DISCOBAC
Design, Interaction and Synthesis of Bioactive Compounds
Prof. Lourdes Gude
Dr. Lourdes Gude obtained her B.Sc. in Chemistry with Honors at Universidad de Alcalá, Spain. As a graduate fellow, funded by Consejería de Educación de la Comunidad de Madrid, her Ph.D. research work involved the synthesis and study of DNA intercalating compounds and their interaction and photocleavage processes in the presence of metals (Advisors: Assoc. Professors Antonio Lorente and María José Fernández). During this period, she visited Prof. Kathryn B. Grant’s laboratory in USA (Georgia State University-Center for Biotechnology and Drug Design, two short-stays, 7 months total) and Prof. Modesto Orozco’s laboratory in Spain (Univ. de Barcelona-Scientific Park, 2 months), with travel grants from UAH and CAM. Later on, Dr. Gude undertook postdoctoral training for four years in the area of Chemical Biology in Prof. Gregory L. Verdine’s laboratory, at Harvard University, USA. During this period, she was awarded a postdoctoral MEC/Fulbright fellowship.
She returned to Spain as an Assistant Professor at Universidad de Alcalá, and as a recipient of a Marie Curie International Reintegration Grant (FP7-European Comission). She is Associate Professor in Organic Chemistry since 2018.
Prof. Eva Royo
Eva Royo graduated in Chemistry and obtained her Ph.D. in 1999 at the University of Alcalá (Spain). After postdoctoral stays in Konstanz (Prof. H. H. Brintzinger) and Zaragoza (Prof. M.A. Esteruelas), she returned to the University of Alcalá in 2005, awarded with the Ramon y Cajal Grant, and started her independent research work. Since 2010 she is Associate Professor in Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Alcalá. She has been involved in catalytic applications of organometallic and/or coordination compounds, working with early and late transition metals, with a special emphasis on enantio and/or diastereo-selective synthesis and catalytic applications. Currently, her group focuses its current research on the design and study of transition metal-based antitumor agents. She and Prof. L. Gude coordinate the research group "Design, interaction, and synthesis of bioactive compounds" (UAH) from 2019.
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Prof. Tomás Cuenca
Tomás Cuenca received his Ph.D. degree from the University of Alcalá (Madrid) in 1984, supervised by Professor Pascual Royo. After completing his PhD, he joined Professor W. A. Herrmann’s research group at the Technischen Universität München (Anorganisch Chemischen Institut) in Germany, as a post-doctoral fellow from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. He was appointed Associate Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Alcalá in 1988, and Full Professor, his present position, in 1995.
His current research interests lies in the synthesis and characterization of transition metal complexes and their application in catalysis and medicine.
Dr. Zoila Gándara
Zoila Gándara started her research career in Organic Chemistry at the University of Vigo, Spain, where she joined the group of Prof. Y. Fall, having the opportunity to benefit from the prolific research environment focused on both academic and industrial research. She obtained her Ph.D. in 2006.
After three postdoctoral stays at the Institut de Chimie des Substances Naturelles, (France, Dr. Siméon Arseniyadis, 2006-2010), the University of Vigo (Spain, Prof. Y. Fall, Ángeles Alvariño Contract, 2010-2013) and the Palacký University (the Czech Republic, Prof. Ing Miroslav Strnad, POST-UP II contract, EU, 2013-2016), she became an expert in the design and syntheses of natural products with relevant biological activity. She is associate professor of Organic Chemistry since 2017.
Dr. Rafael Castillo Romero
Rafael started a Ph.D. in organic chemistry under the supervision of Prof. Álvarez-Builla at the University of Alcalá (UAH) focusing on catalytic methodology onto heterobetaines. After finishing his Ph.D. in 2010, he moved to ICSN (CNRS) where, under the supervision of Prof. Arseniyadis, he worked on the preparation of fused polycycles through cascade reactions. He returned to Madrid in 2012 at Prof. Carretero’s group at the Autónoma University of Madrid (UAM) and specialized in catalytic C-H activation processes. In 2014, he joined Prof. Vallet-Regí's group at the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM), shifting his research interests from organic synthesis to multidisciplinary research in which he worked on the development of bioactive ligands with potential use for nanomedicine and tissue engineering. Since 2021 he is an Assistant Professor at the UAH. Currently, he focuses on the design of chemical compounds and bioactive ligands for novel anticancer therapies and tissue engineering.
