María Lluïsa Pérez-García

received her Pharmacy degree in 1985 and completed her PhD in 1991 both at the Universitat de Barcelona (UB), for which she received full honours and the special prize of the University, as well as the Rhône Poulenc prize for young scientists.

After a two-year postdoctoral stay at the University of Birmingham (UK) in Fraser Stoddart`s group (2016 Nobel prize in Chemistry) she moved to the School of Pharmacy at the UB where she gained a post as tenured lecturer (1994) and then became an Associate Professor in the Organic Chemistry Laboratory of the School Pharmacy (1997).

In the academic year 2015-16 she spent a sabbatical year at the University of Nottingham (UoN), thanks to a Salvador de Madariaga grant awarded by the Spanish Ministry of Education. After obtaining a research leave from UB (Ley de la Ciencia), in September 2017 she was appointed for 2 years as an Anne McLaren Research fellow at the School of Pharmacy, UoN, where she became Associate Professor until October 2020. In March 2020 she gained a full professorship at the UB, where she is now a full-time professor since November 2020.

Her research experience is in synthetic, structural, medicinal and supramolecular chemistries. Her doctoral thesis involved the synthesis of heterocyclic betaines, of interest as anti-parasitic agents as well as building blocks for the construction of macrocyclic structures.

On her two years as a postdoc in Birmingham she worked in the self-assembly of mechanically interlocked structures, such as catenanes and rotaxanes, as molecular switches. Back at the UB she directed many research projects, including the preparation of anion binding macrocycles, and the search of nanobiosensors for pharmaceutical applications. Her current interests are mainly in the field of nanobiomedicine, and include the use of nanoparticles and hydrogels for drug delivery of anticancer agents, especially using photodynamic therapy, and the bio-functionalization of suspended chips to study, tag and actuate inside living cells (multiplexing materials). She is also interested in molecular machines that induce molecular movement on surfaces. To develop this highly multidisciplinary research she has established many national and international research collaborations.

For five years (2004-2008) she was Vice-Dean of Research at the Faculty of Pharmacy and Deputy of the Vice-Rector of Scientific Policy at the University of Barcelona, being in charge of doctoral studies within the University. She is a regular reviewer of scientific documents (publications American Chemical Society, Elsevier, Royal Society of Chemistry), human resources and research projects for different agencies (AEI, EPSRC).

She leads the research group Supramolecular systems for Nanobiomedicine, a member of the Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology-UB, as well as the consolidated research group Photo- and electroresponsive micro-and nanostructured functional materials (PERMINAMAT), recognised by the Generalitat de Catalunya (2021 SGR 01085).

She has published ca. 150 scientific articles, 5 book chapters, and she has participated in many scientific congresses, where she has presented ca. 200 communications including invited lectures and plenary conferences. In terms of academic impact, WoS reveals that she has been cited 3511 times in 2716 documents (excluding self-citations) which means an average of ca. 30 citations per publication. According to Scopus, more than 72% of the work included international collaborators, ca. 50% publications are in the top 25% most cited documents worldwide, and 83% in the top 25% journals. Professor Pérez-Garcías’ work has also translational impact trough patents, one of them under exploitation and that is the origin of a spin-off company. She has trained many young researchers who have achieved highly qualified employment in worldwide relevant companies. More specifically, In the last 10 years, she has supervised 7 postdoctoral fellows and many international PhD placement students, master and undergraduate students in research projects. Also, she has supervised 10 PhD students (and several more ongoing) who gained maximum honours (cum laude). From these, 3 also obtained the Premio Extraordinario de Doctorado, 4 of them received the Mention of European/International doctorate, and 4 were supervised at the University of Nottingham (UK).