Dr. Cristina Afonso
Physical sciences
Biological and related sciences, Health, Physical sciences
Protein biochemistry, malaria, structural biology, drug development
Biochemistry of redox metabolism
Rational development of drugs to fight malaria and tumour-based diseases
Parasite-host interactions
Redox proteins
Selenoproteins
Rudolf Leuckart Medal from the German Society for Parasitology, 2010
Accepted to the National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, 2009
Carus Prize from the city of Schweinfurt, Germany, 2004
Carus Medal from the National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, 2003
Friedrich Fischer grant from Heidelberg University for the "Oxidative stress in malnutrition” research project, 1998
Boehringer-Mannheim research fellowship, 1994
Award from the Foundation for Nutritional Science, Göttingen, Germany, 1993
Ludolf Krehl Prize from the Southwestern German Society for Internal Medicine, 1989
Award in senior-year competition of the state of Baden-Württemberg, "Classical Languages"; funded by the German National Academic Foundation, 1983
English, German
Becker K, Rahlfs S (Forum eds.): Forum Issue on “Redox biology of parasites”. Antiox Redox Signal, in press
Fritz-Wolf K, Kehr S, Stumpf M, Rahlfs S, Becker K: Crystal structure of the human thioredoxin reductase – thioredoxin complex. In: Nature Communic 2, 2011. 383 | DOI: 10.1038/ncomms1382 | www.nature.com/naturecommunications
Kehr S, Jortzik E, Delahunty C, Yates III JR, Rahlfs S, Becker K: Protein S-glutathionylation in malaria parasites. In: Antiox Redox Signal 15, 2011. S. 2855-2865.
Kehr S, Sturm N, Rahlfs S, Przyborski JM, Becker K: Compartmentation of redox metabolism in malaria parasites. In: PLoS Pathogens 6, 2010. e1001242
Becker K (vol. ed.): Apicomplexan Parasites – Molecular Approaches toward Targeted Drug Development. Drug Discovery in Infectious Diseases (Vol. 2). (Hrsg. Becker, K) 2011. ISBN-13: 978-3-527-32731-7 – Wiley-VCH, Weinheim
Koncarevic, S. et al.: Plasmodium falciparum imports the human protein peroxiredoxin 2 for peroxide detoxification. In: Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 106, 2009. S. 13323-13328.
Perez-Jimenez, R. et al.: Diversity of chemical mechanisms in thioredoxin catalysis. In. Nature Structural and Molecular Biology 16, 2009. S. 890-896.
Sturm, N. et al.: Identification of proteins targeted by the thioredoxin superfamily in Plasmodium falciparum. In: PLoS Pathogens 5(4), 2009. e1000383.
Kamerbeek, N.M. et al.: Molecular basis of glutathione reductase deficiency in human blood cells. In: Blood 109, 2007. S. 3560-3566.
Urig, S. et al.: Undressing of phosphine gold(I) therapeutic agents as irreversible inhibitors of human disulfide reductases. In: Angew Chem Int Ed Engl 45, 2006. S. 1881-1886.
Becker, K., Engelen, E.M., Vec, M. (eds.): Ethisierung – Ethikferne. Wieviel Ethik braucht die Wissenschaft? Berlin, 2003.
Fritz-Wolf, K. et al.: X-ray structure of glutathione S-transferase from the malarial parasite Plasmodium falciparum. In: Proc Natl Acad Sci 100, 2003. S. 13821-13826.
Kanzok, S. et al.: Substitution of the thioredoxin system for glutathione reductase in Drosophila melanogaster. In: Science 291, 2001. S. 643-646.
Becker, K. et al.: Enzyme inactivation through sulfhydryl oxidation by physiologic NO-carriers. In: Nature Struct Biol 5, 1998. S. 267-271.
Becker, K., Hopkins, T., Schirmer, R.H.: Antimalarial activity of the ethanol/alcohol oxidase system in vitro. US-patent HBW # 32562, 1990.
Keese, M.A. et al.: Microinjected glutathione reductase crystals as indicators of the redox status in living cells. DE # 44 30 719-5, 1999.
Becker, K. et al.: Highly potent gold-phosphole inhibitors of human glutathione reductase. International patent WO 2006/024770, 2004.
Becker K, Fritz-Wolf K & Zimmermann H: Ellagic acid derivatives as P. falciparum glutathione S-transferase inhibitors and potential antimalarial drugs. Garching Innovations, Munich (PCT/EP2006/060707), 2005.
Becker K, Krieg R & Schönecker B: Derivatives of steroid-benzylamines with antiparasitic, antibacterial and antiviral activity (PTC/DE 2011/001829), 2011.
Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
International Society for Free Radical Research
German Society for Parasitology
German Society for Tropical Medicine
Member of the Junge Akademie (academy of young scientists) of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities and the National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina
Member of the National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina
Expert consultant in the evaluation of institutions at the Leibniz Association (Bernhard Nocht Institute Hamburg), since 2009
Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Centre for International Development and Environmental Research, since 2007
Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the German Institute for Nutritional Sciences, Potsdam, since 2006
Member of the Scientific Advisory Board for the BlueCQ Study (chloroquine-methylene blue combinational therapy of malaria), Heidelberg University, 2003 – 2005
Consultant to the Volkswagen Foundation “Africa Funding Initiative", 2002
Das Profil von Katja Becker auf Wikipedia
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Physical sciences
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Biological and related sciences, Evolutionary biology, Evolutionary genetics
Physical sciences, Preparative and physical chemistry of polymersNanotechnology