Biochemical Journal Young Investigator Award winner

Oscar Perez-Leal

Oscar Perez-Leal obtained his MD in Colombia from the Universidad del Norte in 2002 where he graduated with honours. In 2003, he joined the Institute of Immunology of Colombia at the Department of Molecular Biology as a research fellow, where he received training in molecular biology and immunology with emphasis on plasmodium parasites. Under the supervision of Dr Manuel A. Patarroyo he started a project to identify and characterize new membrane antigens in Plasmodium vivax applying bioinformatics tools, in the analysis of the partial genome sequences that were available. He was able to fully characterize five new proteins in Plasmodium vivax within three years. In 2005, the National Academy of Medicine of Colombia awarded him honorary distinction in basic research for his work. In the same year, he joined the Department of Biochemistry at Temple University, Philadelphia, USA, as a postdoctoral fellow. He has been studying the metabolism of polyamines in mammalian cells. He is currently interested in identifying new ways to increase the activity of the enzyme that catalyses the acetylation of the polyamines as one of the possible mechanism to treat diseases such as cancer and obesity.