I received my PhD in organic chemistry in 2014 from the University of Santiago de Compostela. The focus of my thesis was on the design and synthesis of fluorescent DNA binders. I developed a new synthetic methodology that enabled a straightforward synthesis of bisbenzamidines and new fluorescent probes. Moreover, I created new chemical approaches to control the interaction of these small molecules with the DNA. I envisioned a pioneering strategy that consists of using an organometallic catalyst in living cells to trigger a biological event, such as DNA binding. For this work, I was awarded with the Eli Lilly Prize for PhD students.

As I was eager to learn molecular biology and directed evolution, in 2015 I joined the group of Prof. Alice Ting at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and later in the Department of Genetics at Stanford University. I was awarded with an EMBO long-term postdoctoral fellowship, and my work was focused on the development of new molecular tools for cell biology and neuroscience. As an example, I developed a new platform for the directed evolution of the TEV protease, which yielded faster mutants. For this work, I was awarded XIII Suschem prize in 2021. In 2020 I decided to join the Synthetic Biology Centre in the department of Bioengineering at Imperial College London, to work with Prof. Tom Ellis to gain further expertise in the development of molecular biology using engineering principles. I was awarded with a Marie-Curie Sklodowska-Action supported by the EU Horizon 2020. The project Evolving together (Grant Agreement number 101024747),  involved the design of genetic circuits to study DNA repair mechanisms.

I have recently been awarded with a Wellcome Trust Career Development Award and I am starting my independent group in the department of chemistry at Cambridge.