Armando Amaro Sepulveda

I started my studies on biochemistry in 2013 at the Andres Bello University (UNAB). Since the first day I was interested in scientific research, which led me quickly to apply for a training in the Biochemistry laboratory leaded by Dr. Rubén Polanco (UNAB). In the next 3 years, I was able to learn techniques for filamentous fungal culture and genomic. It was a great experience that reinforced my interest in science. Then, I was interested in neuroscience, in January 2017 I joined to the laboratory of Dr. Brigitte van Zundert (UNAB), where I developed my first line of research dedicated to the determination and characterization of toxic factors in different models of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) disease. Now, I am currently finishing my last year of Doctorate in Molecular Biosciences at the Andres Bello University. In this year, we have established a new research line in the laboratory of Dr. Brigitte van Zundert. We study a recently discovered post-translational modification (PTM): Polyphosphorylation, I have standardized a methodology to detect this PTM in our laboratory and proposed potential protein targets to understand the effect of this PTM on the translational and epigenetic machinery of the disease ALS. My short term goal is to contribute new knowledge in the understanding of the molecular mechanism of the ALS disease, which until today is unknown.

-Arredondo C, Cefaliello C, Dyrda A, Jury N, Martinez P, Díaz I, Amaro A, Tran H, Morales D, Pertusa M, Stoica L, Fritz E, Corvalán D, Abarzúa S, Méndez-Ruette M, Fernández P, Rojas F, Kumar MS, Aguilar R, Almeida S, Weiss A, Bustos FJ, González-Nilo F, Otero C, Tevy MF, Bosco DA, Sáez JC, Kähne T, Gao FB, Berry JD, Nicholson K, Sena-Esteves M, Madrid R, Varela D, Montecino M, Brown RH, van Zundert B. Excessive release of inorganic polyphosphate by ALS/FTD astrocytes causes non-cell-autonomous toxicity to motoneurons. Neuron. 2022 May 18;110(10):1656-1670.e12. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2022.02.010.

-Rojas F, Aguilar R, Almeida S, Fritz E, Corvalán D, Ampuero E, Abarzúa S, Garcés P, Amaro A, Diaz I, Arredondo C, Cortes N, Sanchez M, Mercado C, Varela-Nallar L, Gao FB, Montecino M, van Zundert B. Mature iPSC-derived astrocytes of an ALS/FTD patient carrying the TDP43A90V mutation display a mild reactive state and release polyP toxic to motoneurons. Front Cell Dev Biol. 2023 Jul 28;11:1226604. doi: 10.3389/fcell.2023.1226604. PMID: 37645251; PMCID: PMC10461635.

-(Under Peer Review) Polett Garcés, Armando Amaro, Martin Montecino and Brigitte van Zundert. Inorganic polyphosphate: from basic research to diagnostic and therapeutic opportunities in ALS/FTD. Mini-review Biochemical Society Transactions. 2023

-Protein quality control, UdeC (Course)

-XLVI reunión Anual de la Sociedad de Bioquímica de Chile, 2023 (Conference, Oral) 

Armando Amaro, Ignacio Leiton, Martín Montecino, Brigitte van Zundert. 

"Identification of a PASK-containing domain for mammalian nucleolin polyphosphorylation"

-XLV reunión Anual de la Sociedad de Bioquímica de Chile, 2022 (Conference, poster) 

Armando Amaro, Cristian Arredondo, Polett Garcés, Martín Montecino, Brigitte van Zundert. 

"Pepsin as an enzyme involved in the degradation of synthetic and ALS astrocytes-derived inorganic polyphosphate"

-Simposio LATBRAIN 2022  (Conference)

 “Estado actual y retos de las investigaciones en Latino América de las Enfermedades Neurodegenerativas y Epilepsia”.

-Simposio PolyP day (Conference), 1 de abril del 2022

AAP2018-1 (Apoyo tesis pregrado)

AAP2018-2 (Apoyo tesis pregrado)

UNAB INI-2022  (Inicio investigación UNAB)

Beca doctorado nacional  ANID 21221522

• Immunodetection techniques

       -PAGE (Urea-PAGE, Nu-PAGE, SDS-PAGE, Native-PAGE)

• Molecular biology techniques

       -

• Chemistry CLICK

       -Modification of antibodies with DNA oligos (proximity ligation assay)

• Cell culture

      -Management of different cell lines ()

      -Primary culture of astrocytes (Mouse) and neurons from the dorsal ventral cord (Rat and Mouse)