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Prof. Baldomero M. Olivera

Toxinomics Foundation Advisory Board

Department of Biology
University of Utah
Salt Lake City (USA)
E-mail: baldomero.olivera@toxinomics.org

Baldomero M. Olivera was born in Manila and received his early education at St. John's Academy, San Juan, Rizal, U.P. High School, and U.P. Prep; he received a B.S. degree in Chemistry from the University of the Philippines (summa cum laude). He came to Caltech in Pasadena, California, to do graduate work on the biophysical chemistry of DNA and did postdoctoral work in Biochemistry at Stanford. He returned to the Philippines to a faculty position at the Department of Biochemistry, University of the Philippines, Medical School. In 1972, he moved to the University of Utah where he is presently a Distinguished Professor of Biology.

While a young faculty member at the U.P. College of Medicine, Dr Olivera initiated the identification and characterization of biologically active peptides found in the venoms of the predatory cone snails. Several conotoxins discovered in Olivera's laboratory have been developed by biotech and pharmaceuticals companies as therapeutic drugs, two have reached human clinical trials and one has been approved by the FDA in the US and European communities for the treatment of intractable pain. The work on Conus peptides has led to a new scientific platform for finding lead compounds from animal biodiversity.

Dr Olivera's work on Conus peptides has been widely recognized by his election as a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, to the American Philosophical Society, and to the Institute of Science, the medical branch of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. He was also a recipient of the Outstanding Alumni Award of Caltech, the Redi Award from the International Society for Toxinology and the Harvard Foundation Scientist of the year 2007 Award from Harvard University.