Events
O venres 12 de xuño de 2026, a Dra. Elena Pazos (CICA - Centro Interdisciplinar de Química e Bioloxía, Universidade da Coruña) ofrecerá o seminario "Designing with Peptides: From Molecular Recognition to Bioactive Supramolecular Platforms" dentro do ciclo CINBIO Seminar Programme.
Será ás 11:00 horas na Sala de Audiovisuais do CINBIO.
ABSTRACT:
Peptides and proteins are natural polymers that perform a wide range of functions in biological systems, acting as structural and signaling elements through their ability to self-assemble and engage in selective molecular recognition processes. Their structural diversity, combined with synthetic accessibility, biocompatibility, and biodegradability, makes peptides attractive building blocks for the design of functional molecular systems.
Our research focuses on engineering short peptide sequences as modular platforms to develop molecular sensors, bioactive peptides with therapeutic potential, and functional materials. In this lecture, selected examples will illustrate how peptide-based molecular design can be used to control molecular recognition and supramolecular assembly, enabling self-assembled or stimuli-responsive systems with potential applications as functional materials displaying enhanced bioactivity.
BIO:
Elena Pazos is an Oportunius Research Professor at the CICA - Centro Interdisciplinar de Química e Bioloxía and the Department of Chemistry at the Universidade da Coruña (UDC). Her research lies at the interface of chemical biology, supramolecular chemistry, and peptide engineering, with a focus on designing functional molecular systems capable of molecular recognition and controlled self-assembly.
She obtained her PhD under the supervision of Prof. José L. Mascareñas and Prof. M. Eugenio Vázquez at the Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, working on luminescent sensors for cancer-related proteins. During her doctoral studies, she carried out research stays at Trinity College Dublin (with Prof. Thorfinnur Gunnlaugsson) and the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign (with Prof. Scott Silverman).
In 2012 she received a Fundación Barrié postdoctoral fellowship to join Prof. Samuel I. Stupp at Northwestern University, where she worked on supramolecular peptide nanostructures for biomedical applications. She later held research positions in both industry and academia, including work with Prof. Ramón A. Álvarez-Puebla at the Centre Tecnològic de la Química de Catalunya as a TECNIOspring / Marie Skłodowska-Curie researcher, before joining CICA in 2017 through the InTalent UDC–Inditex Programme.
Her work has been recognized with several competitive distinctions, including an ERC Starting Grant (2019), a Ramón y Cajal contract (2020), and an ERC Proof of Concept grant (2025).
