WELCOME!! to the home page of the 

   Protein Biochemistry and Biophysics Group, 

Located at the Chemistry Department,

Faculdade de Filosofia Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto - USP

Research Activities

All the research projects are dedicated to the study of the basic properties of proteins of medical or industrial importance. These projects combine protein engineering and spectroscopic techniques to further the understanding of the relationships between the three dimensional structure of proteins and their biological functions. The specific research projects are concentrated in 3 areas:

1) Correlating the structural changes in phospholipases A2 with membrane damaging and pharmacological activities. You can either go straight to the project details, or browse some introductory material first.

2) Sub-proteomic analysis of Leishmania major to identify potential targets for pharmaceutical intervention in the treatment of Leishmaniasis. Follow the links to the project summary, or to some background information on proteome techniques.

3) Using directed evolution techniques to understand the structural basis of temperature tolerance in thermostable mutants of the G11 xylanase from Bacillus subtilis. Click to see the a project report, or read more about directed evolution.