BIOGRAPHY
After my doctoral studies in organic chemistry based on the synthesis of multivalent carbohydrate for anti-adhesion therapies, at the Institute of General Organic Chemistry, CSIC (Spain), under the supervision of Prof. Chiara, I developed a genuine interest in the study of the biological functions of carbohydrates/glycans (Glycobiology). Then, I carried out a postdoctoral stay abroad in Prof. Sundberg’s research group, at the Boston Biomedical Research Institute and the Institute of Human Virology, University of Maryland, School of Medicine (USA), where I was first introduced to the field of Structural Biology. During that time, I became strongly interested in studying the biochemistry of bacterial enzymes that target N-glycosylation of antibodies and the impact of the glycosylation on proteins of the immune system (e.g. antibodies, Fc gamma receptors). In 2016, I moved to Prof. Guerin lab at CIC bioGUNE (Spain), first with the “Juan de la Cierva-Incorporación” postdoctoral fellowship from MINECO (2016-2018), and later with the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship (MSCA-IF) from the European Commission (2019-2021). During that time, I continued my work on the determination of the structural basis of substrate recognition and catalysis by bacterial endoglycosidases involved in the processing of N-glycans in antibodies, Carbohydrate Active enZymes (CAZymes) in the gut microbiome that modulate the mucin processing, and other critical enzymes involved in microbial pathogenesis.
In 2022, I was awarded a Ramón y Cajal Fellowship from MICINN and the Ikerbasque Research Fellow from the Basque Country Government in order to stablish the Structural GlycoImmunology Lab at IIS Biobizkaia. Our main interest is the study of the molecular mechanisms that mediate antibody glycosylation in health and disease.
