Laboratorio BioquÃmica 3, Edificio "B"
Voice: (525)-622-44-67
FAX: (525)-616-22-03
E-mail: carcamo@servidor.unam.mx
RESUME
Doctor Abel MORENO completed his B.Sc. of Chemistry at the Autonomous University of Puebla, in Mexico (1990). At the Institute of Physics of the same university, he completed the graduate thesis: "Crystal Growth in Gels by Using Sodium Silicate Solutions" supervised by Prof. Dr. Maria Eugenia Mendoza Alvarez and Prof. Dr. Cristóbal Tabares. Under the auspices of the Government of Mexico (CONACYT) and Spain (Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia) he got a fellowship to prepare the PhD thesis in Spain. His Ph.D. Thesis in Chemistry “Crystal growth behavior in diffusing-reacting systems. Applications to macromolecules and new synthesis compounds†was performed at the University of Granada under supervision of Prof. Dr. Juan Manuel GarcÃa-Ruiz (1991-1995). This PhD thesis was awarded by the Materials Research Institute, and the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) as the best PhD thesis in Materials Science in 1996. In 1996, doctor Moreno was repatriated to Mexico as an associate professor to the department of Biochemistry (Formerly called Biostructure) at the Institute of Chemistry, UNAM in Mexico City.
Dr. Moreno, created and pioneered the Protein Crystallogenesis Group at the Institute of Chemistry, UNAM. Since that time, doctor Moreno has been invited to collaborate in several research projects in many countries as a visiting scientist. He was working at the University of California Riverside in the laboratory of Prof. Alexander McPherson (USA, 1997). In 1999 the Mexican Academy of Sciences and the Royal Society of London awarded him with a Visiting Scientist Fellowship to work at Imperial College for Science, Technology and Medicine, London (UK, 1999, 2000) in the laboratory of Prof. Dr. Naomi Chayen. In 2003 he was awarded as a Visiting Professor from the Inamori Foundation, and the Tohoku University in Japan working for the laboratory of Prof. Dr. Gen Sazaki. From September 2003 to September 2004 doctor Moreno spent a sabbatical year in the Laboratory of Prof. Richard Giegé at the Institute of Cell and Molecular Biology from CNRS, France. Recently Dr. Moreno has been awarded by the DAAD (German Agency for Academic Exchange) as a fellow recipient for a month to be working at the Institute for Crystal Growth Berlin (IKZ), and academic visitor of the University of Lübeck, Germany.
Nowadays, Dr. Moreno is a full Professor of Biochemistry (Category Titular "C") of the Institute of Chemistry of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). From August 2001 until 2003, Dr. Moreno coordinated the PhD Program in Biomedical Sciences at UNAM. He is member of the Mexican Academy of Sciences since 1998 and member of the National System of Researchers Level 3 from 2007 (the maximum category of scientists from the Mexican Republic). Dr. Moreno has published more than 60 scientific international papers in specialized journals. He is also the author of a 10 chapters of book. Dr. Moreno has published 3 books of his specialty related to protein crystallization, protein crystallochemistry, and crystal growth of biological macromolecules (in Spanish version).
RESEARCH PROJECTS
Dr. Moreno's research is focused on different aspects of biological crystallogenesis for biomedical applications (protein crystallization and biomineralization phenomena). This research has been focused on the protein crystallization problem to search for new crystal growth methods to obtain high quality protein crystals (using crystal growth in gels by using electric and magnetic fields to control the nucleation step). His work has been also devoted to biological applications using the X-ray Crystallography.
This research has also explored the possibilities of dynamic and static light scattering methods to predict protein nucleation, and to investigate the separation of nucleation and crystal growth phenomena. Additionally, based on classical methods for protein crystallization and crystal growth theories, his research group is working on growing protein crystals by electrochemical techniques (electrochemical-assisted protein crystallization) coupled to atomic force microscopy and video-microscopy. This new methodology to crystallize In situ biomolecules will permit to understand several biochemical functions in living organisms.
Finally, there is also a particular interest focused on investigating different physical, structural, synthetic, and chemical properties of silica hydrogels for several applications in materials science, biomedical sciences, protein crystal growth and biomimetics in nature.
