Raul Padrón
| Raul Padrón | |
|---|---|
| File:Raul Padron.jpgFile:Raul Padron.jpg | |
| Born | Caracas, Venezuela |
| 🏳️ Nationality | Venezuelan |
| 💼 Occupation | |
| 👩 Spouse(s) | Beulah Padrón |
| 👶 Children | Melissa, Loreana, Juan-Raúl and Charles Padrón |
Raúl Alejandro Padrón Crema is a Venezuelan Structural Biologist who is a Professor in the Radiology Department of UMass Chan Medical School. As a member of the Division of Cell Biology and Imaging program, he investigates the structure and function of myosin thick filaments of skeletal, cardiac and smooth muscle. He is known particularly for his studies on the myosin interacting-head motif (IHM) structure and function and their implications on how muscle thick filaments relax, super-relax and become activated, and its consequences on the molecular pathogenesis of human muscle diseases like hypertrophic and dilated cardiomyopathy. In 2018, he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences as a foreign associate.[1]
Education
In 1973, he earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the Universidad Central de Venezuela (UCV) in Caracas, Venezuela. Following this, he earned a master's degree in biology from the Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Científicas (IVIC). He continued to study and perform research at the IVIC, receiving a Ph.D. in biophysics and physiology. His dissertation focused on X-ray diffraction, and his doctoral advisor was Leonardo Mateu. In 1980, he joined the Medical Research Council (MRC) Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England as a postdoctoral fellow with the support of the Alberto Vollmer Foundation. During this time, he researched muscle structure and function with Hugh E. Huxley. After completing his fellowship, he returned to Venezuela, rejoining the IVIC as a faculty member. Four years later, in 1997, he founded the Department (now Center) of Structural Biology. From 1997 to 2011, he was an International Research Scholar at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI).
Career Timeline: Dr. Padrón, Ph.D.
- 1966: Visiting Student, Universidad Central de Venezuela
- 1973: E.E., Electrical Engineering, Universidad Central de Venezuela
- 1977: M.Sc., Biology, Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Científicas
- 1979: Sc.D., Biophysics and Physiology, Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Científicas
- 1980: Medical Research Council (MRC) Laboratory of Molecular Biology
- 1983: Associate Investigator, Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Científicas
- 1987: Founder, Department of Structural Biology, Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Científicas
Career and Research
As a result of his numerous degrees and educational experience, Padrón holds many professional titles at multiple institutions and universities, the following being some:
- Professor at the Radiology Department of UMass Medical School of Worcester, Massachusetts.
- Founder of the Department of Structural Biology of the Venezuelan Institute for Scientific Research (IVIC).
- International Research Scholar of Howard Hughes Medical Institute
- Professor at the Department of Radiology, Cell Biology, and Imaging at UMass Medical School of Worcester, Massachusetts.
- Senior Emeritus Investigator at the Center of Structural Biology (CBE) of the Venezuelan Institute for Scientific Research (IVIC) in Caracas, Venezuela
As an experienced scientist, Padrón has continued to grow his work and research to this day. His past research on myosin has enabled new discoveries and continuous experimentation about heart diseases in all species, including humans. "Researchers have used spider proteins to uncover how mutations in a single gene can lead to two forms of cardiomyopathy, one of the most common causes of heart failure and sudden death in otherwise healthy young people" (Ohare, 2017). Research states that dilated cardiomyopathy occurs when the heart muscle becomes thin and weak, and the heart chambers expand, causing difficulty for blood to be pumped to all parts of the body.[2]
Padron's original work has progressed research today, specifically in this case, as the spider proteins were able to be seen in 3D structure and the spiders' legs enabled them to see how these proteins interact with their neighbors, going beyond just looking at a singular myosin structure. Thus, his initial research on myosin has enabled more conclusive diagnoses.[3]
Early Life
Dr. Padron's great-grandparents emigrated to Venezuela from France and his grandparents emigrated from Italy to Venezuela in order to escape World War II. His mother was a concert pianist and his father was a pharmacologist and microbiologist. His father maintained a home laboratory, which greatly influenced him; Padrón mentioned, "I still remember my surprise when he showed me paramecia swimming under a microscope". Soon enough, he was allowed to have his own separate laboratory at age 11 and was soon "raising yeast on chicken soup to see them under magnification..". In his lab he did chemistry, biology, and also built electronic equipment. He attended San Ignacio High School in Caracas, where mathematician Angel Urmeneta and biologist Raphael Bredy reinforced his academic interests. In 1966, Bredy suggested that Padrón visit the Venezuelan Institute for Scientific Research (IVIC). During the visit, he met biochemist Karl Gaede, whose laboratory he joined at age 16. Padrón says, "Under Gaede's advice, I decided to study electrical engineering at the Central University of Venezuela, as he thought this would provide a good background for a career in biology."[4][5]
Dr. Padron left Venezuela because of high inflation rates. Dr. Padron once said, "At the beginning of 2018 the inflation was about 10,000 percent and there was a lack of food, lack of medicine—hospitals—and life was very complicated because there were difficulties for electricity, petrol, security, etc.,"[4]
Awards and Honors
- Polar Prize ("Lorenzo Mendoza Fleury" Prize) (1991) of Fundación Empresas Polar
- CONICIT Biology Prizes (1989, 1990, 1996)
- FONACIT Biology Prize (2005)
- National Prize in Science and Technology of Venezuela (2008).
