Jose “Josep Rizo” Rizo-Rey, Ph.D. Titles and Appointments Professor Endowed Title Virginia Lazenby O'Hara Chair in Biochemistry Schools Medical School | Graduate School Departments Biophysics | Biochemistry | Pharmacology Graduate Programs Molecular Biophysics, Neuroscience Biography Download Curriculum Vitae Jose Rizo-Rey serves as the Chair of the Molecular Biophysics graduate program. He was born in Barcelona, Spain, in 1959. He received a B.Sc. degree in Organic Chemistry in 1981 from the University of Barcelona. During these college studies, he became very interested in quantum field theory and statistical mechanics, which led him to obtain a second B.Sc. degree, this time in theoretical physics, from the same University in 1988. During the 1982-1988 period, he also obtained M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in organic chemistry from the University of Barcelona, working in the laboratories of Ernest Giralt and Enrique Pedroso. He first worked on pioneering methodology to analyze peptides attached to solid supports by gel-phase 13C NMR spectroscopy, and later on the development of polar protecting groups for peptide synthesis. In 1989 he started postdoctoral research in the laboratory of Lila Gierasch at UT Southwestern, working on conformational studies of a variety of peptides by NMR spectroscopy and molecular dynamics. In the early 1990s he shifted his interest to protein NMR and protein folding. He established his independent research group in 1995 at UT Southwestern. The main focus of his research is the study of the mechanisms of neurotransmitter release and intracellular membrane fusion using structural biology, a variety of biophysical techniques and reconstitution approaches. A bilingual environment in Barcelona, where most people speaks Catalan and Spanish, together with his move to the US, have led to a duality of names: his official name is Jose Rizo-Rey, but he signs all his publications as Josep Rizo. The Rizo lab homepage can be found at biophysics.swmed.edu/~rizo/ E-mail: Jose.Rizo-Rey@UTSouthwestern.edu Education Undergraduate University of Barcelona (1981), Organic Chemistry Graduate School University of Barcelona (1982), Organic Chemistry Undergraduate University of Barcelona (1988), Theoretical Physics Graduate School University of Barcelona (1988), Organic Chemistry Research Interest Mechanisms of intracellular membrane fusion Mechanisms of neurotransmitter release and presynaptic plasticity Mechanisms underlying prostate cancer NMR spectroscopy Structural biology Publications Featured Publications A lever hypothesis for Synaptotagmin-1 action in neurotransmitter release. Jaczynska K, Esser V, Xu J, Sari L, Lin MM, Rosenmund C, Rizo J, Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2025 Jan 122 1 e2417941121 Molecular mechanism underlying SNARE-mediated membrane fusion enlightened by all-atom molecular dynamics simulations. Rizo J, Sari L, Jaczynska K, Rosenmund C, Lin MM, Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2024 Apr 121 16 e2321447121 SNARE assembly enlightened by cryo-EM structures of a synaptobrevin-Munc18-1-syntaxin-1 complex. Stepien KP, Xu J, Zhang X, Bai XC, Rizo J, Sci Adv 2022 Jun 8 25 eabo5272 Mechanistic Insights into Neurotransmitter Release and Presynaptic Plasticity from the Crystal Structure of Munc13-1 C1C2BMUN. Xu J, Camacho M, Xu Y, Esser V, Liu X, Trimbuch T, Pan YZ, Ma C, Tomchick DR, Rosenmund C, Rizo J Elife 2017 Feb 6 Reconstitution of the vital functions of Munc18 and Munc13 in neurotransmitter release. Ma C, Su L, Seven AB, Xu Y, Rizo J Science 2013 Jan 339 6118 421-5 Munc13 mediates the transition from the closed syntaxin-Munc18 complex to the SNARE complex. Ma C, Li W, Xu Y, Rizo J Nat. Struct. Mol. Biol. 2011 May 18 5 542-9 Three-dimensional structure of the complexin/SNARE complex X. Chen, D. Tomchick, E. Kovrigin, D. Arac, M. Machius, T. C. S|dhof and J. Rizo Neuron 2002 33 397-409 Three-dimensional structure of the synaptotagmin 1 C2B-domain: synaptotagmin 1 as a phospholipid binding machine. Fernandez I, Araç D, Ubach J, Gerber SH, Shin O, Gao Y, Anderson RG, Südhof TC, Rizo J Neuron 2001 Dec 32 6 1057-69 Synaptotagmin I functions as a calcium regulator of release probability. Fernández-Chacón R, Königstorfer A, Gerber SH, García J, Matos MF, Stevens CF, Brose N, Rizo J, Rosenmund C, Südhof TC Nature 2001 Mar 410 6824 41-9 A conformational switch in syntaxin during exocytosis: role of munc18. Dulubova I, Sugita S, Hill S, Hosaka M, Fernandez I, Südhof TC, Rizo J EMBO J. 1999 Aug 18 16 4372-82 Results 1-10 of 143 1 2 3 4 5 Next Last Honors & Awards Inaugural FEBS Open Bio Lecture awardFEBS Open Bio (2023) Sir Bernard Katz AwardMembrane Fusion, Fission, and Traffic Subgroup of the Biophysical Society (2023) Keynote LectureCollaborative Research Center 665, Developmental disturbances in the nervous system, Final Symposium, Berlin, Germany (2017) R35 Research Program AwardNIH (2016) Keynote Lecture17th International Neuroscience Winter Conference, Soelden, Austria (2015) Medalla Narcis Monturiol al Merit CientificGeneralitat de Catalunya (2015) Guest ProfessorHuazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China (2014-2018) Visiting ProfessorAcademia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan (2014) Keynote Lecture8th Asian Biophysics Association Symposium, Jeju Island, South Korea (2013) Neuroscience Distinguished LectureUniversity of Toronto (2013) Closing Lecture35th Lorne Conference on Protein Structure and Function, Lorne, Australia (2010) Keynote SpekaerCentre for Neurogenomics and Cognition Research, Amsterdam, The Netherlands (2010) Opening LectureIV Spanish Portuguese Biophysical Congress, Zaragoza, Spain (2010) K.P. ProfessorZhejiang University, Hangzhou, China (2008) Molecular Biosciences LecturerWichita State University (2006) Visiting LecturerAlberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research (2006) Established Investigator AwardAmerican Heart Association (1998) IV Sant Albert Award for Graduate ResearchSchool of Chemistry Graduates, Catalan Chemical Association (Spain) (1983) Student AwardCatalan Society of Physical, Chemical, and Mathematical Sciences (Spain) (1983) Professional Associations/Affiliations American Association for the Advancement of Science American Chemical Association Biophysical Society Sociedad de Biofísica de España
