Alejandro J. Vila

Alejandro Vila is Full Professor of Biophysics at the University of Rosario (UNR) and Senior Researcher of the Argentinean National Council of Scientific and Technological Research (CONICET). He is a chemistry by training, who got his PhD in synthetic organic chemistry, and then transitioned to biochemistry in a postdoctoral stay in Florence, Italy, where he trained in protein NMR spectroscopy. He is an expert on metalloproteins and the chemical biology of transition metal ions. His research then transitioned to the interface of biochemistry, inorganic chemistry and microbiology. His laboratory studies the role of β-lactamases in antimicrobial resistance, encompassing biochemical and mechanistic details, protein evolution, inhibitor design, and β-lactamase physiology in the periplasm of Gram-negative bacteria. He has published more than 150 papers in leading international scientific journals such as Nature Chemical Biology, Nature Communications, Lancet ID, PNAS, EMBO Journal, mBio, JACS, Angewandte Chemie, Chemical Science, etc. Alejandro has been invited to give conferences in > 200 scientific meetings and academic institutions in the country and abroad. He was a pioneer in the field of structural biology in Argentina, particularly in protein NMR spectroscopy, where he has trained many students, 10 of them being now group leaders in different institutions. Among several awards, he has been International Scholar of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Fellow of the Guggenheim Foundation, and is member of several academies, including the American Academy of Microbiology. He has served as member of editorial boards of several journals, being currently member of the Editorial Boards of mBio (ASM), Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ASM), Journal of Biological Chemistry (ASBMB), Chemical Science (RSC) and ACS Organic and Inorganic Au (ACS).