Fabio C. L. Almeida
Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Biography
Fabio C. L. Almeida has his expertise in protein structure and dynamics by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). He solved the structure of several proteins by NMR. He has important contribution in the structure and dynamics of plant defensins. Fabio and his group showed that despite the conserved folding, defensins display a wide variation in dynamics, which enabled the mapping of binding regions and description of the mechanism of membrane recognition. The group also showed that dynamics are also the key for the understanding of the mechanism of membrane recognition of antimicrobial peptides. Pre-existent order in flexible peptides permits discrimination between the regions of specific and non-specific binding. Fabio´s group also described the structure and dynamics of the water cavity of thioredoxin, which is an essential structural element for catalysis. Fabio is the director of the National Center of NMR (CNRMN, http://cnrmn.bioqmed.ufrj.br) and president of the Brazilian NMR Association (AUREMN).