Staff

Carlos Cerveñansky (Full-time Associated Researcher, head of the Unit)
Rosario Durán (Assistant Researcher)
Carlos Batthyány (Assistant Researcher, part-time, honorary position)
Magdalena Portela (Technical Assistant, part-time)
Analía Lima (Fellow, Ministry of Education, part-time)

Research interests and activities

• Isolation and characterization of novel neuroactive peptides present in animal venoms: i) peptide ligands of muscarinic-type acetylcholine receptors (MTXs) present in Dendroaspis sp. snake venoms; ii) neural ion-channels blockers from sea-anemone nematocysts;

• Methodological developments in identification, separation and purification of natural proteins and peptides by chromatography, in particular HPLC. Chemical and enzymatic fragmentation of proteins to study structure, sequence and mass spectrometry sample preparation;

• Analysis of posttranslational protein modification in proteins. In particular, auto-phosphorylation of protein Ser/Thr kinases in mycobacteria, and its effect in enzyme activity and regulation regarding endogenous protein substrates and signaling pathways;

• Management and running of the biological Mass Spectrometry Facility, as an associated unit to the Faculty of Sciences (Universidad de la República) by agreement with IIBCE. Involvement in many collaborative research projects such as “Proteomic studies in Trypanosoma cruzi “ or “Nitration of cytochrome C”, and in the access to mass spectrometry services to more than 30 local and external research groups.

Publications

Jerusalinsky, D., Kornisiuk, E., Alfaro, P., Quillfeldt, J., Ferreira, A., Rial, E., Durán, R., and Cerveñansky, C. Muscarinic toxins: novel pharmacological tools for the muscarinic cholinergic system. Toxicon 38: 747-761

Batthyany,C.,Santos,C.X.,Botti,H.,Cerveñansky,C.,Radi,R.,Augusto,O. and Rubbo, H. Direct evidence for apo B-100-mediated copper reduction: studies with purified apo B-100 and detection of tryptophanyl radicals. Arch.Biochem.Biophys. 384:335-340

Lagos, P., Durán, R., Cerveñansky, C., De Freitas, J.C., and Silveira, R.. Identification of hemolytic and neuroactive fractions in the venom of the sea anemone Bunodosoma cangicum. Braz. J. Med Biol Res 34:

Cortazzo, P., Cerveñansky, C., Marín, M., Reiss, C., Ehrlich, R. and Deana, A. Silent mutations affect in vivo protein folding in Escherichia coli. Biochem. Biophys.Res. Commun. 293: 537-541

Harvey AL, Kornisiuk E, Bradley KN, Cerveñansky C, Durán R, Adrover M, Sanchez G, Jerusalinsky D. Effects of muscarinic toxins MT1 and MT2 from green mamba on different muscarinic cholinoceptors. Neurochem Res. 27, 1543-54

Battistoni F, Platero R, Durán R, Cerveñansky C, Battistoni J, Arias A, Fabiano E. Identification of an iron-regulated, hemin-binding outer membrane protein in Sinorhizobium meliloti.
Appl Environ Microbiol. 68, 5877-81

Ferreira AR, Furstenau L, Blanco C, Kornisiuk E, Sanchez G, Daroit D, Castro e Silva M, Cerveñansky, C, Jerusalinsky D, Quillfeldt JA. Role of hippocampal M1 and M4 muscarinic receptor subtypes in memory consolidation in the rat. Pharmacol. Biochem. Behav.74: 411-415

Boitel, B., Ortiz-Lombardía, M., Durán, R., Pompeo, F., Cole, S.T., Cerveñansky, C. and Alzari, P. PknB kinase activity is regulated by phosphorylation in two Thr residues and dephosphorylation by PstP, the cognate phospho-Ser/Thr phosphatase, in Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
Mol. Microbiol. 49(6):1493-1508

Zolessi, F, Durán, R., Engstrom, U., Cerveñansky, C., Hellman, U. and Arruti, C. Identification of chicken MARCKS phosphorylation site specific for differentiating neurons as S25 using a monoclonal antibody and mass spectrometry. J. Proteome Res.

Teaching and training activities

Annually participation and organization of post-graduate courses, short stages of young researches for training in HPLC and mass spectrometry of macromolecules, and PEDECIBA PhD students in part cover formative activities.

Services and outreach activities

See under Research interests and activities.

Grants

More recent financial resources include:

• "Proteomic study of Trypanosoma cruzi: identification of stage-specific and stress-induced proteins using micro arrays, 2D-electrophoresis and mass spectrometry approaches". Collaborative research project (with the “Unidad de Patología Molecular”, Dept. of Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, Montevideo, and “Instituto de Biología Molecular”, Curitiba (Brazil). Program AMSUD- Institute Pasteur.

• “Analysis of Trypanosoma cruzi proteome: identification of molecular markers for oxidative stress and drug response”. Collaborative project from ECOS Program (Universidad de la República- French Government).

• “Functional and biochemical characterization of signaling pathways involving reversible phosphorylation of Serine and Threonine in Mycobacterium tuberculosis, using a proteomic approach”. Project from the National Technological Development Program No160 (PDT-DINACYT- Ministry of Education, Uruguay).