People

A lot of people have been involved in our research projects along these years. Here we include a list of graduate and undergraduate students from Spain and abroad:


Graduate students

Carlos Poyato (University of Barcelona, 2023). He is working on the detecction of pyrimidine-rich sequences by means of DNA-stabilized fluorescent silver nanoclusters.

Pavel Hannig (Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic, 2023). He is working on the interaction of natural alkaloids with several DNA structures.

Javier Pacheco (University of Barcelona, 2022). He has been working on the detecction of pyrimidine-rich sequences by means of DNA-stabilized silver nanoclusters.

Laila Bchara (University of Barcelona, 2022). She has been working on the application of capillary electrophoresis to the study of i-motif structures.

Katerina Kolkova (Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic, 2021). She is working on the interaction of natural alkaloids with G-quadruplex, i-motif and duplex DNA structures.

David Reguera (University of Barcelona, 2020). He has been working on the application of cytosine-rich triplex DNA to the determination of miRNA by means of nanocluster technology.

Alejandra de la Hoz (University of Barcelona, 2019). She is a student attending the MSc on Analytical Chemistry who is working on the application of cytosine-rich DNA sequences to silver nanocluster technology.

Alba Navarro (University of Barcelona, 2018). She is a student attending the MSc on Analytical Chemistry who is working on the application of cytosine-rich DNA sequences to silver nanocluster technology. The final goal is the simultaneous determination of several miRNAs.

Juan Fernando García (University of Barcelona, 2017). Juanfer, an Equatorian student attending the MSc on Analytical Chemistry,  worked on the application of cytosine-rich DNA sequences to silver nanocluster technology.

Petra Jarosová (Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic, 2016). She has been working on the interaction of natural alkaloids with G-quadruplex structures.

Gerard Pastor (University of Barcelona, 2016). He has been working formation and spectral features of silver nanoclusters stabilized by DNA sequences rich in cytosine.

Ewa Rajczak (Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan, Poland, 2015). She has been working on the study of the interaction of metallacrowns with G-quadruplex structures.

Adam Midlik (Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic, 2015). He has been working on the application of multivariate methods to the analysis of spectroscopic data recorded along melting of triplex DNA structures.

Sergio Benito (University of Barcelona, 2014). He worked on the application of Size-Exclusion Chromatography and Mass Spectrometry to the study of folding equilibria of a G-quadruplex-forming sequence near the promoter region of the c-kit gene. He is now working on a private company.

Petr Paroulek (Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic, 2013). He has worked with us in the study of the interaction of natural alkaloids with G-quadruplex DNAs.

Michal Rájecký (Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic, 2012). He has been working with us in the study of the interaction of alkaloids with double-stranded DNAs.

Sanae Benabou (University of Barcelona, 2012-). She has been working on the solution equilibria of two cytosine- and guanine-rich sequences located near the promoter region of n-myc. She defended successfully her MSc on February 2013.

Sara Ruiz Castelar (University of Barcelona, 2011) has worked with us in the study of the solution equilibria of guanine-rich sequences by means of spectroscopic and chromatographic methods. Currently she has joined a pharmaceutical company.

Andrea Barba (University of Barcelona). He has worked with us in the study of equilibria in solution of a sequence of k-ras gene by means of spectroscopic and electrophoretic techniques.

Sintayehu Manaye (European Master in Quality in Analytical Laboratories, Ethiopia, 2009). He has been working with us in the period 2009-2010 in the study of the solution equilibria of a guanine-rich sequence found in the promoter regions of the c-kit oncogene. Also, the interaction of these sequences with porphyrin-based ligands (like TMPyP4 or NMM) has been studied.

Pavel Bucek (Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic, 2008). He has been working with us in the period 2007-08 and throughout 2009 in the study of the solution equilibria of two guanine-rich and cytosine-rich sequences found in the promoter regions of the bcl-2 and c-kit oncogenes. Also, the interaction of these two sequences with porphyrin-based ligands (like TMPyP4) has been studied.

Miquel del Toro Carrion (University of Barcelona, 2008). He has been working for one year on the study of the G-quadruplex structure formed by the Thrombin Binding Aptamer (TBA) and its interaction with the porphyrin TMPyP4. In this work he applied spectroscopic methods (like molecular absorption, circular dichroism or molecular fluorescence), Surface Plasmon Resonance and HPLC. He defended his MSc in March 2008 and he has recently joined a Spanish leading pharmaceutical company.

Dr. Joaquim Jaumot Soler (University of Barcelona). He obtained his PhD (2006) entitled "New developments, bioanalytical applications and Quality assessment of Multivariate Resolution methods". Currently he is still working at the Department of Analytical Chemistry (UB) as assistant professor.

Dra. Montserrat Vives Blazquez (University of Barcelona). She obtained her PhD (2003) entitled "Study of the conformational changes of nucleic acids, and their interaction with compounds of pharmaceutical interest". Currently she has joined an leading pharmaceutical Spanish company.

