Drugs from Drugs
Discovery of new bioactive agents by modification of known drugs using Multicomponent Reactions. Facilitated Access to Libraries of
Dr. Rodolfo Lavilla
rlavilla@ub.edu
Laboratory of Medicinal Chemistry
Faculty of Pharmacy and Food Sciences
University of Barcelona & Institute of Biomedicine (IBUB)
Tel. 93 4024532
Rodolfo Lavilla
Rodolfo Lavilla is full Professor of Organic and Medicinal Chemistry at the Faculty of Pharmacy. Rodolfo studied Pharmacy and did a Master in Medicnal Chemistry at the Universoity of Barcelona.
Then he received is PhD in Pharmacy at the University of Barcelona under the supervison of Prof. Mercedes Alvarez and made a postdoctoral stay in the University of California, San Diego (Adisor Prof. Ernest Wenkert) and afterwards joined faculty in the University of Barcelona and started an independent career.
He has published over 120 research papers, review articles, book chapters and patents., and has given over 50 invited lectures in international congresses and research departments all over the world. His major research interests deal with reactivity issues in heterocyclic chemistry, multicomponent reactions and the organometallic chemistry of peptides; looking for applications in biological and medicinal chemistry programs.
He has active collaborations with pharmaceutical companies in medchem projects.
He has directed 12 PhD (4 with extrordinary awards) and around 35 Ms theses, and tutored over 25 postdoctoral fellows.
Mentoring is an important activity in the group, and several past memebrs are holding relevant positions in industry and academia. Rodolfo serves as reviewer for several Research Agencies (Catalunya, Basque Country, Castilla y León, Spain, France, Flanders, Latvia, Netherlands, Argentina, USA, etc.) and also for more than 40 scientific journals (Royal Society of Chemistry, American Chemical Society, Wiley-WCH, Bentham, etc).
Team
Dr. Ouldouz Ghashghaei
Assistant ProfessorDr. Ouldouz Ghashghaei
Assistant ProfessorStudied Chemistry at the SUT and the UB. She received her PhD in Organic Chemistry, under supervision of Prof. Lavilla in 2017. She was appointed as the adjunct lecturer of Organic Chemistry in 2021. Her research is focused on heterocyclic reaction discovery and fluorescent probe development for biomedical applications.
Pau Nadal Rodríguez
PostDocPau Nadal Rodríguez
PostDocRecieved his degree in Pharmacy from the UB. Then he joined GSK (UK) as a synthetic chemist through a year-long Industrial Placement. In 2020, he was awarded an FPI grant to pursue his PhD at the UB. He conducted his PhD under the supervision of Prof. Lavilla and Dr Ghashgahei, focused on the Reaction Space Charting of Multicomponent Processes. Since October 2025, he is a postdoctoral researcher at Lavilla Lab.
Alumni (since 2022):
Pau Nadal Rodríguez (PhD-UB, 2024)
Eloy Lozano Baró (Research Stay-UB, 2024)
Donna Martinez Lopez (M.S.-UB, 2024)
Katarzyna Balcerzak (Erasmus, Technical University of Dublin, 2024)
Mislav Vrdoljak (Erasmus, University of Zagreb, 2024)
Donna Martinez Lopez (M.S.-UB, 2024)
Anna Maria Schoepf (Erwin Schroedinger Postdoctoral fellow, 2023)
Marina Pedrola (PhD, 2022)
Alejandro Diaz (M.S, 2022)
Christina Martini (Erasmus, University of Genova, 2022)
Diana Prado (Erasmus, Arkansas State University, 2022)
Athalie Ventura (Erasmus, Arkansas State University, 2022)
Prof. Federica Catti (Visiting Schloar, Arkansas State University, 2022)
Selected Projects
Ongoing Projects:
Charting New Paths: First-in-class TREX2 Inhibitors for Psoriasis and Dermatitis. (2025-2027)
Agència de Gestió d’Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca (AGAUR, PROD 00106)
€150,000.
First-in-classTREX2 Inhibitors to Treat Psoriasis and Dermatitis. (2024-2026)
Agència de Gestió d’Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca (AGAUR, INNOV 00012)
€90,000.
Multicomponent Reaction Platform for Reaction Discovery and Generation of New Biomed Compounds (2023-2026)
Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (PID2022-13918OB-I00).
212.000 €. Principal Investigator
Phosphoiminoproline LPIP, a Disease-Modifying Drug for Alzheimers Disease (2022-2024)
Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (PDC2022-133441-I00)
130.000 €. Principal Investigator
projects
Multicomponent Reactions: Discovery, Development and Applications in Biomedicine (2019-2022).
Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, Spain: PID2019-107991RB-I00
95.000 €. Principal Investigator.
Identification, synthesis and toxicological evaluation of new antidetonating molecule (2018-2019)
Fundació Bosch i Gimpera (U. Barcelona). Licenced research .FBG 309799.
98.780€. Principal Investigator. Coordinator: F. J. Luque (U. Barcelona).
