Iban Ubarretxena-Belandia

Assistant Professor

Biochemistry

Tel. (212) 650-8320
Fax: (212) 650-6107
E-mail: iu[at]sci.ccny.cuny.edu

B.S. Basque Country University, Spain
Ph.D. Utrecht University, The Netherlands



Research


My research interests focus on the function and organization of cellular membranes with emphasis on the structural biology of integral membrane proteins. I am interested in biological membranes because they mediate many of the most interesting processes in cells such as differentiation, uptake of metabolites, and communication with the surrounding environment. Membrane proteins such as receptors, transporters, channels and enzymes carry out these processes. I am interested in studying these proteins from a structural perspective because this brings an understanding of function in chemical terms. This understanding can have relevant applications in Biotechnology and Medicine. My research involves: 1) High-yield expression and purification of integral membrane proteins. 2) Functional characterization of the purified proteins using biochemical and biophysical approaches. 3) Structural studies using high-resolution electron cryo-microscopy and x-ray crystallography

Selected Publications

*Mitra, K., *Ubarretxena-Belandia, I., Taguchi, T., Warren, G. & Engelman, D.M. (2004) Proteins rather than cholesterol set the bilayer thickness of exocytic pathway membranes. PNAS, 101, 4083-4088 *co-first authors.

Ubarretxena-Belandia, I., Baldwin, J.M., Schuldiner, S., & Tate C.G. (2003) Three-dimensional structure of the bacterial multidrug transporter EmrE shows it is an asymmetric homo-dimer. EMBO J. 22, 6175-6178

*Senes, A., *Ubarretxena-Belandia, I., & Engelman, D.M. (2001) The CNa-H...O bond: a determinant of stability and specificity in transmembrane helix interactions. PNAS 98, 9056-9061. *co-first authors.

Ubarretxena-Belandia, I., & Engelman, D.M. (2001) Helical membrane proteins: diversity of functions in the context of simple architecture. Curr Opin Struct Biol 11, 370-6376.

Snijder, H.J., Ubarretxena-Belandia, I., Blaauw, M., Kalk, K.H., Verheij, H.M., Egmond M.R., Dekker, N., & Dijkstra, B.W. (1999) Structural evidence for dimerization-regulated activation of an integral membrane phospholipase. Nature 401, 717-721.

Ubarretxena-Belandia, I., Hozeman, L., van der Brink-van der Laan, E., Pap, E.H.M., Egmond, M.R., Verheij, H.M., & Dekker, N. (1999) Outer membrane phospholipase A is dimeric in phospholipid bilayers: a cross-linking and fluorescence resonance energy transfer study. Biochemistry 38, 7398-7405.