Predoc (1994-2000): BSc in Chemical Sciences by the University of Valladolid. Doctoral thesis on the nucleoprotein complex that initiates bacterial conjugation supervised by Dr. Fernando de la Cruz in the Department of Molecular Biology of the University of Cantabria thanks to a MEC fellowship, with short term stays in the laboratories of Dr. Robert T. Sauer at MIT (Cambridge, MA) and Dr. Ellen Zechner at theUniversity of Graz (Austria). Extraordinary doctorate award.
Postdoc 1 (2000-2003): Supervised by Dr. John A. Tainer at the Scripps Research Institute (La Jolla, CA) working on structural biology of DNA Repair.
Postdoc 2 (2003-2004): Supervised by Dr. Jerónimo Bravo at the CNIO (Madrid) working on structural biology of endocytosis.
Ramón y Cajal Contract (2005-2009): Reincorporation to the UC. Start of an independent project on the synthesis of triglycerides and polyunsaturated fatty acids.
Present: Associate Professor of Genetics at the University of Cantabria since 2009 and Principal Investigator of the Protein Design and Engineering Research Group at the Institute of Biomedicine and Biotechnology of Cantabria (IBBTEC) since 2014. In this last stage I have consolidated my research group. PI of different public national research projects and projects with national companies, highlighting the contract with Sniace to develop a zenith-E project for the improvement of bioethanol production. Regular user of the ALBA synchrotron. Coordinator of the master's and doctoral programs in Molecular Biology and Biomedicine and vice-dean of the Faculty of Medicine. I have published 40 articles in international journals (Nature, Cell, NSMB, PNAS, EMBOJ, Angewandte Chemie, etc), a patent for the production of triglycerides in bacteria and I have supervised eight doctoral theses.
Protein Design and Engineering
Research Lines
- Structure, function and modification of polyunsaturated fatty acid synthases.
- Optimization of the microbial production of added value fatty acids and triglycerides.
- Optimization of proteins involved in bacterial conjugation for biotechnological applications.
Services offered
- Design and optimization of proteins with biotechnological, biomedical or industrial interest.
- Structural analysis of proteins by X-ray crystallography and in silico molecular threading.
Funding
- Plasmid Offensive: Protein engineering operations (BFU2014-55534-C2-2-P)
- Probióticos guardianes para la lucha contra la resistencia a antibióticos mediante sistemas CRISPR conjugativos (BFU2014-62007-EXP)
- Optimización de la purificación de la catalasa obtenida de hígado de vaca (TF16-XX-007 –Laboratorios Arroyo S.L.- SODERCAN/FEDER)
- Desarrollo de tecnología amti para el cultivo de algas en plantas de acuicultura convencionales. La biotecnología como instrumento para una acuicultura rentable y circular (Investalga S.L.).
