Valle obtained her BSc in Chemistry in 2008 and in that year she joined the Medicinal Chemistry Institute at CSIC with Prof. A. Martínez to develop neurogenic and neuroprotective drugs for neurodegenerative diseases. In 2012 she obtained her PhD and in 2013 she joined The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla with Prof. P. Dawson. She focussed in the development of Quantum Dot nanoparticles and peptide synthesis and conjugation. In 2016 she returned to Spain as Juan de la Cierva fellow at the Centre for Biological research from CSIC. In 2018, she established her own research group thanks to a Junior Leader fellowship from la Caixa. In 2021, she moved her lab to IMDEA Nanociencia, thanks to Ramon y Cajal fellowship, and is now head of the lab of Biosensors in Neuroscience.

Paula Fernandez studied Biology at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. She obtained her master’s degree in ‘Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Biomedicine’ in the same university. She has been working Sclerosis Lateral Amiotrophic (ALS) since her final degree project in CSIC.  Currently she is a PhD student at IMDEA Nanociencia, focusing her research in nanoneuroscience using quantum dots.

Jesús Alejandro Bueso de Barrio studied Biotechnology at the Technical University of Madrid. He obtained a Master's degree in Nanobiotechnology at the Aalborg University. During his master's thesis he worked under the supervision of Dr. Valle Palomo focusing on the characterization of extracellular vesicles in cellular models of ALS patients as well as their modulation upon pharmacological treatment. Currently, he is a PhD student at IMDEA Nanoscience focusing his research on extracellular vesicles and biosensing nanoparticles.

Carmen Pérez de la Lastra studied Chemistry at the Universidad de Córdoba. She obtained a Master degree in “Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Biomedicine” at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. She carried out her master thesis under the supervision of Valle Palomo and currently she is working on developing tools of characterization of protein aggregates and extracellular vesicles in cellular models of ALS patients.

Tania Marugán Gómez studied clinical and biomedical laboratory technical speciality. She obtained her degree in 2021 and has worked since finishing her studies in a clinical diagnostic center. Now she is improving her knowledge in research. In June 2023 Tania has started at IMDEA Nanociencia supporting the Biosensors in Neuroscience Laboratory directed by Valle Palomo, providing technical assistance.

Marion Le Meur studied pharmacy at the University of Rennes (France) and she simultaneously obtained a MSc in Pharmaceutics at the Paris Cité University (France). Her master’s thesis was conducted at the University of Montreal (Canada) and focused on the development of solid lipid nanoparticles for the oral delivery of a drug candidate for phase II clinical trials. Currently, she is pursuing a PhD at IMDEA Nanociencia, working on the development of multi-functionalized nano-drug delivery systems to target circadian clock dysfunctions in Alzheimer’s disease, as part of the European project TClock4AD.

Rebeca París studied Chemistry at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. She obtained her master’s degree in ‘Drug Discovery’ at the same university. She has been working in Microtubule Stabilizing Agents and biosensors in CIB, CSIC.  Currently, she is a PhD student at CIB, CSIC and IMDEA Nanociencia, focusing her research in the study of the cytoskeleton targeted to nanoneuroscience using Quantum Dots as main tools for biosensoring.

Sara Hernández finished her BSc in Physics awarded by the University of the Basque Country (UPV, Spain) in 2011 and her MSc in biophysics awarded by Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM, Spain) in 2012.  She obtained her PhD in Biophysics in 2016 supervised by Prof. Cortajarena developing nanostructured photo- and electro-active materials based on encoded protein self-assembly of engineered proteins. From 2016 to 2022, she performed her postdoctoral studies at international laboratories in the Netherlands, Sweden, and Spain supported by fellowships like Carl Tryggers Foundation research grant (Sweden) and Programa de Atracción de Talento (Spain). During her postdoctoral research, she focused on studying photoinduced processes in synthetic photosystems and deepen her experience in laser and pump-probe spectroscopy. In 2022, she launched her independent career at IMDEA Nanociencia with a 'la Caixa' Junior Leader grant and established her research group.

www.sarahmejias.com 

Gonzalo Pérez obtained his BSc degree in Biology in 2022 at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM, Spain). He is currently doing the MSc degree in Biotechnology at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM, Spain). He was member of the Zoonosis Service and Biological Aggressive as a student trainee at the Veterinary Health Surveillance Center (VISAVET) and worked as an assistant teacher at Antonio Buero Vallejo school. He joined our group to perform his master thesis on the design of bio-hybrids by using non-natural amino acids.  He is passionate about traveling, learning about new cultures and science. 

Claudia Flórez obtained her BSc degree in Biology at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM, Spain) in 2022. She is now studying MSc degree in Biotechnology in the same University. In 2022, she joined the animal reproduction department at the National Institute of agriculture and food research (INIA, CSIC, Spain) as internship trainee to work in the optimization of animal reproduction protocols for mountain goat and capercaillie. She joined our group to perform her master thesis on protein engineering for chromophore emission optimization. She is passionate about painting and cinema. Besides, she likes hiking and uses each opportunity she has to enjoy it.