Venezuelan Institute for Scientific Research vice president and senior research investigator at the IVIC Department of Structural Biology, Professor Raúl A. Padrón, Ph.D. has been elected to a Fellowship of the Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) at its 15th General Meeting held in Trieste (Italy) last month.

In its citation the Academy says the fellowship is "a clear recognition of Dr. Padron's outstanding contribution to science and its promotion in the Third World."

Dr. Padrón received a Ph.D. in physiology and biophysics and conducted postdoctoral research at the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge (UK). He has been a Visiting Scientist at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Hamburg, the Science & Engineering Research Council anda postdoctoral fellowship at the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge (UK) and the University of Massachusetts Medical School (USA).

Honors include CONICIT biology prizes, a CONICIT PPI Fellowship, and the 1991 Polar Science (Biology) Prize. His current project involves the structure and function of the myosin filaments of striated muscle.

Padron collaborates with colleagues in England, Puerto Rico and Massachusetts but proudly bases his laboratory in his native Venezuela ... "I want to do my scientific work here, to help my country during this critical time, when it is changing rapidly to face the future."  His research into the molecular mechanisms underlying muscle contraction was initially supported by Muscular Dystrophy Association research grants but in 1995, he won a Hughes grant, and with the seed money was able to get funding from the Venezuelan Council for Scientific and Technological Research to start a center for structural biology.

Support for Dr. Padrón's ground-breaking work has also come from Philips Electron Optics in Holland which renamed his facility as the Philips Latin American Center for Cryo-Electron Microscopy ... "now we are training a new generation of scientists ... now we can offer them a solid opportunity to do top-quality science here in Venezuela."

At age 16, Padrón was invited to spend a month at IVIC where he now teaches graduate students and directs structural biology research ..."I enjoyed the experience of working on science there so much that I am still working here ... still doing experiments 33 years later!"

Research now focuses on understanding how muscle contraction is controlled by an increase in calcium concentration in the muscle cells. Padrón's particular specialty is the response of thick filaments -- part of the cellular machinery responsible for muscle contraction -- to changes in calcium levels.  Using electron micrographs, he calculated a three-dimensional reconstruction of the surface of the muscle cell's thick filaments, which consists of the "heads" of many molecules of the protein myosin. Each myosin molecule has two heads, or knobs, that protrude from the filament's surface. Knowing the crystallographic structure of the myosin head enabled the scientists to develop useful atomic models of thick filament and to explore how and why calcium activates this molecular muscle machinery. What they are learning could help solve some of the mysteries underlying familial hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a genetic disorder affecting muscle cells of the heart.

In 1991, Padrón won the Lorenzo Mendoza Fleury Prize ... the top scientific prize in Venezuela. In 1989, 1990 and 1996, the Venezuelan Council for Scientific & Technological Research honored him for the best paper published in biology by Venezuelan scientists.

Married to chemist, Beulah Griffe, Padrón has four children ... one is a medical doctor; another is graduating as a chemical engineer. A third is studying architecture and the youngest is in high school, where he is already showing a scientific bent ... "he is very interested in animals and their living habits ... maybe he will be a scientist in the future."

You may contact Dr. Padrón at the Structural Biology Department of the Venezuelan Scientific Research Institute (IVIC), P.O. Box 21827, Caracas 1020-A, Venezuela - telephone +58/(212) 504.1435 - 504.1717 - 504-1454 (ext.1098) - telefax: +58/(212) 504.1444 -  padron@ivic.ve

Photography: Santiago Padilla