I am a researcher with a multidisciplinary background in Nanomedicine-based approaches for Cancer treatment, Nanotoxicology and Nanomaterials. I am currently Senior Post-Doc (Juan de la Cierva-Incorporation) at the Department of Applied Physics of the University of Granada.
I obtained a degree in Biology in 2008 and a M.Sc. in Biomedicine in 2010 from the University of Granada (UGR), Spain. I undertook my PhD in Biomedicine at the same University working in two different research groups: The Biocolloid and Fluid Physics group and the Institute of Biopathology and Regenerative Medicine (IBIMER), under the supervision of Prof. Juan Luis Ortega Vinuesa, Prof. José Manuel Peula García and Prof Houria Boulaiz. My multidisciplinary doctoral thesis (cum laude) focused on the synthesis, functionalization, characterization and cellular uptake of lipid nanocapsules with potential application in cancer treatment. My PhD studies were financially supported from a National Fellowship, FPU, and received the PhD Excellence award from the UGR and the PhD European mention. Moreover, I spent 8 months in the Centre for BioNano Interactions at the University College Dublin (Ireland) in the group of Prof. Kenneth Dawson, studying the interaction of lipid nanocapsules with serum proteins. My predoctoral research stay was financially supported by a European fellowship from the European Science Foundation.
In May 2014, I started my postdoctoral research period at the Department of Chemistry, Materials and Chemical Engineering “Giulio Natta” at the Politecnico di Milano (Italy) under the supervision of Prof. Francesca Baldelli Bombelli and Prof. Pierangelo Metrangolo. During this period, I was involved in the synthesis of hydrophobin-stabilized gold supraparticles and superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) as innovative theranostic nanotools to target solid tumors. Furthemore, I spent one month as visiting postdoctoral researcher in the School of Pharmacy, University of East Anglia (UK) supervising a PhD student on the synthesis and characterization of SPIONs.
Subsequently, in September 2015 I moved to the Cell Biology Unit of the IRCCS AOU San Martino-IST National Cancer Research Institute (Genova, Italy) where I worked on the influence of redox microenvironment and pH homeostasis on tumor growth and progression under the supervision of Dr. Anna Rubartelli. This experience allowed me to broaden my knowledge on cancer biology research having the opportunity to work with tumor xenograft models, tumor tissues and primary immune cells.
Finally, in July 2016 I joined the Italian Institute of Technology (Genova, Italy) working as a senior postdoc in the group of Nanobiointeractions and Nanodiagnostics headed by Dr. Pier Paolo Pompa. My research focused on the physicochemical characterization of different nanomaterials (such as graphene and nanoplastics) in relevant biological environments and their interactions with cells in order to understand the underlying mechanisms.
Currently I work in the group lead by Prof. Juan de Vicente Álvarez de Manzaneda on the synthesis and engineering of magnetic nanoparticles with the aim of designing novel nanosystems with different properties and biomedical applications.
More info on the ResearchGate profile.