advanced fluorescence techniques 2009

Prof. Andre M.O. Gomes
Cidade Univresitária
Laboratório de Termodinâmica de Proteínas - Inst. Bioquímica Médica
Av. Carlos Chagas Filho, 373 – CCS – Bloco E, sala E1-008
Rio de Janeiro, RJ
Brazil
Email

Andre M.O. Gomes was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1975. He received his doctorate degree in Biological Chemistry from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) in 2002. He works at the Gregorio Weber Laboratory of Thermodynamics of Proteins and Viruses at the UFRJ. In 2002, he got a position as Associate Professor at the Medical Biochemistry Institute at the same University and from 2004 to 2006 he joined the Laboratory for Fluorescence Dynamics (LFD) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as a postdoctoral fellow.

Dr. Gomes' research interests are in the area of the structural biology of viruses, virus-cell interaction and protein-protein, protein-lipid and protein-nucleic acid interactions. His current projects involve the use of fluorescence spectroscopy, hydrostatic pressure and two-photon microscopy, including single particle tracking and fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS) for the study of viral particles inactivation, assembly and infection of cells.

Prof. Enrico Gratton
University of California, Irvine
Department of Biomedical Engineering
Irvine, CA 92697-2715
USA
Tel: 949-824-2674
Email

Enrico Gratton was born in Merate (Como) Italy in 1946. He received his doctorate degree in physics from the University of Rome in 1969. From 1969 to 1971 he was a post-doctoral fellow at the Istituto Superiore di Sanità in Italy. He went to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) in 1976 and began his work as a research associate in the Department of Biochemistry. In 1978, he was appointed assistant professor in the Department of Physics of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). In 1989, he was promoted to professor. Dr. Gratton's laboratory has reached international recognition for the development of instrumentation for time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy using frequency domain methods.

In 1986, Dr. Gratton was awarded a grant from the National Institutes of Health, National Center for Research Resources, to establish the first national facility dedicated to fluorescence spectroscopy: the Laboratory for Fluorescence Dynamics (LFD). In 2006 the entire LFD laboratory moved to its current location at the new Natural Sciences II building at the University of California, Irvine. Dr. Gratton remains Principal Investigator of the LFD and holds joint appointments as Professor in the UCI departments of Biomedical Engineering and Physics, and also in the College of Medicine. The facility is a state-of-the-art fluorescence laboratory for use by local, national, and international scientists. It has a dual and equal commitment to research and development of fluorescence instrumentation and theory and to service in a user-oriented facility. Dr. Gratton's research interests are varied and many; they include design of new fluorescence instruments, protein dynamics, hydration of proteins, and I.R. spectroscopy of biological substances. Dr. Gratton has authored or co-authored over 400 publications in refereed scientific journals.

Prof. David M. Jameson
University of Hawaii at Manoa
Department of Cell and Molecular Biology
John A. Burns School of Medicine
Honolulu, HI 96822
USA
Tel: 808-956-5034
Email

A student of the late Prof. Gregorio Weber, David Jameson is Full Professor in the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology at the University of Hawaii. Prof. Jameson's research interests are focused on the development and application of time-resolved and steady-state fluorescence methodologies to elucidate dynamic aspects of biomolecules, including proteins, nucleic acids and membrane systems.

Currently, his laboratory is investigating several protein systems, including both prokaryotic and eukaryotic ribosomal proteins, the GTP binding protein dynamin, the motor protein kinesin and Electron Transfer Flavoprotein (ETF). One of his laboratory's principle approaches is to use site-directed mutagenesis techniques to incorporate cysteine residues into target proteins, which can then be linked to sulfhydryl reactive fluorescence probes. Fluorescence measurements can then be used to quantify dynamic aspects of these proteins during their interactions with physiologically significant ligands.

Author of more than 100 peer-reviewed articles, Prof. Jameson regularly reviews grants for the American Heart Association, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the National Science Foundation. His research has been supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation and the American Heart Association.

Prof. Valeria Levi
University of Buenos Aires
Department of Physics

Argentina

Valeria Levi was born in Argentina and received her doctorate degree in Chemistry for the University of Buenos Aires. In 2002, she joined the Laboratory for Fluorescence Dynamics (LFD) at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign as a post doctoral fellow. Since 2006 she has been an adjunct researcher at the Department of Physics of the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Dr. Levi's research is focused on single particle tracking, fluorescence correlation spectroscopy techniques and their applications to studies of dynamics in living cells. Her current projects involve the use of these techniques for the study of molecular motors involved in intracellular transport.

Prof. Andrea C. Oliveira
Cidade Univresitária
Laboratório de Termodinâmica de Proteínas - Inst. Bioquímica Médica
Av. Carlos Chagas Filho, 373 – CCS – Bloco E, sala E1-008
Rio de Janeiro, RJ
Brazil

Andrea Cheble de Oliveira was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She received her doctorate degree in Biological Chemistry from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) in 1998. She works at the Gregorio Weber Laboratory of Thermodynamics of Proteins and Viruses at the UFRJ. In 2001, she got a position as Associate Professor at the Medical Biochemistry Institute at the same university, and from 2004 to 2006 she joined the Laboratory for Fluorescence Dynamics (LFD) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as a postdoctoral fellow.

Dr. Oliveira's research interests are in the area of the structural biology of viruses, virus-cell interaction and protein-protein, protein-lipid and protein-nucleic acid interactions. Her current projects involve the use of fluorescence spectroscopy, hydrostatic pressure and two-photon microscopy, including single particle tracking and fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS), for the study of viral particle inactivation, assembly and infection of cells.

Dr. Susana Sánchez Donoso
University of California, Irvine
Laboratory for Fluorescence Dynamics
Irvine, CA 92697-2715
USA
Tel: 949-824-3255
Email

Susana Sánchez was born in Chile and received her doctorate degree in Chemistry from the Catholic University of Valparaiso. In 1997, she joined the Laboratory for Fluorescence Dynamics (LFD) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as a post doctoral fellow. Since 2001 she has been the User Coordinator of the LFD.

Dr. Sánchez's research interests are in the area of protein-protein and protein-lipid interactions. Her current projects involve the use of two-photon microscopy, including FCS and Laurdan GP imaging for the study of cholesterol removal by HDL particles from artificial systems such as Giant Unilamellar Vesicles (GUVs) and cells.

Dr. Jerson Silva
Cidade Univresitária
Laboratório de Termodinâmica de Proteínas - Inst. Bioquímica Médica
Av. Carlos Chagas Filho, 373 – CCS – Bloco E, sala E1-008
Rio de Janeiro, RJ
Brazil