Background
1997. Degree in Chemistry from the Universitat de Valencia (Spain).
1998-2004. PhD in biochemistry, competed in 2003 under the supervision of Prof. Padrós at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB, Spain), followed by a one-year postdoc (UAB, Spain). Working on the mitochondrial ATP/ADP carrier and on the development of the analysis of FTIR spectra of proteins, including maximum entropy methods for band-narrowing.
2004-2008. Postdoc at the group of Prof. Kandori (Nagoya Institute of Technology, Japan) with the support of a Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science. Working on the light-driven proton-pump bacteriorhodopsin, particularly on the role of internal water molecules and on the implementation and application of time-resolved step-scan FTIR spectroscopy, and on the development of maximum entropy and inverse methods for the analysis of time-resolved spectroscopic data.
2008-2011. Postdoc at the Center for Biophysical Studies (UAB, Spain), with the support of a Marie Curie Reintegration Grant and a UAB postdoc fellowship. Working on the Na+ coupled secondary transporter melibiose permease by perfusion-induced ATR-FTIR spectroscopy. Co-supervision of 2 PhD students.
2011-2015. Research Associate at the group of Prof. Heberle (Institute of Experimental Biophysics, Freie Universität Berlin). Working on the characterization of the light-driven ion channel channelrhodopsin, predominatly by time-resolved FTIR spectroscopy.
2015-present. Ramon y Cajal fellow at the Universitat de Valencia (Spain). From 2017 Principal Investigator of the Membrane Biophysics Group (MemBioPhys) at the Institute for Molecular Science (ICMol) of the UV. From 2021 Profesor Titular (Associate Professor) at the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.
Research interests
My main methodological expertise is the application of optical spectroscopies, particular IR spectroscopy, to study the mechanism of action of membrane proteins (Lorenz-Fonfria 2020 Chem Rev), including pumps (Lorenz-Fonfria & Kandori 2009 JACS), secondary transporters (Lorenz-Fonfria et al. 2009 JACS, Granell...Lorenz-Fonfria 2010 PNAS), ion channels (Lorenz-Fonfria et al 2013, 2015 PNAS, 2015 JACS), and receptors (Lorenz-Fonfria et al. 2010 JACS). My contribution has been particularly important in the study of the dynamics of light-sensitive proteins by time-resolved spectroscopies. I have also made many important contributions to the development of methods to analyze spectroscopic data, particularly based on Fourier analysis, matrix analysis, the maximum entropy method, and Bayesian inference.
After assuming the leadership of the MemBioPhys group, I expanded my research interest to the study of membrane protein fragments and membrane interacting peptides. In particular, I started working on incorporating optical control into the folding, insertion, and interaction processes of transmembrane proteins fragments and membrane interacting peptides. My final goal is to exploit the attained optical control to comprehensively study and understand these fundamental processes with a combination of high temporal and structural resolution techniques. So far, significant progress has been made in successfully manipulating the membrane topology of a peptide model using light, as documented in the publication by Gutierrez-Salazar et al. (Lorenz-Fonfria, 2021, iScience). Concurrently, I have also been working on the development and use of perdeuterated buffer molecules as vibrational sensors for proton/release and uptake during the functional mechanism of proteins and as vibrational pH-meters, as detailed in the work by Lorenz-Fonfria et al. (PNAS, 2017). Furthermore, I continue studying membrane proteins (Saita...Lorenz-Fonfria 2018 JACS) and soluble proteins (Chaudhari... Lorenz-Fonfria, Fuertes 2023 Prot Scien) by spectroscopic methods.
Publications
Gutiérrez-Salazar, M; Santamaría, E; Sampedro, D; Lórenz-Fonfría, V
"
Photoswitchable hydrophobic helical peptide shows slow and multiexponential folding kinetics in POPC membranes"
Eur. Biophys. J. Biophys. Lett. 48 2019
Navarro-Sánchez, J; Almora-Barrios, N; Lerma-Berlanga, B; Ruiz-Pernía, JJ; Lorenz-Fonfria, VA; Tuñón, I; Martí-Gastaldo, C
"
Translocation of enzymes into a mesoporous MOF for enhanced catalytic activity under extreme conditions"
Chem. Sci. 10 2019
| 10.1039/c9sc00082h
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