Dr Carlos Opazo Martinez
PhD

Dr Carlos Opazo is a Chilean neuroscientist and translational medical researcher, having trained at the Catholic University of Chile (1997–2002), Harvard Medical School (2000/2001) and the University of Melbourne (2002–2004). He has served in senior academic roles that have been instrumental for the education and training of undergraduate and graduate students. He has contributed to understand the role of copper in cell biology and pathology, raising continuous funding from Chilean and Australian agencies.

He described for the first time that Aβ peptide, implicated in Alzheimer’s disease, forms a metallo-catalyst when it binds copper, which may explain the oxidative stress detected in AD brains. Based on this article, in vitro assays were developed that identified new candidate anti-AD drugs, which progressed to human clinical trials.

At The Florey, Dr Opazo has been the first to identify a conserved allosteric cysteine domain in ubiquitin conjugating enzymes that is sensitive to copper, which triggers ubiquitination of the p53 tumor suppressor protein. This finding has implications for cancer and neurodegeneration. Recently, his laboratory has found that iron is accumulated in the prefrontal cortex of individuals with schizophrenia, which opens new avenues to diagnose, monitor and treat this mental disorder.

Key collaborators:

• The Florey – Professor Ashley Bush, Dr Thibault Renoir, Dr Zhiguang Xiao
• Department of Psychiatry, University of Melbourne – Professor Christos Pantelis
• Monash University – Dr Richard Burke
• Department of Microbiology and Immunology – Associate Professor Theo Mantamadiotis
• Hadassah University Medical Center, Israel – Dr Amit Lotan
• University of Concepción, Chile – Dr Patricio Castro, Professor Jorge Fuentealba, Professor José Becerra