Prof. Antonio Baici University of Zurich, Switzerland

Antonio Baici obtained a doctorate in chemistry at the University of Trieste in 1970. At the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, he worked on thermodynamics and kinetics of dehydrogenases, as well as on conformational properties of oligopeptides using NMR methods. Between 1978 and 2001 he was group leader... read moreat the Department of Rheumatology, University Hospital of Zurich. Research was on the degradation of connective tissue by peptidases in rheumatic diseases and tumor invasion. He proposed a mechanism for the pathogenesis of osteoarthritis based on the transition of chondrocytes to a dedifferentiated phenotype identifying a pivotal role of the peptidase cathepsin B in maintaining the chronicity of the disease. He was appointed Associate Professor in 1989, and Professor of Biochemistry in 1996. After moving in 2001 to the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Zurich, emphasis was placed on the development of kinetic methods for the diagnosis and quantification of the interactions between enzymes and modifiers. Retired in May 2011, he continues to work on this topic, on which he published a book in 2015, whose heart is a taxonomic ranking and systematization of kinetic mechanisms of inhibition and activation. He maintains the website enzyme-modifier.ch.