Rate My Professor Fernando Estrada

D. Fernando Estrada, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biochemistry at the University at Buffalo Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, where he joined as Assistant Professor in 2016 and was promoted to Associate Professor. He also serves as Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Structural Biology since 2021 and as Director of Graduate Studies for the Biochemistry PhD program. Before entering academia full-time, Estrada served as an Intelligence Officer in the United States Army from 1999 to 2006, earning the Bronze Star Medal for Meritorious Service in 2003. His educational background includes a PhD in Biochemistry and Biophysics from the University of Kansas in 2011, during which he was awarded the Lila and Madison Self Graduate Fellowship in 2007; a BS in Biochemistry from Kansas State University in 1999; and an AAS in Biology from Dodge City Community College in 1996.

Estrada's research employs biochemical, biophysical, and structural biology approaches, including nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, to investigate structure-function relationships in class I cytochrome P450 metalloenzymes. Key areas include protein-protein interactions between P450s and their redox partners, such as adrenodoxin, and substrate recognition in mitochondrial enzymes CYP11A1, CYP24A1, and CYP27B1 involved in cholesterol, steroid, and vitamin D metabolism, as well as the bacterial enzyme CYP121A1 from Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Representative publications encompass "NMR-guided identification of CYP11A1–Adrenodoxin interactions that differentially govern cholesterol and vitamin D3 metabolism" (Journal of Biological Chemistry, 2025), "A molecular basis of Ferredoxin Reductase (FdxR) mutations that result in mitochondriopathies" (Journal of Inorganic Biochemistry, 2025), "Structural basis of bidirectional allostery across the heme in a cytochrome P450 enzyme" (Journal of Biological Chemistry, 2023), "Asparagine-85 Stabilizes a Structural Active Site Water Network in CYP121A1 of Mycobacterium tuberculosis" (Biochemistry, 2024), "Surface hydrophobics mediate functional dimerization of CYP121A1 of Mycobacterium tuberculosis" (Scientific Reports, 2021), and the highly influential "Substrate-modulated cytochrome P450 17A1 and cytochrome b5 interactions revealed by NMR" (Journal of Biological Chemistry, 2013). Estrada's contributions to drug metabolism research were honored with the 2025 Richard Okita Early Career Award in Drug Metabolism and Disposition from the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics.