About us
PEDRO JOSÉ DE PABLO
PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
Pedro defended his thesis at UAM in 2001 working in electromigration and molecular electronics of carbon nanotubes and dsDNA measured with Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM). He moved for a postdoc to Vrije Universiteit (Amsterdam) during two years where he started the study the biomechanical properties of individual viruses with AFM at the group of Physics of Complex Systems, leaded by Prof. Christoph Smidth. He earned a Ramón y Cajal contract and came back to UAM, where he started his own group focused on studying the physical properties of viruses. He became Associate Professor in 2009 and he has stablished durable collaborations with virology groups all over the world, incluing USA, The Netherlans, Australia, Switzerland, Italy. In Spain he is working in close collaboration with groups of CBMSO and CNB. He has directed 5 PhDs (all of them cum laude and 1 extraordinary prize) 4 women and 1 man. 4 former students are working in science related jobs, including academia and companies. He has hold more than 13 national and international projects, including the highly competitive HFSP (Human Frontiers Science Program). He has published more than 100 manuscripts in international high impact journals, including PNAS, ACS Nano, Nature Communications, Nucleic Acids Research Physical Rewiew X and Science Advances. His publications have been cited more than 6000 times, with h index of 44 (google scholar).
MIGUEL CANTERO
PhD STUDENT
After graduating in Health Biology in the University of Alcalá de Henares, I took a master's course in Biomolecules and Cell dynamics in the Autonomous University of Madrid.
I started working with biological nanocontainers under the supervision of José María Valpuesta, genetically modifying a human chaperone into a light-driven nanocontainer.
After that, I enrolled in Pedro J. de Pablo's lab where I started his PhD studies. Since then, I've worked with enveloped and lipid-containing viruses as well as with protein viruses and nanocontainers.
I worked with the extreme archaeal viruses SMV1, SSV1 and HCIV1, with eukaryotic viruses such as Nudaurelia capensis omega virus, reovirus, adenovirus and coronavirus TGEV and with the Thermus phage P23-77. Last, I also worked with the human chaperone CCT.
In my spare time, I like travelling, hearing to music (heavy metal rules!), origami modelling, cooking and beercraft.
ALEJANDRO DÍEZ
PhD STUDENT
Hi! I'm Alex, an environmental scientist who discovered a passion for physics and biology. My Ph.D. project is all about digging into the mechanical secrets of viruses using AFM. I'm diving into a bunch of cool projects in physical virology, from investigating mechanical fatigue and the relationship between protein-genome binding to the exploration of new species of gigant viruses. Or the mechanical implications of the absence of genome in empty algal viruses.
KLARA STROBL
PhD STUDENT
Welcome! I'm Klara Strobl. I do my research focusing on protein cages to use them as nanoreactors. I use P22 VLPs filled with multiple cargo such as GFPs or peptides to dilucidate the effect of confinement in the performancce of enzymatic processes and proteins.
I use AFM coupled with a TIRF microscope at the same time.
