Prof. dr. Eva Estébanez-Perpiñá

University of Barcelona, Spain

Prof. Dr. Eva Estébanez-Perpiñá obtained both her degrees of Biochemistry and Psychology(Neurosciences) from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB). She did her Ph.D. in Structural Biology under the direction or Prof. Dr. Robert Huber, 1988-Nobel Prize Laureate in Chemistry and Prof. Dr. Wolfram Bode, both at the Max-Planck-Institute fuer Biochemie(Martinsried, Munich, Germany), where she solved the first crystal structures of the human proteases named Granzymes, which are key caspase activators and proteins involved in auto-immune disorders. For her postdoctoral studies she went to the University of California, San Francisco, where she worked with Prof. Robert Fletterick and Prof. John. D. Baxter, where she focused on the structure-function relationship of human nuclear receptors named Androgen Receptor (AR), Thyroid Receptor (TR) and the ionotropic AMPA Receptor in collaboration with Prof. Pam England. Key collaborations in UCSF included publications with Profs. Kevan Shokat, Kip Guy and Leggy Alexander. During her postdoc Prof. Dr. Eva Estébanez-Perpiñá discovered the first allosteric pocket in the Androgen Receptor and she coined the term BF-3 pocket. She discovered during her stay at UCSF the first allosteric modulators of AR and TR. Her laboratory is at the University of Barcelona (UB), where she is Tenured Agregate Professor and currently is up for promotion as Full Professor at the Institute of Biomedicine (IBUB) of the same University. She studies oligomerization of the human Glucocorticoid Receptor (GR) and the Androgen Receptor, and elucidated the first structure of the dimeric form of AR. Her Laboratory uses several biophysical and biochemical techniques and X-ray crystallography are central to their studies. She collaborates with national and international companies to design better antiandrogens to fight prostate cancer and improved corticoids for asthma and auto-immune diseases. Her team collaborates with Prof. Gordon Hager (NIH, USA); Profs. Mercedes Ricote, Ana Rojas and Juan Fernández Recio (CSIC, Spain); Prof. Pablo Fuentes (IBUB) and Prof. Mirjana Maletic-Savatic (Baylor College, US). Prof. Dr. Eva Estébanez-Perpiñá teaches at the Degree of Biochemistry and Master of Biotechnology of the University of Barcelona.