Jose Rizo-Rey (Josep Rizo), Ph.D.

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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.

Undergraduate	University of Barcelona - Spain (1981), Organic Chemistry
Graduate School	University of Barcelona - Spain (1982), Organic Chemistry
Undergraduate	University of Barcelona - Spain (1988), Theoretical Physics
Graduate School	University of Barcelona - Spain (1988), Organic Chemistry

• Mechanisms of intracellular membrane fusion
• Mechanisms of neurotransmitter release and presynaptic plasticity
• Mechanisms underlying prostate cancer
• NMR spectroscopy
• Structural biology

Featured Publications

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

Close membrane-membrane proximity induced by Ca2+-dependent multivalent binding of synaptotagmin 1 to phospholipids

D. Arac, X. Chen, H. A. Khant, J. Ubach, S. J. Ludtke, M. Kikkawa, A. E. Johnson, W. Chiu, T. C. Sudhof and J. Rizo Nat. Struct. Molec. Biol. 2006 13 209-217

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

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

I. Dulubova, S. Sugita, S. Hill, M. Hosaka, I. Fernandez, T. C. S|dhof and J. Rizo EMBO J. 1999 18 4372-4382

The Janus-faced nature of the C(2)B domain is fundamental for synaptotagmin-1 function.

Xue M, Ma C, Craig TK, Rosenmund C, Rizo J Nat. Struct. Mol. Biol. 2008 Nov 15 11 1160-8

Munc18-1 binds directly to the neuronal SNARE complex

Dulubova, I., Khvotchev, M., Liu, S., Huryeva, I., Sudhof, T. C. and Rizo, J. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 2007 104 2697-2702

Structural Basis for a Munc13-1 Homodimer to Munc13-1/RIM Heterodimer Switch.

Lu,J., Machius,M., Dulubova,I., Dai,H., Sudhof,T.C., Tomchick,D.R., and Rizo,J. PLoS. Biol. 2006 4 1159-1172

Three-dimensional structure of an evolutionarily conserved N-terminal domain of syntaxin 1A

I. Fernandez, J. Ubach, X. Zhang, T. C. S|dhof and J. Rizo Cell 1998 18 841-849

Bipartite Ca2+-Binding Motif in C2 Domains of Synaptotagmin and Protein Kinase C

X. Shao, B. A. Davletov, R. B. Sutton, T. C. S|dhof and J. Rizo Science 1996 273 248-251

• K.P. Professor
  Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China (2008)
• Molecular Biosciences Lecturer
  Wichita State University (2006)
• Visiting Lecturer
  Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research (2006)
• Established Investigator Award
  American Heart Association (1998)
• IV Sant Albert Award for Graduate Research
  School of Chemistry Graduates, Catalan Chemical Association (Spain) (1983)
• Student Award
  Catalan Society of Physical, Chemical, and Mathematical Sciences (Spain) (1983)

• American Association for the Advancement of Science
• American Chemical Association
• Biophysical Society
• Sociedad de Biofísica de España