PolyZymes Lab
Andoni Rodriguez López de Abetxuko, Dr. (former PhD student of the group)
I was born in Basauri, a small city next to Bilbao (Spain). I carried out my BSc in Biotechnology with excellence at the University of the Basque Country. During my last BSc year, I did a summer internship at the Nanomaterials Group in CIC NanoGUNE (San Sebastian), under the supervision of Dr. Ana Beloqui and Prof. Dr. Mato Knez. I worked on the synthesis and characterization of organic-inorganic protein hybrids.
I stayed in at the University of the Basque Country to complete my MSc in New Materials, during which I carried out the master thesis with Dr. Ana Beloqui at CIC NanoGUNE. I commenced my PhD studies at the same group in 2018, awarded with a grant by the Basque Government. I am actually working on the design and fabrication of new catalytic biomaterials with technological purposes. For that, I utilize enzyme-polymer nanoconjugates, which impart stability to the enzyme and ensure the confinement of interesting molecules around the protein.
In my spare time I enjoy practicing all kind of sports, especially surfing and crossfit. I also sing in a choir and play piano.
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Dr. Ana Beloqui Elizazu, leader of PolyZymes
I was born and raised in San Sebastián - Donostia (Spain). I studied Chemistry at the University of Navarra (Pamplona, Spain) with honors and thereafter completed my PhD at the Institute of Catalysis (ICP-CSIC ) / Autonomous University of Madrid (UNAM, Madrid, Spain), also with honors. There, I got all the skills for enzyme production and characterization.
As postdoc, I learnt how to integrate enzymes and materials in my different stages at CICbiomaGUNE (San Sebastián, Spain), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT, Karlsruhe, Germany), and back in San Sebatián, at CICnanoGUNE. Now, as independent researcher at the Instituto Universitario POLYMAT, I develop multi- and interdisciplinary projects in which enzymes and materials, i.e. polymers, are the main actors, aiming at progressing towards a more sustainable chemistry.
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Current members
Elena Romero, Dr
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Krishan Kumar, Dr
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María del Carmen Mañas, Dr
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Rocío López, PhD Student
Rocío López earned her B. Sc. in Chemisty from the University of Almeria in July 2019. In 2018, she moved to the University of Parma (Italy) to do an Erasmus exhange. Then, she did her bachelor thesis at the University of Almeria under the supervision of Dr.Ignacio Rodriguez Garcia. She did research in Synthetic Organic Chemistry and Catalysis obtaining the total synthesis of a natural product. Also, during this year she carried out an internship at CIESOL (Almería). She obtained her M. Sc. in Chemistry and Polymers from the University of the Basque Country obtaining the specialization in applied chemistry (2019-2020). During her Master thesis she worked on the functionalization of biodegradable polymer-based materials for biomedical applications at UPV/EHU and POLIMERBIO S.L (Donostia-San Sebastian).
Rocío is currently a PhD student under the supervisión of Dr. Ana Beloqui and Dr. Aitziber L. Cortajarena. She researchs at CICbiomagune and POLYMAT and her research topic is focused on the synthesis of multifunctional artificial biocatalysts based on protein-polymer hybrids.
Irene Alonso, PhD Student
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Marcos Heredero, PhD Student
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Past members
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Josu Arano, from UPV/EHU, summer internship and TFG
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Patricia Oslé, from UPV/EHU, TFM student
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Lauren Sullivan, from University of Alabama, graduate student
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Dr. Daniel Sánchez, moved to IBEC as JdC Fellow in the group of Prof. S. Sánchez (2023)
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Pablo Muñumer, moved to BCMaterials (2022)