As a Principal Investigator (PI), I run a research group at the Instituto de Biomedicina y Biotecnología de Cantabria (IBBTEC), called "Molecular motors in Nanobiotecnología" (https://web.unican.es/ibbtec/Paginas/Groups/Cabezon.aspx). I am also Deputy Director of the IBBTEC since 2016 and Professor at the University of Cantabria since 2009.
B.Sc & M.Sc in Biochemistry (Academic Achievement Award), Universidad del País Vasco (UPV/EHU), and Ph.D. in Molecular Biology, Universidad de Cantabria (UC). In 1997, I joined John Walker´s group at the LMB (Medical Research Council, Cambridge, UK), just a few months before he got the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. I was supported by an EMBO Postdoctoral Fellowship and a Marie Curie Research Grant during the first years and then I continued my work as a Research Associate, until 2002. My work was focused on the inhibitor protein of mitochondrial F-ATPase. In 2002, I came back to Spain as a group leader with a Ramón & Cajal contract and I became Associate Professor in 2005. Since then, my work has been focused on molecular motors. I seek to understand their mechanism by using biochemical and structural approaches, with a special interest in recent advances in nanobiotechnology. In my scientific career, I have 32 publications, many of them in high impact scientific journals, such as Nature, EMBO Journal, PNAs, Nature Structural Biology, etc. as well as a patent. My research work has been funded by several Research Grants from public competitive calls and I have supervised six Ph.D students. As management tasks, I am a member of some international Committees, such as Faculty of 1000 and, in addition to the Deputy Direction of the IBBTEC, I have also been selected as a member of several committees at the UC, such as The University Research Committee, The Doctoral Program Committee or The PhD Awards Committee.
Molecular Motors in Nanobiotechnology
Research interests
Funding
Title: Análisis estructural del mecanismo de transferencia de genes de resistencia a antibióticos y diseño de inhibidores para impedir su diseminación
Funding Source: Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades
Ref. PID2023-148302NB-I00
From 01/09/2024 to 31/08/2027
PI: Dr. Elena Cabezón e Ignacio Arechaga
Title: "Single molecule techniques to study protein and DNA secretion across biological membranes"
Funding Source: Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación
Ref: PID2019-104251GB-I00
From 01/06/2020 to 31/12/2023
PI: Dr. Elena Cabezón e Ignacio Arechaga
Title: "Análisis estructural del mecanismo de transferencia de genes de resistencia a antibióticos y diseño de inhibidores para impedir su diseminación"
Funding Source: Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades
Ref. PID2023-148302NB-I00
From 01/09/2024 to 31/08/2027
PI: Dr. Elena Cabezón e Ignacio Arechaga
Title: “Single molecule techniques to study protein and DNA secretion across biological membranes"
Funding Source: Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación
Ref. PID2019-104251GB-I00
From 01/06/2020 to 31/12/2023
PI: Dr. Elena Cabezón e Ignacio Arechaga
Title: “Aplicaciones biomédicas y biotecnológicas de motores moleculares implicados en la transferencia de ADN y proteínas a través de membranas biológicas”
Funding Source: Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad
Ref. BFU2016-78521-R
From 30/12/2016 to 29/12/2019
PI: Dr. Elena Cabezón e Ignacio Arechaga
Title: "Aplicación de un motor que transloca ssDNA en plataformas de secuenciación de tercera generación"
Funding Source: Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad
Ref. BFU2014-61823-EXP
From 01/09/2015 to 31/08/2017
PI: Dr. Elena Cabezón
Title: "Morfogénesis de membranas bacterianas y mitocondriales: en busca del eslabón perdido"
Funding Source: Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad
Ref. BFU2013_49486-EXP
From 2014 to 2016
PI: Dr. Ignacio Arechaga
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Title: "Mecanismos moleculares y evolutivos en motores moleculares que translocan ADN y proteínas"
Funding Source: Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad
Ref. BFU2011-22874
From 01/01/2012 to 31/12/2015
PI: Dr. Elena Cabezón
Nanopore sensing reveals a preferential pathway for the co-translocational unfolding of a conjugative relaxase-DNA complex
Valenzuela-Gómez F, Arechaga I, Cabezón E.
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Monitoring Bacterial Conjugation by Optical Microscopy
Carranza G, Menguiano T, Valenzuela-Gómez F, García-Cazorla Y, Cabezón E, Arechaga I.
