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.

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.

adriana.arnaiz@imdea.org

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.

rosamaria.martinez@imdea.org 

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.

adrian.luguera@imdea.org 

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 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/ 

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.

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 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.