![Dr. Sonia INFANTE TADEO](/media/widgetkit/SIT-ff1848d5943b5c1196330a971a4cf0b6.jpg)
Sonia Infante studied her Bachelor in Chemistry at Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain). She obtained a Master degree of Science and Technology in ‘Nanoscience’ from the same university in 2016 carrying out her Master’s project at the group of Prof. Reyes Jimenez-Aparicio, working in the field of organometallic chemistry.
She worked during her PhD in the field of organometallic and bioinorganic chemistry at IMDEA Nanociencia. In particular, Sonia focused on the synthesis of osmium organometallic complexes and their effects on biological systems (yeasts and human cancer cells). In Summer 2019 Sonia visited the Barber Lab (UCSF, CA, US), pursuing a collaboration with Prof. Barber to investigate the possibility of intervening the cancer cell pH dynamics with her osmium complexes. Currently, she is working as a postdoc in the Barber’s lab, having fun studying different biology systems and playing with microscopy.
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![Dr. Ana C. CARRASCO](/media/widgetkit/Ana_carrasco-38d8fb9059eeb9eea6de8129034c3bba.jpg)
Ana C. Carrasco graduated in Chemistry in 2015 at the Universidad de Valencia (Spain) carrying out the last academic year at The University of Manchester (United Kingdom) where she worked on the synthesis of enantiopure quaternary amino acid derivatives in Prof. Jonathan Clayden’s lab. Afterwards, she obtained a Master of Science in Organic Chemistry at Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Spain) in 2016 working on the field of photo- and organocatalysis in the laboratories of Dr. José Alemán.
She graduated as the second PhD student in the Pizarro group carrying out a research project at IMDEA Nanociencia exploring the field of bioinorganic chemistry and organometallic catalysis in biological systems, focusing her research on the development of novel organoiridium switches for cancer research. During her PhD Ana visited the Macchioni lab at the University of Perugia in Summer 2019, and the ALBA and ESRF synchrotrons in several occasions to work with our collaborators Dr. JJ Conesa and Dr. Eva Pereiro. Ana was awarded three poster prizes and published 4 papers coming from her PhD work. Additionally, Ana has been recently awarded the II Premio AEBIN to the best research paper published in 2020 by a young researcher.
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![Dr. Francisco MARTÍNEZ PEÑA](/media/widgetkit/francisco_martinez-peña-9e3ea821ad8ad92cf1d5b45a98ba4005.jpg)
Dr Francisco Martínez-Peña obtained a degree in Chemistry from the University of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain (2011). Before concluding his degree, he did a placement at the Clinical Analysis Laboratory of the Hospital University of Albacete, and in October 2010 he was granted a fellowship in the Organic Chemistry Department of the University of Castilla-La Mancha to work in the microwave synthesis of 1,3,5-triazines derivatives with optoelectronic devices. In October 2011, he joined the Instituto de Química Médica (IQM-CSIC) in order to perform the synthesis and pharmacological evaluation of new compounds with potential PPAR and cannabinoid activity. In 2012, he obtained his Master in Science in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. He then moved as a research assistant to the group of Chemistry of Lactams and Bioactive Heterocycles to search for new catalytic process for obtaining products with potential therapeutic applications. In May 2014 he started his PhD studies under the supervision of Dr. Ana M. Pizarro working in pH-dependent metallodrugs to target the cancer microenvironment. He received his PhD degree in March 2018, being the first PhD graduate from the Pizarro group. Francisco is currently carrying out a post-doctoral project at Scripps Research in the Lairson laboratory, a chemical biology and therapeutics discovery group.
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![Dr. Abraha HABTEMARIAM](/media/widgetkit/abraha-fd40e8c8053eb7e50deb4a3668931019.png)
Dr Abraha Habtemariam obtained his BSc degree from the University of East Anglia and his PhD from the University of Sussex. After a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Toronto (Canada) he joined Peter Sadler's group at Birkbeck College (University of London) and in 1996 moved to the University of Edinburgh. In 2007 he moved to the University of Warwick as a Senior Research Fellow. With an h-index of 42, his research interests are focused on the synthesis and mechanism of action of platinum-group metal anticancer complexes. In 2011 he was awarded the fellowship by the China Fellowship Fund to establish academic collaborations with China, and in 2013 he visited the Salassa lab for a year funded by Ikerbasque Basque Foundation for Science to undertake a collaborative research project at CIC biomaGUNE, San Sebastian (Spain), a premier research institute in Spain for nanotechnology. In 2017 Dr. Habtemariam was awarded with a "Cátedra de Excellencia" within the Attracting Talent programme by the Comunidad de Madrid from April 2017 to April 2018. Based in IMDEA Nanociencia in Dr. Pizarro's lab, he joined forces with the group and strengthened the projects with his vast expertise on organometallic metallodrugs.
