Instituto de Biotecnología
Ana Isabel González Garníca
Dr. Ana González research career started at the Department of Inorganic Chemistry (University of Granada, UGR), after being awarded a competitive Pre-doctoral fellowship (FPI, MEC), under the supervision of Profs. J. M. Dominguez-Vera and N. Gálvez. Her PhD (Summa cum laude) was focused on the preparation of bioinspired materials based on bacteria for biomedical applications. Currently, he has more than 6 years of postdoctoral experience in the same group. The quality of her work is endorsed by a total of 15 scientific publications, all of them published in peer-reviewed JCR-indexed journals (9 papers in Q1 and 5 in Q2). These contributions have received a total of 455 citations until the date (h-index = 10). In addition, she is very active in results communication as she has participated in a total of 47 national and international conferences, with 28 posters and 19 oral presentations, being an invited lecturer on 2 of them. She has also been a member of 9 different organization committees of R&D activities (2 as secretary of the organization committee) and is a member of different scientific associations: Asociación española de bioinorgánica (AEBIN); Asociación de amigos de la Real Academia de Ciencias; and Instituto de Biotecnología de la UGR. She has actively participated as a team member in 7 different competitive national and regional R&D projects, 1 European project and 2 technological and transfer contracts. Furthermore, she is keen on recruiting funds to cover her research activities. As a matter of fact, she has been the PI of four R&D projects, 3 from UGR and 1 national project in the Transición Ecológica y Digital call. She also has been the PI of 1 scientific contract. In addition, as result of these projects, she is an inventor of two different European patents, one of which is transferred to the company Biosearch S.A. Dr. González has demonstrated her capacity to acquire a solid knowledge-based in different but complementary fields, working in multidisciplinary research lines, among others: i) identification of the chemical machinery of probiotic bacteria based on the chemistry of their EPS; ii) metallic nanoparticles synthesis and characterization; iii) bacteria as metallic nanoparticles carriers to produce bionanomaterials with potential applications in biomedicine; and more recently, iv) design, synthesis, and characterization of multifunctional living hybrid materials; and v) designing different electrochromic low-cost sensors based on polyoxometalates with a high level of performance. The multidisciplinary competencies acquired by Dr. González increased with her stay in the Ian Potter Biosensing Laboratory at the School of Applied Science at RMIT University, Melbourne (3 months) under the supervision of Prof. V. Bansal. This stay has resulted in a continuous international collaboration which is evidenced by the publication of five of the most relevant scientific works of Dr. González. Two of them are based on the design of an easy-to-use sensors related with important issues of social interest. One of them is a wristband for naked-eye monitoring the excess of sunlight (Nat Commun), the other one a sensor to test the amount of ethanol in sweat or saliva after its consumption (Mater Today Chem). The other three works correspond on the one hand to the field of 2D materials (ACS Nano) and on the other hand to the design of new functional hybrid materials for infection therapy (Adv Mater Tech) or for UVB radiation protection (Macromol Biosci). As a postdoctoral fellow has completed a four-month stay in Dr. Sandalio's group at the Zaidín Experimental Station (CSIC, Granada) designing redox activity sensors in plants and is currently spending a year at the University of Cadiz for training in transmission electron microscopy and its use in the visualization of proteins of interest in animal metabolism. Dr. González works also in the formation of youngers and future researchers. She has participated as a lecturer in the degrees of Chemistry, Pharmacy, Physics, and Biochemistry at the UGR (420 hours). She has also co-supervised 5 undergraduate students and 2 master thesis. Outside the university level, she is implied in divulgation educational programs, talks, workshops and seminars oriented to the scholar public. She accumulates more than 30 interventions of this type. Examples of these are Science week, 11 de Febrero, Café con ciencia, career guidance talks, European Researchers Nigth, etc. Other examples of divulgation activities are her collaborative participation in the production of a video-clip about iron metabolism in the human body which is called “Once upon a time iron” and is broadcasted on Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fx_DvblpPUw) or her intervention in some media interviews (https://youtu.be/JwN0G0aQp3Y) explaining her scientific results to the general public. The totality of her merits has allowed her recognition as Lecturer by the ANECA agency.
- Título del TFM:
Nanocelulosa bacteriana. Aplicaciones biomédicas
- Nombre del estudiante del Máster: María Aguilera Llavero
- Curso académico: 2022/23
- Título del TFM:
Sensores fotocrómicos para aplicaciones biotecnológicas
- Nombre del estudiante del Máster: Emma Guerrero Ortega
- Curso académico: 2023/24