- Member of the Latin-American Academy of Sciences (ACAL) (2002)
- Member of The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) (2004)
- International Member of the National Academy of Sciences of the U.S.A (2018).[5]
Selected Publications
- Alamo, L., Koubassova, N., Pinto, A., Gillilan, R., Tsaturyan, A., & Padrón, R. (2017). Lessons from a tarantula: New insights into muscle thick filament and myosin interacting-heads motif structure and function. Biophysical Reviews, 9(5). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12551-017-0295-1
- Alamo, L., Pinto, A., Sulbarán, G., Mavárez, J., & Padrón, R. (2018). Lessons from a tarantula: New insights into myosin interacting-heads motif evolution and its implications on disease. Biophysical Reviews, 10(5). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12551-017-0292-4
- Alamo, L., Ware, J. S., Pinto, A., Gillilan, R. E., Seidman, J. G., Seidman, C. E., & Padrón, R. (2017, June 13). Effects of myosin variants on interacting-heads motif explain distinct hypertrophic and dilated cardiomyopathy phenotypes. ELife Sciences Publications, Ltd. https://elifesciences.org/articles/24634
- Brito, R., Alamo, L., Lundberg, U., Guerrero, J. R., Pinto, A., Sulbarán, G., Gawinowicz, M. A., Craig, R., & Padrón, R. (2011). A molecular model of phosphorylation-based activation and potentiation of tarantula muscle thick filaments. Journal of Molecular Biology, 414(1). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmb.2011.09.017
- Craig, R., & Padron, R. (2022). Structural basis of the super-relaxed and hyper-relaxed state of myosin II. Biophysical Journal, 121(3), 516a. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bpj.2021.11.2719
- Lee, K. H., Sulbarán, G., Yang, S., Mun, J. Y., Alamo, L., Pinto, A., Sato, O., Ikebe, M., Liu, X., Korn, E. D., Sarsoza, F., Bernstein, S. I., Padrón, R., & Craig, R. (2018). Interacting-heads motif has been conserved as a mechanism of myosin II inhibition since before the origin of animals. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 115(9). https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1715247115
- Ma, W., Duno-Miranda, S., Irving, T., Craig, R., & Padrón, R. (2021). Relaxed tarantula skeletal muscle has two ATP energy-saving mechanisms. The Journal of General Physiology, 153(3), e202012780. https://doi.org/10.1085/jgp.202012780
References
- ↑ "Raul Padron". www.nasonline.org. Retrieved 2022-05-21.
- ↑ "Spider proteins offer new insight into human heart conditions | Imperial News | Imperial College London". Imperial News. Retrieved 2022-05-21.
- ↑ "Cell Biology Tree - Raúl Padrón". academictree.org. Retrieved 2022-05-21.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 "'I would do it all over again:' Immigrant stories shared at virtual UMMS event". UMass System. Retrieved 2022-05-21.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Viegas, Jennifer (2020-12-29). "Profile of Raúl Padrón". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 117 (52): 32830–32832. doi:10.1073/pnas.2015960117. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 7776991 Check
|pmc=value (help). PMID 33334816 Check|pmid=value (help).
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