Dr. Jordi Iglesias Yagüe (University of Barcelona). He obtained his MSc (1998) entitled "Application of in-situ methodologies for the study of the acid-base and complexation equilibria of 1,10-phenanthroline and derivatives". Later, he obtained his PhD at the University of Innsbruck (Austria).

Undergraduate students

Hamzah Ahmed (University of Warwick, UK, 2024). He is working currently on the interaction of recently-synthesized fluorescent dyes with different DNA secondary structures by means of spectroscopic techniques.

Judit Rodriguez (University of Barcelona, 2022). She studied the conformational equilibria of i-motif/duplex hibrid structures, as well as the interaction of several ligands with these.

Andrea Valls (University of Barcelona, 2022). She has been working on the detecction of pyrimidine-rich sequences by means of DNA-stabilized silver nanoclusters.

Noelia Ruiz (University of Barcelona, 2019). She was working in the study of the interaction of natural alkaloids with DNA structures.

Laura Aillon (University of Barcelona, 2018). She was working in the electrochemistry of DNA structures.

Oriol Oliva (University of Barcelona, 2017). He was working in the study of the influence of metal cations and organic ligands on i-motif structures.

Victor Duque (University of Barcelona, 2016). He worked  in the study of the influence of metal cations on i-motif structures.

Alba Ferrer (University of Barcelona, 2015). She worked in the study of the solution equilibria of several guanine-rich sequences corresponding to the SMARCA4 gene.

Gerard Pastor (University of Barcelona, 2014). He worked in the study of the solution equilibria of several guanine-rich sequences corresponding to the SMARCA4 gene.

Joan Josep Alba (University of Barcelona, 2014). He studied the solution equilibria of several cytosine-rich sequences corresponding to the SMARCA4 gene.

Daniel García (University of Barcelona, 2014). He has been working in the study of the interaction of several dyes with quadruplex DNA structures by means of molecular fluorescence spectroscopy.

Anna Sadurní (University of Barcelona, 2013). She worked on the study of the influence of bases located at the loops on the stability of i-motif-forming structures.

Ferran Sabaté (University of Barcelona, 2012). He studied the formation of silver nanoparticles and the interaction with cytosine-rich DNAs.

Sergio Fernández (University of Barcelona, 2010). He studied the acid-base and thermal equilibria of several cytosine-rich sequences by means of spectroscopic methods.

Irene Giner (University of Barcelona, 2010). She has been working on the application of Capillary Electrophoresis to study the solution equilibria of DNA.

Sanae Benabou (University of Barcelona). She has been working on the application of Capillary Electrophoresis to study the solution equilibria of DNA.

Agnieszka Stępień (Adam Mickiewicz University, Poland). She has worked with us on the study of the solution equilibria of one of the i-motif-forming sequences at the k-ras oncogene.

Nicolas Roucou (IUT, Lannion, France, 2008). He worked for three months on the solution equilibria of one of the i-motif-forming sequences at the c-kit oncogene. Also, the interaction of these sequences with porphyrin-based ligands (like TMPyP4) has been studied.

Terézia Vojtylová (Brno University, Czech Republic). She studied the conformational equilibria of a cytosine-rich DNA sequence found in the promoter region of the bcl-2 oncogen. Several adenine bases were added to study their influence on the stability of the potential i-motif structures formed by this sequence.

Verónica Hernando (University of Barcelona, 2007). She did a research period working on the study of the conformational equilibria of cytosine-rich DNA sequences. She started the use of HPLC for the study of such equilibria.

Nasiruddin Khan (Gonda, India, 2006). He did a research period starting the study of solution equilibria of G-quadruplex and i-motifs in our lab. Specifically he initiated the study of the solution equilibria of two guanine-rich and cytosine-rich sequences found in the promoter region of the bcl-2 oncogen.

Katarzyna Wrona (Jagiellonian Univercity, Cracov, Polonia). She did a research period in 2005, working on the study of the interaction of Actinomycin D (ACTD) with oligonucleotides carrying the central sequence -XGCY-.

Roger Ramos (University of Barcelona). He did a research period in 2005, working on the acid-base equilibria and kinetics of ACTD. Later, he did his MSc at the IBMB-CSIC (with Dr. Eritja) working on nanostructures of DNA.

Guillaume Loiret (IUT, Lannion, France). He did a research period in 2005, working on the intercalation of acridine derivatives into DNA.

Alexandre Lekernec (IUT, Lannion, France). He did a research period in 2004, working on the study of the interaction of ACTD with oligonucleotides carrying the central sequence -XGCY-.

Sílvia Sánchez (University of Barcelona). She did a research period in 2004, working on the acid-base and conformational equilibria of hairpins and Triplex Forming Oligonucleotides (TFOs).

Petr Taborsky (Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic). He did a research period in 2000, working on the acid-base and conformational equilibria of DNAs containing the modified base 2-aminopurine. He is now assistant professor at Masaryk University and we still collaborate on the application of fluorescence spectroscopy to the study of nucleic acids.