Bruno Mondovì graduated in Medicine at the University of Rome,” La Sapienza ” in 1951. He was Professor of Applied Biochemistry at the School of Pharmacy, University of Rome until 2003, and then became Emeritus Professor the following year. He was elected as the Dean of the School of Pharmacy, University of Rome (1981-1998) due to his excellent teaching, as well his kindness to people. Bruno attended the first meeting of this society in Florence in 1975 and has attended many of our meetings as well as organising an excellent EHRS meeting at Nemi, Rome in 2000.
Additionally Bruno Mondovì is an outstanding biochemist who has worked with organic compounds, both isolating and purifying them but always bearing in mind their biological functions. Such is the case with copper and copper enzymes. Bruno Mondovì’s research on amine oxidases, started many years ago, (Mondovì & Finazzi Agrò,1982: Structure and Functions of amine oxidases, Adv exp Med Biol,148:141-153 ) and is summarized in the very recent book ‘Copper Amine Oxidases’, Floris & Mondovì, (2009). This book describes the structure of the enzymes, the role of copper and of the cofactor 6-hydroxy-dopa quinine, and covers the difference between amine oxidases from bacteria, plants as well as mammals and examines the importance of this ubiquitous class of enzymes in physiology and metabolism of biogenic amines. Bruno also wrote about the roles of polyamine oxidases and cancer, and of the role of enzymes (catalase; superoxide dismutase) in the defence from the oxidative stress. Histaminases break down histamine and free radicals are histamine releasers. This illustrates his linking of biochemistry to medicine.
Bruno Mondovì has also previously been awarded Academic Honours such as the International Prize Wilhelm Konrad Roentgen for oncology in 1985 and Feltrinelli Prize for Medicine in1988.