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Dr. Federica BATTISTIN
![Dr. Federica BATTISTIN](/media/widgetkit/PeopleAP5-ed01b0c5142c09cb2536e6abdd1cdfc8.jpg)
Dr. Federica BATTISTIN
Dr. Federica Battistin graduated in Chemistry in 2014 at the University of Trieste. She obtained the PhD in 2018 in the same university under the supervision of Prof. Enzo Alessio. Her PhD project concerned the synthesis of water soluble Ru(II) complexes as building blocks for the preparation of supramolecular assemblies with porphyrins. During her PhD studies, she has been a visiting researcher at Ruhr University in the group of Prof. Nils Metzler-Nolte (six months, 2016), supported by the Erasmus+ grant. She was a Postdoctoral Researcher in the field of organometallic and bioinorganic chemistry at IMDEA Nanociencia. In particular, Federica focused her research on the synthesis of organometallic complexes for cancer research.
Federica is currently carrying out her post-doctoral research at University of Zurich under the supervision of Prof. Roger Alberto.
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Dr. Adriana ARNÁIZ
![Dr. Adriana ARNÁIZ](/media/widgetkit/adriana-4d11eaaf1f56a4b55b1df9ee9114fa40.jpg)
Dr. Adriana ARNÁIZ
Dr Adriana Arnáiz Vivas graduated in Veterinary Medicine by Universidad Complutense de Madrid in 2007. In 2008, she was granted a Medical Research Council (MRC-UK) studentship to start her PhD in the Cancer Cell Unit at the MRC/Hutchison Research Centre. There, she explored the potential applications of genetics, microbiology and molecular biology in cancer therapy and diagnostics, resulting in the development of a multifunctional theragnostic nanosystem for the encapsulation, distribution and targeted delivery of biological material and drugs to cancer cells, which led her to graduate as a PhD from Cambridge University (UK) in 2013. She joined IMDEA Nanociencia in 2014 where she researches the use of unique metallodrugs, nanomaterials and nanocarriers for the treatment and diagnosis of tumours in a range of cellular models, from prokaryotes to eukaryotes. In addition to her contribution in the AMP group, she manages the Cell Culture and Microbiology Unit at IMDEA Nanociencia.
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Rosa María MARTÍNEZ NAVARRO
![Rosa María MARTÍNEZ NAVARRO](https://nanociencia.imdea.org/images/groups/Metallodrugs_to_Modulate_Cancer_Cell_Machinery/2019/RMMN.jpg)
Rosa María MARTÍNEZ NAVARRO
Rosa Mª Martínez graduated in Biology at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid in 2014. In 2016, she obtained a title as Advanced Technician in Clinical Diagnosis in IES Villaverde, carrying out the practical work at the Institute of Biomedical Research ‘’Alberto Sols’’, under the supervision of Dr. Lisardo Boscá at the Department of Metabolism and Cell Signaling, where she worked on the study of thermoregulation, atherosclerosis and the use of aptamers as a drug router after a heart attack.
At IMDEA Nanociencia, she provided technical support at the Cell Culture and Microbiology Unit at IMDEA Nanociencia.
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Adrián LUGUERA RUIZ
![Adrián LUGUERA RUIZ](/media/widgetkit/ALR-2bb38deab0249b165ef69de5184d4485.jpg)
Adrián LUGUERA RUIZ
Adrián Luguera Ruiz obtained his BSc degree in Chemistry at Universidad Complutense de Madrid in 2017. From 2015 to 2017 he joined the “Organic Synthesis applied to Pharmacology and Design of new Radiotracers” group as an undergraduate student, supervised by Aurelio G. Csäky and Silvia Roscales. During this time he worked on the development of new [18F]-PET radiotracers for the in vivo detection of Alzheimer’s disease and other CNS diseases. In 2018 he obtained his MSc degree in Organic Chemistry at Universidad Complutense de Madrid, where he joined the “Medicinal Chemistry Laboratory” group to work on the development of antibody-drug conjugates as anti-tuberculosis drugs under the supervision of Professor María Luz López Rodríguez. He then joined the CITIUS programme working at Janssen as Junior Research Fellow for 6 months. He carried out the synthesis of small molecules with pharmacological activity against CNS and immunological diseases, actively participating in hit-to-lead processes.
In 2019 he joined the Metallodrugs group at IMDEA Nanociencia as a PhD student, working on the development of new rhodium(III) half-sandwich complexes as switchable organometallic compounds in aqueous media reactions. Three months into his PhD Adrián was tempted out of it to work in a pharmaceutical company.