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Conjugation inhibitors compete with palmitic acid for binding to the conjugative traffic ATPase TrwD, providing a mechanism to inhibit bacterial conjugation
García-Cazorla Y, Getino M, Sanabria-Ríos DJ, Carballeira NM, de la Cruz F, Arechaga I, Cabezón E
J Biol Chem. 2018 Oct 26;293(43):16923-16930.
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Conjugation Inhibitors and Their Potential Use to Prevent Dissemination of Antibiotic Resistance Genes in Bacteria
Cabezón E, de la Cruz F, Arechaga I.
Front Microbiol. 2017 Nov 30;8:2329. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2017.02329. eCollection 2017.
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Fludarabine resistance mediated by aminoglycoside-3'-phosphotransferase-IIa and the structurally related eukaryotic cAMP-dependent protein kinase
Sánchez-Carrera D, Bravo-Navas S, Cabezón E, Arechaga I, Cabezas M, Yáñez L, Pipaón C
FASEB J. 2017 Jul;31(7):3007-3017. doi: 10.1096/fj.201601245R. Epub 2017 Apr 3.
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Substrate translocation involves specific lysine residues of the central channel of the conjugative coupling protein TrwB.
Larrea D, de Paz HD, Matilla I, Guzmán-Herrador DL, Lasso G, de la Cruz F, Cabezón E, Llosa M. ol Genet Genomics. 2017 Jun 8. doi: 10.1007/s00438-017-1331-3. (Epub ahead of print)
[pubmed]
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Type IV traffic ATPase TrwD as molecular target to inhibit bacterial conjugation.
Ripoll-Rozada J, García-Cazorla Y, Getino M, Machón C, Sanabria-Ríos D, de la Cruz F, Cabezón E, Arechaga I. Mol Microbiol. 2016 Jun;100(5):912-21. doi: 10.1111/mmi.13359.
[pubmed]
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Type IV traffic ATPase TrwD as molecular target to inhibit bacterial conjugation.
Ripoll-Rozada J, García-Cazorla Y, Getino M, Machón C, Sanabria-Ríos D, de la Cruz F, Cabezón E, Arechaga I. Mol Microbiol. 2016 Jun;100(5):912-21. doi: 10.1111/mmi.13359. Epub 2016 Mar 22.
[PubMed]
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Towards an integrated model of bacterial conjugation.
Cabezón E, Ripoll-Rozada J, Peña A, de la Cruz F, Arechaga I. FEMS Microbiol Rev. Vol.39:81-95. doi: 10.1111/1574-6976.12085.
[pubmed]
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Functional interactions of VirB11 traffic ATPases with VirB4 and VirD4 molecular motors in type IV secretion systems.
Ripoll-Rozada J, Zunzunegui S, de la Cruz F, Arechaga I, Cabezón E. J Bacteriol. 2013 Sep;195(18):4195-201. doi: 10.1128/JB.00437-13.
[pubmed]
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The hexameric structure of a conjugative VirB4 protein ATPase provides new insights for a functional and phylogenetic relationship with DNA translocases.
Peña A, Martín-Benito J, Valpuesta JM, Carrascosa JL, de la Cruz F, Cabezón E*, Arechaga I*. J. Biol. Chem. 2012, 287(47), 39925-32. doi: 10.1074/jbc.M112.413849.
[pubmed]
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Regulation of the type IV secretion ATPase TrwD by magnesium: implications for the catalytic mechanism of the secretion ATPase superfamily.
Ripoll-Rozada J, Peña A, Rivas S, Moro F, de la Cruz F, Cabezón E*,Arechaga I* J. Biol. Chem. 2012, 287(21), 17408-14. DOI:10.1074/jbc.M112.357905.
[pubmed]
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Membrane-associated nanomotors form macromolecular transport.
Cabezón E*, Lanza VF, Arechaga I* Curr. Opin. Biotechnol. 2012, 23(4), 537-44. DOI:10.1016/j.copbio.2011.11.031.
[pubmed]
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Autoinhibitory regulation of TrwK, an essential VirB4 ATPase in type IV secretion systems.
Peña A, Ripoll-Rozada J, Zunzunegui S, Cabezón E, de la Cruz F, Arechaga I* J. Biol. Chem. 2011, 286(19), 17376-82. DOI:10.1074/jbc.M110.208942.
[pubmed]
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The conjugative DNA translocase TrwB is a structure specific DNA-binding protein.
Matilla I, Alfonso C, Rivas G, Bolt EL, de la Cruz F, Cabezón E* J. Biol. Chem. 2010, 285(23, 17537-44. DOI:10.1074/jbc.M109.084137.
[pubmed]
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