KREZEL Artur, Uniwersytet Wroclawski, Poland
Differentiated affinities of Zn(II) binding sites in metallothioneins determine their zinc buffering capacity
Biography:
Artur Krężel is Professor of Biological Sciences and Department Chair of Biological Chemistry at the University of Wrocław (Poland). He received his diploma in chemistry (master of science, 2000) and a Ph.D. degree in bioinorganic chemistry (2004) from the University of Wroclaw, Poland, under the supervision of Prof. Wojciech Bal. During his postdoctoral training (2004-2007) at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, he worked with Prof. Wolfgang Maret on mechanisms of cellular zinc homeostasis, which bore fruit in discovering metallothioneins as physiological zinc ion buffers. He then accepted a position as an assistant professor at the Faculty of Biotechnology of his alma mater. In 2011, he received a D.Sc. degree from his university. Currently, he is a full professor and head of the Department of Chemical Biology. His research concentrates on several areas at the interface of inorganic biochemistry, biophysics, and chemical biology, particularly understanding the molecular bases of zinc and copper metabolism. Examples of this endeavor are structure-function relationships, the stability of metalloproteins, protein folding and thermodynamics, and the development of new analytical methods, such as fluorescent probes for selective protein modifications and metal sensing, mass spectrometry approaches for studying metalloproteins (un)folding and structures.