Development of new LRR8 / VRAC chloride channel inhibitors, a new key element in ischemia (2018-2020).
Fundació La Marató de TV3 (Spain). 247/C/2017
299.936,53 €. PI: Rodolfo Lavilla.
Deciphering pathogen-host interactions in the pathogenesis of cryptococcosis using optical methods and in vivo imaging techniques. (2016-2018).
ERA NET. DGICYT (Ministerio Economía y Competitividad, Spain-EU)). PCIN-2015-224.
46.000 €. Principal Investigator. Coordinator U.Himerich (U. Leuven, BE).
Facilitated Prepararion of Relevant Compoun in Biology (2015-2019).
DGICYT (Ministerio Economía y Competitividad, Spain): CTQ2015-67870-P
139.100 €. Principal Investigator.
DIGITAL – Diagnosis, follow-up and treatment of patients with genetic diseases included in neonatal screening programs and other rare metabolic diseases” (2014-2017).
Secretaría de Estado de Investigación, desarrollo e innovación (Spain). Retos Colaboración 2014: RTC-2014-2412-1.
101.728 €. PI: Rodolfo Lavilla. Coordinator M. Martinell (Minoryx Therapeutics SL).
Marine natural products privileged structures for the discovery and administration of new drugs (2013-2015).
Comisión Interministerial de Ciencia y Tecnología (Spain) (CTQ2012-30930). 738.000,00 €. Researcher. PI: F. Albericio (U. Barcelona)
Patents
1,2,4-Triazole-3-thione inhibitors of trex2 for use in the treatment of psoriasis, atopic dermatitis or ichthyosis
Concepció Soler Prat, Xavier Barril Alonso, Serena Piticchio, Francisco Ciruela Alferez, Rodolfo Lavilla Grifols, Ouldouz Ghashghaei, Ingrid Filgeaira Enri, Marc López-Cano, Jaime Notario Rosa. PCT (Intl. Appl. 2024) WO2024223907A1
Fluorogenic compounds, processes of preparation thereof and methods of use.
Marc Vendrell Escobar, Ramón Subiros Funosas, Lorena Mendive Tapia, Fernando Albericio Palomera, Rodolfo Lavilla Grifols, Rodolfo; Nick D. Read. PCT (Intl. Appl. 2016) WO 2016207626
patents
Obtaining process, composition and use of modified peptide comprising at least one arylated tryptophan with anti-microbial activity.
Gonzalez, Rodrigo; Grifols, Rodolfo Lavilla; Cascone, Osvaldo; Palomera, Fernando Albericio; Iannucci, Nancy B. Argentinian patent Appl AR 97488 A1 20160316 (2016).
Heteroarylaminoioquinolines, methods for their preparation and therapeutic uses thereof. García Collazo, A. M.; Martinell Pedemonte, M.; Revés Vilaplana, M.; Lavilla Grifols, R.; Rodríguez Pascau, L.; Cubero Jordá, E. European patent Office. WO 2016/120808 A1 : PCT/IB2016/050413 (2016)
Di(hetero)arylamides and sulfonamides, methods for their preparation and therapeutic uses thereof. Barril Alonso, X.; García Collazo, A. M.; Aymamí Bofarull, J.; Revés Vilaplana, M.; Lavilla Grifols, R.; Martinell Pedemonte, M. European patent Office. EP 13382314.6 1454. PCT: EP2014/066392. (2014).
Collaborations
Prof. COncepció Soler, IDIBELL Barcelona, Medicinal Chemistry (inflammatory Skin Diseases)
Prof. Raul Estévez Povedano, IDIBELL Barcelona, Medicinal Chemistry (anion channel blockers)
Prof. Joan Gil, U. Barcelona, IDIBELL, Cancer (selective apoptosis)
Prof. Rongrong Hu, South China U. Tech. Material Science (functional organic compounds)
Prof. F. Javier Luque, U. Barcelona. Computational Chemistry (reaction mechanisms)
Prof Dolores Velasco, U. Barcelona. Photophysics (photoswitchable probes)
Prof. Marc Vendrell, U. Edinburgh. Biological Chemistry (fluorescent probes)
Prof. Miquel Viñas, U. Barcelona, IDIBELL, Medicinal Chemistry (antibiotic resistance)
Prof. Thomas Haarmann-Stemmann, Leibniz Research Institute
for Environmental Medicine, Medicinal Chemistry (AhR signalling)
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Heterocyclic Multicomponent Reactions
Development of novel reactions involving basic heterocycles. Access to a variety of novel scaffolds for biomedical applications Reaction discovery and…
Diagnostics with Modern Chemical Probes
Generation of functional probes by modern chemistry such as CH activation for modified tryptophan peptides and the preparation of fluorescent…
Proapoptotic TrifluoroThiazoles
Direct synthetic access to compounds in 1-2 steps, to trigger Proapoptotic p-53 independent antitumoral activity, and Sdelectively targeting prohibitins (Collaboration…