Information
Membership Number: FCA2103
Membership Type: Fellowship
Division: Natural Sciences
Corresponding Email: oaugusto@iq.usp.br
Present and Previous Positions
Full Professor of Biochemistry, Departamento de Bioquímica, Instituto de Química, Universidade de São Paulo
Assistant Professor- Faculty of Education, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, 1976-1977.
Assistant Professor- Dept. of Biochemistry, Instituto de Química, Universidade de São Paulo from 1977-1983
Associate Professor- Dept. of Biochemistry, Instituto de Química, Universidade de São Paulo from 1983-1993
Full Professor- Dept. of Biochemistry, Instituto de Química, Universidade de São Paulo from 1993 to 2023.
Full Professor- Senior Collaborator- Dept. of Biochemistry, Instituto de Química, Universidade de São Paulo from 2023 on.
Fields of Scholarship and Research Interests
Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Toxicology
Chemistry and biochemistry of free radicals and oxidants. Oxidants derived from the bicarbonate buffer. Protein-protein crosslinks mediated by radical mechanisms. Applications of electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) to biomedical problems.
Honors, Awards and Other Membership
Full Member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, 2002
International EPR Society Medal, 2002
Order of Scientific Merit, 2006
Scopus Prize, 2009
Member of the World Academy of Sciences, 2011.
2022- Lifetime achievement award from Society for Redox Biology and Medicine (SfRBM).
2022- Brazilian Women in Chemistry awards from American Chemical Society and Sociedade Brasileira de Química as academic leadership.
2020- Listed among the "Top 2%" of researchers with the greatest impact in the world throughout their career (https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000918).
2018- Rheinboldt-Hauptmann Prize
2013-2018- Associated Editor of Free Radical Biology and Medicine.
2016- People behind the Science Podcast (November 16).
2016- Professor honored by the students at the 33rd Chemistry Week.
2011- Member of the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World (TWAS).
2011- Member of the Academy of Sciences of the São Paulo State.
2010- Prize for Research in Chemistry from the American Chemical Society/CAPES.
2009- Scopus Prize- Elsevier/CAPES.
2008- Science focus on ASBMB Today, May.
2006- Brazilian Order of Scientific Merit-Comendador.
2006- Adhonorum Professor, Faculdad de Medicina, Universidad de la Republica, Montevideo, Uruguay.
2005- South American Free Radical Research Personality.
2002- Silver Medal for Biology and Medicine of the International EPR Society.
2002- Member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences.
2000- Fellow of the Society for Redox Biology and Medicine former Oxygen Society.
1992-1994- Brazilian representative on the IUPAC Comission on Toxicology.
Selected Publications
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=D2B_pToAAAAJ
Other Information
https://twas.org/directory/augusto-ohara
Personal Statement
My scientific career has been always focused in understanding the multiple roles of free radicals and oxidants in physiology and pathophysiology. My PhD thesis provided the first experimental evidence for oxyhemoglobin existing as an Hb3+O2- complex. However, I did not pursue the subject because I considered important to detect free radicals more unambiguously and decided to learn EPR moving to USA to do post-doctoral work at Lester Packer´s lab at UC Berkeley. There, I learned the basics of EPR and, after 1 year, moved to Paul Ortiz de Montellano´s lab at UC San Francisco to apply EPR to study drug metabolism. Using EPR spin trapping complemented with kinetics, mass spectrometry and other methodologies, we uncovered the mechanism by which some drugs are metabolized by hemeproteins to carbon-centered radicals that attack the heme group irreversible inactivating the proteins. Back to Brazil, I teamed with Shirley Schreier to create an EPR facility at our university. With this facility in place, I was able to continue exploring the production of free radicals during the metabolism of drugs, including antimalarials and medicines used to treat Chaga´s disease. I also explored the ability of carbon-centered radical metabolites cleaving and adding to nucleic acids. More important, our EPR facility was crucial in fostering science communication by bringing in researchers from across Brazil and all Latin America. I actively collaborated with many of them, including with Rafael Radi from Uruguay. By sharing our expertise in peroxynitrite and EPR, we demonstrated the formation of radicals during the proton- and CO2-catalyzed decomposition of peroxynitrite. In the latter case, because of the unequivocal characterization of the carbonate radical by fast-flow EPR and isotopic labeling I received the 2002 Medal for Biology and Medicine of the International EPR Society. The discovery of NO· as a signaling free radical had a major impact in the field bringing in new reactive species, such as peroxynitrite, nitrogen dioxide and carbonate radical. While studying production of the carbonate radical by human superoxide dismutase 1 (hSOD1), we showed that attack of the radical on the enzyme produced a novel cross-link, the ditryptophan cross-link. Since then, I have been studying the formation of the ditryptophan cross-link in proteins other than hSOD1 and by oxidants other the carbonate radical. The role of the cross-link in protein aggregation diseases is also under study and we recently demonstrated their presence in the proteins of human cataractous lenses. For many years, I have been arguing for the biological relevance of another oxidant derived from the bicarbonate buffer, peroxymonocarbonate. Only recently we and other independent investigators presented evidences for the possible participation of peroxymonocarbonate in cellular signaling, bringing more attention to the influence of CO2 in mammalian cell metabolism. While working in the redox area, I supervised many students who obtained master and PhD degrees and I supervised many postdocs. I also received several and honors and awards. Namely, the title of Fellow of the SfRBM (Society for Redox Biology and Medicine) (2000); the Medal for Biology of the International EPR Society (2002); the title of Adhonorum Professor from the Faculdad de Medicina, Universidad de la Republica, Uruguay (2006), the title of “Comendador” of the Brazilian Order of Scientific Merit (2006); the Rheinboldt-Hauptmann Prize (2018); the 5th Brazilian Women in Chemistry (ACS/SBQ) 2022; the 2022 Lifetime Achievement Award SfRBM. I am a member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences (since 2002), the Academy of Sciences of the State of São Paulo (since 2011) and the TWAS (World Academy of Sciences) (since 2011). I was one of the Associate Editors of Free Radicals Biology & Medicine from 2013-2018. Since 2013 I coordinate the Research, Innovation and Dissemination Center for Redox Processes in Biomedicine (Redoxoma) (http://redoxoma.iq.usp.br/).