Personal Page – Professor

João Renato Carvalho Muniz is an Associate Professor (MS-5) at the Institute of Physics of São Carlos (IFSC), University of São Paulo (USP). He holds a degree in Physics (B.Sc. and Teaching Certification) from São Paulo State University "Júlio de Mesquita Filho" (UNESP), Rio Claro (2000). He completed his M.Sc. (2003) and Ph.D. (2007) in Biomolecular Physics with a focus on Protein Crystallography at IFSC/USP. During his Ph.D., he undertook a research internship at the Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge, UK (2006). He later pursued a postdoctoral fellowship at IFSC/USP (2008) and worked as a Post-doctoral Scientist at the Structural Genomics Consortium, University of Oxford, UK (2008-2012). He also served as a Young Investigator in the Molecular Biotechnology Group at IFSC/USP.His research expertise includes structural biology, protein crystallography, X-ray diffraction, molecular modeling, and the study of crystalline complexes with drugs and chemical fragments aimed at drug discovery. He has deposited over 200 crystallographic structures in the Protein Data Bank (PDB).Currently, his interdisciplinary projects focus on the bioremediation of plastic waste and pesticides through degradation and/or bioconversion, the development of cysteine protease inhibitors for therapeutic applications, and the investigation of the catalytic properties of nitrogenases. Additionally, he explores the interface between molecular biology and materials physics, developing solutions for the preservation of vulnerable environments.