatriz Caputo – PhD in Pharmaceutical Chemistry from UNC, Full Professor and Professor Emeritus from the same university, and Senior Researcher at CONICET. Her distinguished career includes the discovery of new roles for the c-Fos protein, which, in addition to its genomic activity as a transcriptional regulator, regulates key mechanisms for membrane genesis by controlling lipid metabolism. She has been president of the Argentine Society for Research in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.
His great scientific contribution has been reflected in numerous publications, highlighting articles in prestigious journals such as Nature, Journal of Biological Chemistry; Journal of Neurochemistry, Oncogene, FASEB Journal, Molecular Biology of the Cell, Oncogene, among others.
He is a Member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Neuroscience Research and a Member of the Advisory Council of the Foundation for the Progress of Medicine of Córdoba.
He has received numerous awards and distinctions, including the “1992 Bernardo A. Houssay Award” awarded by the Argentine Society of Biology, the 2006 Córdoba Academy of Medical Sciences Award and the 2007 Florencio Fiorini Foundation Second Prize awarded by LALCEC.
Diego de Mendoza. PhD in Biochemical Sciences, Honorary Professor of the National University of Rosario and Senior Researcher hired by CONICET at the Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology of Rosario (IBR). His research has focused on the impact of the physical properties and regulatory action of lipids on the cell biology and physiology of bacteria and animals.
About his work, in the last ten years he concentrated “on the role of lipids in physiology and in genetic diseases, using very simple animal models.”
He was distinguished as a researcher of the Nation, the highest tribute granted by the national government to scientists who carried out most of their activity in the country.
He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the Santa Fe Academy of Medical Sciences. He has been recognized with numerous awards and fellowships, including the prestigious Howard Hughes Medical Institute Award.
Marcelo Rubinstein – PhD in Chemical Sciences from the UBA, Associate Professor of the Department of Physiology, Molecular and Cellular Biology (FCEyN, UBA) and Director of the Institute of Research in Genetic Engineering and Molecular Biology (INGEBI-CONICET). His research has made it possible to decipher key components of genetic programs that orchestrate the functioning of appetitive circuits in the mammalian brain. He is co-founder of the Argentine Network of Medicinal Cannabis of CONICET.
He is a member of the World Academy of Science (TWAS) and the Latin American Academy of Science (ACAL). He was an International Research Scholar at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute for 15 years and received numerous honors throughout his career, including a fellowship from the John S. Guggenheim Foundation. He was also awarded the World Academy of Sciences Prize in Biology in 2015; He twice won the Bernardo Houssay Prize awarded by the Argentine Society of Biology and received the Ranwell Caputto Medal, awarded by the Argentine Society for Neuroscience Research.
He is the first director of the first genetically modified mouse laboratories in South America (in Argentina and Chile) and the founder of the first Mouse Germplasm Bank in Argentina.
Alejandro Schinder – Graduated in Biology from the Faculty of Exact Sciences of the UBA and completed a doctorate at the University of California, San Diego, USA. UC San Diego, he is a CONICET Senior Researcher and directs the Neuronal Plasticity Laboratory at the Leloir Institute Foundation. There he leads a team investigating the process by which the hippocampus, a region of the brain involved in learning and memory, generates neurons throughout life.
His research focuses on the mechanisms of plasticity in the adult brain, focusing on the remodeling of circuits by neurogenesis and its functional implications. He is a member of the American Academy of Microbiology.
In 2018, Schinder received a grant from the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) to carry out a collaborative project with the Department of Stem Cells and Regenerative Biology at Harvard University to identify the genetic programs that guide new neurons from the time they begin to form until they process information (in the adult brain and during aging).
Among other recognitions, he obtained the Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Prize, awarded by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (2014) and the Guggenheim Grant (2010). In 2019, he was honored by the World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) for his contributions to understanding the development, integration, and function of new neurons generated in the adult brain, and was appointed a member of the Academy of Sciences of Latin America (ACAL).
Alejandro Villa – Graduated in Chemistry and PhD in Chemistry from UNR, he is Associate Professor of Biophysics at UNR and Senior Researcher at CONICET. Recognized as a world leader in the study of resistance to antibiotics mediated by metallo-β-lactamases, he has pioneered the use of NMR in structural biology in the country. His research group does it through a multidisciplinary approach, which involves knowledge of microbiology, structural biology and chemistry.
He is an expert in structure – function of proteins, he was a pioneer in the application of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance in structural biology in the country. His group is an international leader in the study of bacterial resistance to antibiotics, and the development of strategies to control it, and the mechanisms of transport and storage of metals in biological systems.
Vila’s main contributions are related to the role of copper in electron transfer processes, and the role of zinc in resistance to antibiotics mediated by metallo-β-lactamases, having elucidated its catalytic mechanism, designed inhibitors and studied its evolution in the clinic.
He has published more than 150 original articles in international peer-reviewed journals.
Among several distinctions, he has been awarded as an International Research Scholar of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and with the fellowship of the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation. Also, he was distinguished with the 2013 Konex Award: Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.
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