MEDINA Team
Fernando Reyes PhD – Head of Chemistry at MEDINA
Email: [email protected]
Fernando Reyes is an expert in natural products chemistry, including bioassay-guided isolation of new molecules, structural elucidation by spectroscopic thecniques (LC/HRMS and NMR), and bioactivity assays. He is currently supervising 4 Ph D Theses, 1 belonging to an ITN currently running at MEDINA. Long track of training experience of young researchers (not at academic level) in the natural products field at PharmaMar and MEDINA. Co-author of 82 peer-reviewed publications and named inventor in 19 patents. 1484 citations and an H index of 20 according to Google Scholar.
Dr Fernando Reyes will support MEDINA activities in IIMENA related with the isolation and structural elucidation of novel compounds.
Francesca Vicente PhD – Head of Screening and New Targers Department at MEDINA
Email: [email protected]
Francisca Vicente has a PhD in Biology (Molecular Biology, 1986) from the Universidad Autónoma of Madrid and is the head of the Screening and New Targets Department at MEDINA since 2009. Her scientific interest is focused on the research of innovative drugs and Biomarkers. She has extensive research experience in the academic and hospital environment (Ramon y Cajal Hospital, Madrid, Institute Pasteur, France). In 1988, she joined the Center for Basic Research at MSD España, (CIBE), where she led a program of drug discovery from natural products for over 20 years (Merck Sharp and Dohme of Spain, 1988-2008). As Drug Discovery scientist, Dr. Vicente is the author of more than 100 papers published in scientific journals (h-index 26 with 3498 citations) and 17 international patents, she has edited numerous monographs, she has directed 3 doctoral theses and 4 master thesis and she is currently directing the work of 3 PhD.
Dr Francisca Vicente will support MEDINA activities in IIMENA related with new antimicrobial screening against the Gram negative panel.
Javier Ortiz, PhD – Senior Scientist (Chemistry)
Email: [email protected]
Javier Ortiz has a Ph.D. in Organic chemistry (Synthesis of bioactive natural products) from University of Málaga (2009), and strong background in organic synthesis, modern analytical and spectroscopic techniques, and bioconjugate chemistry. Dr. Ortiz was postdoctoral research fellow at Fundación MEDINA (2010-2012), being involved in an amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) discovery project and collaborating in other drug discovery programs (antiinfective, cancer and malaria). He worked as Senior Researcher at nLife Therapeutics (2012-2015), in the synthesis of high affinity ligands and its conjugation to modified oligonucleotides as therapeutic agents against CNS disorders. In 2015, Dr. Ortiz joined MEDINA as Senior Scientist (Chemistry), where he focuses on the isolation, and structural elucidation of bioactive natural products from different programs, with special focus on antibacterial campaigns.
Dr. Javier Ortiz will be involved in the IIMENA project as full-time researcher dedicated to the isolation and structural characterization of new antibacterial natural products from the antiinfective screening campaigns of the project.
Daniel Oves-Costales, PhD
Email: [email protected]
David Oves-Costales has a PhD in Chemistry (2004) from the University of Oviedo, Spain, from his work on the synthesis of Vitamin D analogues under the supervision of Prof. Vicente Gotor. He had postdoctoral position in the group of Prof. G. L. Challis at the University of Warwick (2005-2009) to work on the elucidation of siderophore biosynthetic pathways in bacteria. In 2010 he joined MEDINA microbiology department to work on the discovery of new biologically active microbial natural products.
Dr Oves-Costales will be involved in the IIMENA project focused on the selection and fermentation of actinomycetes, the generation of microbial extracts and the antiinfective screening for hit identification.
Fernando Román, M.Sc. – PhD Student
Email: [email protected]
Fernando Román Hurtado has a B.Sc. degree in Basic and Experimental Biomedicine from the University of Sevilla (2015) and a M.Sc. in Molecular Biology applied to Biotechnological Enterprises (Bioenterprise) from the University of Granada (2016). He has research experience from his work at the General Immunology and Transplants Laboratory, Biomedicine Institute of Sevilla (IBiS), under the supervision of Profs. Antonio Núñez and Isabel Aguilera, and later during his master working at MEDINA in the Study of antimicrobial activities and analysis of the metabolites produced by two strains of Amycolatopsis.
He joined MEDINA as IIMENA PhD student and he is working in the selection and fermentation of actinomycetes, the extraction of the microbial broths and the study of their antimicrobial activity by employing HTS technologies.
Daniel Carretero – PhD Student
Email: [email protected]
Daniel Carretero Molina obtained his B.Sc. degree in Pharmacy from the University of Granada (2015). Throughout the years 2016-2017 he has gained research experience at MEDINA under a first employment contract awarded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and the European Social Fund. During this period he acquired knowledge in natural products chemistry, including bioassay-guided isolation of new molecules, structural elucidation by spectroscopic techniques (LC/HRMS and NMR), and bioactivity assays.
He joined MEDINA as IIMENA PhD student to work on the isolation, purification and structural elucidation of novel antibacterial natural products against Gram-negative pathogenic microorganisms, arising from the different screening approaches used in the project.
Ignacio Fernández Pastor
Email: [email protected]
Dr. Ignacio Fernández-Pastor obtained the BSc Degree in Chemistry and the MSc degree in Biotechnology at the University of Granada in 2011 and 2014, respectively. In October 2018, he received the Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry with Cum Laude Award at University of Granada. His pre-doc research, under the supervision of Prof. Andres Parra, was focused on the semisynthesis of novel organic compounds from plant metabolites. The main goal was to produce a second generation of derivatives with improved biological activities. Then, he moved to Glasgow (United Kingdom) where he worked as a postdoctoral researcher in two different Universities. First, he joined the Natural Products Metabolomics Group at University of Strathclyde under the supervision of Dr. RuAngeline Edrada-Ebel. As part of this post-doc research, he was developing Multivariate statistical analysis and Molecular Networking studies. Second, he became part of the Institute of Molecular, Cell and Systems Biology at University of Glasgow as a research assistant. His research during that time was linked to a startup for bioinsecticides called Solaste Bio, in which his supervisor Prof. Shireen Davies is the CEO. In 2020, he moved back to Granada and joined MEDINA as a post-doctoral researcher. Here, he is developing the isolation, purification, and structural elucidation of bioactive natural products. His background includes most of the analytic techniques for the isolation and characterization of metabolites, such as UV, IR and NMR spectroscopy and HPLC-MS. He is also working with dereplication techniques and chemometric studies.