Antonio J. Pierik 21st International Conference on Biological Inorganic Chemistry 2025

Antonio J. Pierik

Iron-sulfur proteins of prokaryotes and eukaryotes My group discovers and characterizes novel iron-sulfur proteins through a combination of bioinformatic, protein biochemical and spectroscopic approaches. Equally of interest are non-cysteine coordinated Fe/S proteins, catalytically active (dehydratase) Fe/S enzymes and Fe/S biogenesis in the cytosol of eukaryotes. Our results are of importance for a fundamental understanding of bioinorganic cofactors in Life and for biotechnological application. ACADEMIC POSITIONS 2023 – present Dean of the Department of Chemistry, RPTU Kaiserslautern-Landau (Germany). 2013 – present Full Professor of Biochemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, RPTU Kaiserslautern-Landau (Germany). 2006 – 2013 Group leader, Inst. of Cytobiology, Philipps Univ., Marburg, (Germany). Yeast genetics, eukaryotic [Fe-S]-proteins and their assembly factors. 2000 – 2005 Group leader, Microbial Biochemistry, Philipps University Marburg (Germany). Nicotinate catabolism and radical enzymes. 1998 – 1999 Postdoctoral fellow, Microbial Biochemistry, Philipps University, Marburg (Germany), with Prof. W. Buckel. Biochemical and EPR characterization of vitamin B12-dependent mutases. 1996 – 1998 Postdoctoral fellow, E.C. Slater Institute, University of Amsterdam (the Netherlands), with Dr. S.P.J. Albracht. FTIR and EPR spectroscopic studies of the metallocentres of hydrogenases. 1992 – 1995 Postdoctoral fellow, Nitrogen Fixation Laboratory, Brighton (U.K.) with Dr. R.R. Eady and Prof. B.E. Smith. EPR of the P-cluster iron-sulfur centres of nitrogenase systems. ACADEMIC DEGREES 2007 Higher Doctorate (Habilitation) in Microbiology at the Biology Dept., Philipps Univ., Marburg (Germany). 1987 – 1992 PhD in biochemistry (cum laude). Agricultural Univ., Wageningen (the Netherlands), PhD supervisors: Prof. W.R. Hagen and Prof. C. Veeger. Thesis title: 'Studies on the iron-sulfur clusters of hydrogenase, sulfite reductase, nitrogenase and the prismane protein'. 1982 - 1987 BSc/MSc in chemistry (cum laude). Univ. of Utrecht (the Netherlands). Organic chemistry (Synthesis of chiral cyclic bis-phosphines) with Dr. J. Boersma and Dr. P. Vermeer. Biochemistry (Ca2+-independent phospholipase A2 in rat tissues) with Prof. H. van den Bosch. PUBLICATIONS 127 publications in refereed journals, 8 reviews and two book chapters.