Protein Biophysics, Biochemistry & Bioinformatics Lab (PB³)

Our research group employs experimental and computational tools to explore the protein sequence-structure-dynamics-function relationships in proteins and enzymes of biomedical and biotechnological interests. Our laboratory is located in the Institute for Biological and Medical Engineering (IIBM) at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, and we are also members of the Millenium Institute of Integrative Biology (iBio). Our research is mainly funded by the National Agency for Research and Development of Chile (ANID) and focuses on: 1) Elucidating the mechanism of structural interconversion of metamorphic proteins involved in regulating crucial cellular processes (FONDECYT 1201684) 2) Discovery, functional and structural characterization and engineering of metagenomic enzymes that degrade PET (ANID-FAPESP 2019/13259-9) 3) Development, production and optimization of open-source kits for the molecular detection of viral infections (ANID-CONCYTEC covbio0012) 4) Engineering of photosynthetic microorganisms for the development of oxygen-carriers that can both produce and store oxygen (FONDECYT 13220024) Our collaborations include the Biomolecular and Proteomics Mass Spectrometry Facility (BPMSF) and the Komives Lab at the University of California San Diego, the Artsimovitch Lab at The Ohio State University, the Single Molecule Biophysics Lab at Clemson University, the Institute for Analytical Chemistry at Leipzig University, the Group of Crystallography at the Sao Carlos Institute of Physics from Universidad de Sao Paulo, the Molecular Microbiology and Single-Molecule Labs at Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, the Protein Physiology Lab at Universidad de Buenos Aires, the Díez Lab and Open Technology Lab at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, and the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Lab at Universidad de Chile.