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Metallothionein-protein interactions

• Sílvia Atrian

  Sílvia Atrian obtained her PhD in Biology in 1984 (University of Barcelona). After a postdoctoral training at the University of Edinburgh in 1988–1989, she returned to her home university, where she has held a molecular genetics professorship position since 2003. From 2010 to 2012, she was Vice Rector at the University of Barcelona. After initially investigating the structure/function relations in the alcohol dehydrogenase of Drosophila, she moved in 1990 to the field of metallothioneins. Since then, she has been the principal investigator of an independent research group, studying several aspects of the molecular mechanisms that organisms use to handle and cope with metals, including the characterization of both several metal-binding proteins and the genomic/proteomic response to metal overdoses.

  and Mercè Capdevila

  Mercè Capdevila studied Chemistry at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) and obtained her PhD degree at the same university in 1993 working in the field of the synthesis and characterization of metal thiolates. In 1998, she became Professor of Inorganic Chemistry in the Chemistry Department at the UAB. She has been the principal investigator in the ‘Metallothioneins: Structure-Function Relationship and Biotechnological Applications’ group in this department since 2004, and has been the president of the Spanish Association of Bioinorganic Chemistry (AEBIN) since 2011. Her research is focused on the study of the metal-binding abilities of metallothioneins with the final aim of unveiling their physiological function as well as designing biotechnological applications for this particularly large family of metalloproteins.