RESEARCH FIELDS
Investigations on protein crystallization by dynamic and static light scattering methods.
Crystal growth of biological macromolecules (classical and new methods).
3D Structural analysis of proteins by X-ray diffraction and atomic force microscopy.
Synthesis and structural investigations of silica gels such as air-gels, hydrogels, and organic-gels.
Biomineralization phenomena in living organisms for Biomedical Sciences. Biomaterials Science and Biomimetics.
RECENT PUBLICATIONS
Abel Moreno, Beatriz Quiroz-GarcÃa, Fabiano Yokaichiya, Vivian Stojanoff and Peter Rudolph "Protein crystal growth in gels and stationary magnetic fields". Crystal Research and Technology 42 (2007) 231-236.
Francisco Acosta, Désir Eid, Liliana MarÃn-GarcÃa, Bernardo A. Frontana-Uribe, and Abel Moreno “From Cytochrome C Crystals to a Solid-State Electron-Transfer Deviceâ€. Crystal Growth and Design 7 (2007) 2187-2191.
Juan Pablo Reyes-Grajeda, Liliana MarÃn-GarcÃa, Vivian Stojanoff and Abel Moreno “Purification, crystallization and preliminary x-ray analysis of struthiocalcin 1 from ostrich (Struthio camelus) eggshellâ€. Acta Crystallographica F63 (2007) 987-989.
Paola Mendoza-Espinosa, Abel Moreno, Rolando Castillo, Jaime Mas-Oliva “Lipid dependant disorder-to-order conformational transitions in apolipoproteins CI derived peptidesâ€. Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications 365 (2008) 8-15.
Nurit Mirkin, Jean Jaconcik, Vivian Stojanoff, and Abel Moreno “High resolution X-ray crystallographic structure of cytochrome c from bovine heart and its application to the design of an electron transfer biosensorâ€. PROTEINS: Structure, Function, and Bioinformatics 70 (2008) 83-92.
Azucena Jiménez-Corona, Armando Pérez, Jaime Mas-Oliva, Abel Moreno “Effect of Osteopontin, Chondroitin Sulfates (B, C) and Human Serum Albumin on the Crystallization Behavior of Hydroxyapatite in Agarose and Silica Hydrogels. Crystal Growth and Design 8 (2008) 1335-1339.
Liliana MarÃn-GarcÃa, Bernardo A. Frontana-Uribe, Juan Pablo Reyes-Grajeda, Vivian Stojanoff, Hugo Javier Serrano-Posada & Abel Moreno “Chemical recognition of carbonate anions by proteins involved in biomineralization processes and their influence on calcite crystal growthâ€. Crystal Growth and Design 8 (2008) 1340-1345.
M.E. Sánchez-Vergara, A. Ortiz, C. Alvarez-Toledano, A. Moreno, J.R. Alvarez “Thin films of molecular materials synthesized from Fischer’s carbene ferrocenyl: film formation and electrical propertiesâ€. Thin Solid Films 516 (2008) 6382-6387.
Yobana Pérez, Désir Eid, Francisco Acosta, Liliana MarÃn-GarcÃa, Jean Jakoncic, Vivian Stojanoff, Bernardo A. Frontana-Uribe and Abel Moreno “Electrochemically assisted protein crystallization of commercial cytochrome c without previous purificationâ€. Crystal Growth and Design (2008) In press
Abel Moreno, Fabiano Yokaichiya, Elaine Dimasi and Vivian Stojanoff “Growth and characterization of high quality protein crystals for X-ray crystallographyâ€. Journal of the New York Academy of Sciences (2008) In press.
Cabra, V., Vázquez-Contreras, E., Moreno, A., Arreguin-Espinosa, R. “The effect of sulphydryl groups and disulphide linkage in the thermal aggregation of Z19 alpha zeinâ€. Biochim. Biophys. Acta (2008) In press.
Instituto de QuÃmica, UNAM, Circuito Exterior, Ciudad Universitaria, Delegación Coyoacán C.P. 04510, México, D.F. Tel. 56-16-25-76 FAX: 56-16-22-17
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