Professor (Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Dept. - UB), CIBERDEM ISCIII
Antonio Zorzano is Full Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Barcelona, Coordinator of the Molecular Medicine Programme at the IRB Barcelona, and Programme Head at CIBERDEM. Professor Zorzano received his PhD in Biology at the University of Barcelona, and did postdoctoral studies with Emilio Herrera (Hospital Ramon y Cajal, Madrid), Neil Ruderman (Boston University Medical Center), and Paul Pilch (Boston University Medical School). He was Visiting Professor at Boston University Medical School (1992).
Boehringer Award from the Spanish Biochemical Society (1991). Young Investigator Lilly Award of the Spanish Society of Diabetes (1992). Research Award, Autonomous Government of Catalonia (Generalitat de Catalunya, 2001). UB Award to Special Dedication to Research (2008-10). Alberto Sols Senior Investigator Award for Basic Sciences of the Spanish Society of Diabetes (2011). ICREA Academia Award (2013).
He has supervised 35 Ph.D. theses, and has coordinated international consortia funded by different European agencies. He is co-inventor of 21 patents, and has published over 270 scientific articles (more than 20,400 citations), with key discoveries published in leading journals, and an h-index of 71 (Google Scholar). He has been founder of biotechnological companies in Spain and in UK.
Professor Zorzano’s research focuses on the regulation of metabolism and its interplay with insulin resistance, obesity and type 2 diabetes. His current interest links metabolism with mitochondrial dynamics, mitochondrial function, autophagy, and mitochondrial stress. A global goal of his group is to identify and validate molecular targets that permit the prevention or treatment of insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes or obesity by using cell-based systems, genetically modified mice, and translational approaches.