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Fabio BOCOS
![Fabio BOCOS](/media/widgetkit/fabio_bocos-f682b1b4fa2f8edc62174d4a7071e3a5.jpg)
Fabio BOCOS
Fabio Bocos González was born in Valladolid (Spain) in 1994. He obtained his degree in Chemistry in 2016 at the Universidad de Valladolid (UVa). In September 2016, he moved to Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM) where he obtained his MSc in Nanoscience and Nanochemistry in September 2017. He did his MSc thesis project on Synthesis and Characterization of pH-Responsive Ruthenium Organometallic Complexes with Cytotoxic Activity in IMDEA Nanociencia (Madrid), under the supervision of Dr. Ana M. Pizarro. After his MSc he went to work at PPG Ibérica, S.A.
Sonia PAZ OUTEIRAL
![Sonia PAZ OUTEIRAL](/media/widgetkit/SPO-cf31ef52c025587e5f2e06905daf9fac.jpg)
Sonia PAZ OUTEIRAL
Sonia Paz Outeiral took her Bachelor’s Degree in Chemistry at the University of Santiago de Compostela, and studied chemistry during Erasmus+ mobilities at the University of Bergen (Norway) and the University of Leeds (United Kingdom). Furthermore, she developed a research project at the Hochschule Osnabrück (Germany) about surface modification and polymers with medical applications. In her undergraduate dissertation she synthesized a series of dinuclear metallacycles derived from iminophosphoranes and continued with her career as inorganic chemist studying a Master’s Degree in Chemical Sciences and Technologies at the Complutense University of Madrid. She carried out her Master’s project at the Pizarro research group (2018) focused on catalytic transfer hydrogenation studies of organoiridium complexes as potential anticancer drugs. She is currently working towards her PhD at the Esteruelas group at Universidad de Zaragoza.
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/soniapazouteiral/
Julia GARCÍA LORENTE
Julia GARCÍA LORENTE
Ricardo MORENO BALLESTEROS
![Ricardo MORENO BALLESTEROS](/media/widgetkit/PeopleAP6-553c3015c6397040cbfa014f134960c0.jpg)
Ricardo MORENO BALLESTEROS
Ricardo Moreno got his B. Sc Chemisty in Wrocław University, Poland (2018). He spent 18 months working at the department of Porphyrins in the lab of Dr. Miłosz Pawlicki at UWr. The research was focused in the synthesis of novel oxatriphyrins based on quinoxaline derivatives which leaded to tuned spectroscopic properties. Afterwards, he received a scholarship from the European Social Funds for carrying out his M. Sc Chemistry at Adam Mickiewicz University, Poland (2018-2020). His master thesis was directed towards the synthesis of salinomycin (ionophore natural product) derivatives with potential anticancer, antimicrobial and antifungal properties. The project took place in the Bioorganic department under the supervision of Dr. Michał Antoszczak and Dr. Adam Huczyński.
During summer 2019 under the Erasmus+ programme, he spent 3 months working at Pizarro's research group. The main task was to perform catalytic studies of previously synthetized osmium complexes to identify their capacity to carry on transfer hydrogenation reactions. Furthermore, in collaboration with the Institute of Catalysis and Petrochemistry, he studied the capacity of iridium complexes to produce H2. His interests reside a research career in medicinal chemistry.
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Darío KHOSRAVIANI RUIZ
Darío KHOSRAVIANI RUIZ
Michele DELL'AQUILA
![Michele DELL'AQUILA](/media/widgetkit/MDA-f49600db4d49519b69b18c24de11238d.jpg)
Michele DELL'AQUILA
Michele started his academic career at Saint Louis University – Madrid (Spain) and later transferred to Cornell University (USA), obtaining a BSc. in Human Biology, Health and Society. Michele worked on a project with Dr. Hudson Reeve and Dr. Bryan Swingle entitled “Kin-selected avoidance of competition between genetically identical bacteria” at Cornell University. He also worked in Dr. Zhenglong Gu’s laboratory at Cornell. At IMDEA Nanociencia Michele worked for three months in Spring 2018 contributing to understand the cytotoxic effect and mechanisms of action of different metal complexes specifically on yeast cells. Michele plans to become a MD/PhD.
Tori TONN
![Tori TONN](/media/widgetkit/tori_tonn-2af9d407168ab2a052726074cb7edfc0.jpg)
Tori TONN
Tori Tonn studied Biology and Spanish literature at Loyola University Chicago. She spent a year abroad studying at Saint Louis University Madrid. She joined IMDEA Nanociencia for three months where she worked in the cell culture unit studying the cytotoxic effect, mechanism of action and molecular targets of different metal complexes of ruthenium and iridium. After graduating from Loyola University Chicago in May 2018, she had plans to carry out a Master's program in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Minnesota.