Peroxiporins (PDF)

transport assays, he and colleagues provided first time functional evidence that specific aquaporins facilitate the transport of hydrogen peroxide across membranes: the nowadays called "peroxiporins". A by now, routinely applied assay to characterize the transmembrane transport of hydrogen peroxide had been developed. He then moved on to be a postdoctoral researcher at UCLouvain, Belgium. Between 2013 and 2020, he headed an independent research group at the Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research in Gatersleben dealing with the elucidations of mechanisms regulating metalloid efficiency in crops. In 2021, Prof. Bienert was Laureate of the Joseph Schepkens award for "Plant Genetics" from the Belgian Royal Academy for Science for his work on "Water and Metalloid Transport in Arable Crops".

Roberto Sitia, MD - During his training as a hematologist at the University of Genoa, Roberto Sitia became fascinated by the immune system, and how our body manages to produce, assemble and release highly specific antibodies against the most diverse substances it encounters. Always in search of mechanistic explanations to the scientific problem at stake, he worked at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York (US) and then at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge. In 1990, he was then recruited at the San Raffaele Hospital in Milan to help in the design, management and development of a competitive Research Institute (DiBiT) and a Medical School (UniSR), both of which are now considered the best in Italy. Since over two decades RS is a full professor of Molecular Biology at UniSR.

Key discoveries include the mechanisms of i) protein quality control and traffic jams in the secretory pathway, ii) unconventional (leaderless) protein secretion, iii) oxidative folding; iv) de novo ER biogenesis during the differentiation of antibody producing cells and v) redox adaptation to increased Ig secretion and lifespan control. Recently, his lab pioneered the discovery and characterization of peroxiporins, and their role in inter- and intra-cellular redox signaling and homeostasis. Member elect of the European Molecular Biology Organization, he has published over 170 papers, many of which are highly cited breakthroughs. Many investigators trained in his lab now occupy leading positions all over the world. Besides his scientific and managerial activities, Roberto Sitia fights for the survival and growth of basic sciences, a tough challenge in a period in which obscurantism is getting space.