Lourdes J. Cruz is a biochemist whose research has contributed to the understanding of the biochemistry of toxic peptides from the venom of fish-hunting Conus

Conus

Conus is a large genus of small to large predatory sea snails, marine gastropod molluscs, with the common names of cone snails, cone shells or cones. This genus is placed in the subfamily Coninae within the family Conidae. Geologically speaking, the genus is known from the Eocene to the Recent ...

 marine snails. The characterization of over 50 biologically active peptides from the snail's venom had been made possible, in part, by her studies. She also contributed to the development of conotoxin

Conotoxin

A conotoxin is one of a group of neurotoxic peptides isolated from the venom of the marine cone snail, genus Conus.Conotoxins, which are peptides consisting of 10 to 30 amino acid residues, typically have one or more disulfide bonds. Conotoxins have a variety of mechanisms of actions, most of...

s as tools for examining the activity of the human brain. For instance, w-conotoxin is widely used for studying neutral calcium channel

Calcium channel

A Calcium channel is an ion channel which displays selective permeability to calcium ions. It is sometimes synonymous as voltage-dependent calcium channel, although there are also ligand-gated calcium channels.-Comparison tables:...

s and m-conotoxin is used when muscular activity must be controlled to examine events at the synapse.Dr. Cruz' scientific awards include: the NAST Outstanding Young Scientist Award,1981; the NRCP Achievement Award in Chemistry, 1982; and the Outstanding Women in the Nation's Services Award (Bio-chemistry).