Ivano Bertini - Biography#

Ivano Bertini was born on December 6, 1940 in Pisa, Italy. He obtained the Italian degree of Doctor of Chemistry at the University of Florence in 1964 and the Libera Docenza in 1969. He became Full Professor of General and Inorganic Chemistry in 1975 at the University of Florence, where he is to this day. He received the Laurea Honoris Causa from the University of Stockholm in 1998, Ioannina in 2002 and Siena in 2003. He is a member of the Academia Europaea and the Italian Accademia dei Lincei, and is or has been on the editorial staff or advisory board of over 20 of the most authoritative journals in chemistry, biochemistry and inorganic chemistry.

After beginning his research in theoretical/physical inorganic chemistry, since 1975 he has studied the structure-function relationship of metalloproteins through biophysical methods. In 1990, he transformed his lab into an NMR lab for structural biology of metalloproteins, and eventually pioneered the exploitation of genome data banks. He has pursued advancements in technology for solution structure determination, particularly for paramagnetic metalloproteins, and developed specific software applications. He has studied electron and nuclear relaxation from both experimental and theoretical points of view. He has also established a molecular biology department for protein expression in structural genomics projects on metalloproteins. Recently he has begun browsing genomes for pharmaceutical targets. He has published over 650 research articles and has solved more than 150 protein structures.

In 1999 he founded the present Magnetic Resonance Center (CERM) at the University of Florence in an independent and prestigious building hosting an impressive battery of NMR spectrometers. The Center constitutes a major NMR infrastructure in the Life Sciences. Flanking laboratories and spin-off institutions have flourished around CERM in the fields of biotechnology and drug discovery thanks to his leadership.

Obituaries in Nature, Chemistry Views and International Union for Pure and Applied Biophysics