Dr. Noelia Rubio-Carrero
Noelia completed her Ph.D. in 2012 at the University of Castilla-La Mancha (faculty of chemistry, Ciudad Real) developing novel methods to functionalise carbon nanostructures. Noelia performed her first post-doctoral stay at the Drug Delivery group at King’s College London, where she started and led the chemistry part of the group and developed new skills in the biological field. To gain more knowledge in the materials chemistry and characterisation fields, she started a second postdoctoral period at the Nanostructured Hierarchical Assemblies and Composites group at Imperial College London. Noelia currently holds a distinguished Senior Researcher position (Research Talent Attraction Program, T1, from CAM). Her interests are focused on developing new biosensors based on single layer graphene (SLG) for the detection of biologically active molecules such as therapeutic antibodies and metallo-organic ligands for anticancer drug design.
Elena de la Torre-Rubio
Elena de la Torre Rubio graduated in Chemistry with honors (Extraordinary Degree Award, 2019) and obtained the Master's degree in "Therapeutic targets on cell signaling" in July 2020, at the University of Alcalá (UAH), Spain. In November 2020, she was awarded a doctoral FPU-MICINN (Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation) Fellowship. Since then, she's carrying out doctoral studies at the Organic and Inorganic Chemistry Department of the UAH, under the supervision of Prof. Eva Royo and Prof. Dr. Tomás Cuenca. Her research interest focuses on the design, synthesis, and biological evaluation of new multifunctional metal-carbohydrate conjugates as potential DNA quadruplex binding ligands for their application as therapeutic and diagnostic agents in cancer disease.
Patricia Gratal
Patricia Gratal is currently a Ph.D. student in the group DISCOBAC, working under the supervision of Dr. Lourdes Gude. She finished her degree in Chemistry at Universidad de Alcalá in 2015, and later on, she got a Master’s degree in Science Research (Chemistry). In both studies, she carried out her Final Thesis Project in the department of Organic & Inorganic Chemistry (Inorganic Division), in the group SOSCATCOM, studying different catalysts in sulfoxidation processes. She obtained a second Master’s degree in Chromatographic Techniques in the Chemical-Pharmaceutical Sector, in 2017. Since 2018, her research has mainly focused on the design and synthesis of new potential antitumor organic and metallo-organic compounds, including the study of DNA-ligand interactions and biological activity. She has been a recipient of two Comunidad de Madrid (Garantía Juvenil) contracts, at UAH and later on at UAM, the latter working on the area of photocatalysis in the FRONCAT group.
Ana Gómez Bra
Graduate student
Yasmina Mohamed López
Master student
Álvaro Nicolás Prieto
Ph.D. student, FPI-UAH fellow
Laura Baeza Gutierrez
Research Assistant- CAM Garantía Juvenil Fellow
Enrique Doblado Ferrón
Master student
Luis Eugenio Selma
Lab technician
Julia González Quero
Lab technician in our group from 2019 until 2022
Former members
Isabel de la Cueva-Alique
Doctor in Chemistry, 2020
From 2020, Product Specialist (Lab division, Menarini Diagnostics)
PhD project: Chiral metal compounds with amino oxime containing terpenic ligands and their applications as anticancer metallodrugs
Sara Sierra
Doctor in Chemistry, 2017
Teacher and consultant of natural cosmetics (Freelance)
PhD project: Synthesis of G-quadruplex DNA ligands derived from 1,10-phenanthroline. Interaction and biological activity studies
Katerina Duskova
Doctor in Chemistry, 2016
Postdoctoral Researcher at IOCB Prague
PhD project: Synthesis and interaction studies of G-quadruplex binding compounds
Yosra Benabdelouahab
Doctor in Chemistry, 2016
Manager of Yossi Cosmetique and Yohaca Mode (Tetouan, Morocco)
PhD project: New complexes of titanium and ruthenium with amino-oxime ligands derived from R-limonene: Synthesis, characterization and reactivity.
Cristina E. Petrisor
Doctor in Chemistry, 2011
Chemistry teacher (Freelance)
PhD project: Amidosilyl-cyclopentadienyl titanium and zirconium compounds with a mono- and di-substituted cyclopentadienyl ring. Catalysts in olefin isomerization processes and formation of Si-C and Si-Si bonds
Ghaita Chahboun
Doctor in Chemistry, 2011
From 2020, High School Chemistry Teacher at the Académie Superieur de l'Éducation, la Formation et la Rechercha, Tetouan, Marocco.
PhD project: Synthesis and characterization of group 6 metal complexes and their application as olefin transformation catalysts