Research Lines
Home – Research – Research Lines
Main research lines in the antiviral chemotherapy field include the following.
- Rational development of antiviral agents through evaluation in cell-based assays of new derivatives whose design has been driven by SAR studies and, when appropriate, in silico prediction. .
- Target identification through time of addition assays, expression and purification of putative target enzymes and validation through IC50 determination in known or innovative enzyme assays. .
- Definition of the molecular bases of drug resistance through in vitro selection of mutants, definition of their cross-resistance patterns, genome sequencing to identify mutations responsible for resistance and localization of mutations in the 3D target enzyme structure and evaluation of mechanistic consequences.
- In silico studies through molecular docking and automated docking methods for studying the interaction of drugs with putative binding sites; molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to calculate free binding energies; modeling of drug-enzyme interactions for in silico prediction of IC50 and design of new molecules, using advanced simulation software.
Main research lines in biotechnologies applied to industrial and environmental fields include the following.
– Roles of microbial communities in bioremediation of heavy metal- and hydrocarbon-contaminated soils and ground waters.
– Monitoring of pollutant degrading/transforming microorganisms during bioremediation.
– Study of microbial diversity and its exploitation as a source of novel microorganisms and surface active compounds (surfactants and emulsifiers) for biotechnological applications.
– Development of detergents and disinfectants.
– Study of plant-associated bacteria in phyto-remediation of heavy metal-contaminated soils.
– Study of pectinolytic bacteria and pectinase enzymes for application in textile industry.
More recent research lines on other topics are the following:
– Relationships between cholesterol homeostasis and protein misfolding/aggregation in Prion models in vitro and Alzheimer patients.
– Development of anti-protein misfolding/aggregation compounds and study of their mode of action.