A new journal covering the research fields related to biometals
Professor Emeritus Bibudhendra Sarkar
Bibudhendra (Amu) Sarkar is a leading authority in Inorganic Biochemistry. He graduated with a Ph.D. degree in Biochemistry from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles in 1964. He joined the Department of Biochemistry, University of Toronto and Research Institute of the Hospital for Sick Children with a Medical Research Council Scholar award. He was a Visiting Scientist in the Institute de Biologie Physico-Chimique, Université de Paris-Sorbonne, France where he worked on the ab initio molecular orbital calculations of metal-binding sites of proteins. He was a Visiting Scholar working on protein structure in the Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge, UK with an award from the Nuffield Foundation. As the Head of Structural Biology and Biochemistry Department in the Hospital, he established a major research centre with a broad initiative in protein structure and function. He discovered the copper-histidine treatment of Menkes disease, a devastating neurodegenerative disease in children caused by genetic defect of copper transport. His pioneering research on the structure and function of metal-binding proteins led to the discovery of ATCUN motif, which can serve as a probe for protein structure determination by paramagnetic relaxation enhancement NMR spectroscopy and selective cleavage of DNA. His major research interests are in the area of metal-related genetic diseases with a special emphasis on Wilson and Menkes diseases and studying the effects of toxic metals in the environment and its impact on human health. Dr. Sarkar is a Professor Emeritus in the University of Toronto and the Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto.
