Dr. Alvaro Elorza
Marine Biologist
P. Universidad Católica del Norte
I am marine biologist from the Catholic University of the North, Chile and PhD in Cell and Molecular Biology from the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile as well as from the University of Bordeaux 2 Victor Segalen, Bordeaux, France. My PhD thesis was on gene regulation of nuclear-encoded mitochondrial proteins in plants. It was my first approach to mitochondria. Then, I moved to Boston, MA, USA for my postdoctoral training in molecular physiology of mitochondria which I did in the laboratory of Dr. Orian Shirihai at Tufts University (He is now at the University of Boston ). I worked on mitochondrial dynamics and bioenergetics in animal’s models of diabetes and anemia, publishing for the first time the mitochondrial quality control system. An EMBO paper that has more than 1300 citations. Right after my postdoc, I worked for almost a year as a scientist at the bioenergetics company Seahorse Bioscience Inc, MA, USA. Finally, I moved back to Chile in 2009 to settle down my own lab at University Andres Bello.
