Francisco Melo

• Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology UC

• Analysis of protein-DNA interactions
• Molecular diagnostics and molecular markers
• Bioinformatics
• Biochemistry
• Computational biology
• Biophysics

Francisco Melo is a Biochemist by profession with a Master's degree in Biochemistry, both from the Universidad Pontificia de Chile. Dr. Melo has 25 years of experience in the field of bioinformatics after extensive training in Europe, where he received his Ph.D. from Notre Dame de la Paix University, Belgium. He also completed his postdoctoral studies at The Rockefeller University, USA.

In 2000, Dr. Melo joined the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile as a professor and is currently a full professor in the Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology at the same university. In 2020, he joined the UC Institute of Biological and Medical Engineering as a collaborator.

His main line of research is in the area of structural computational biology and consists of the study of the sequence-structure-function relationship in the macromolecules that govern the flow of genetic information in living beings (proteins, DNA and RNA), and their interactions. The techniques commonly used for this are the analysis and processing of large amounts of experimental data on computers, integrating the laws of physics, chemistry, statistical methods and artificial intelligence.