Education

Dr. Elena Romero received her Bachelor’s Degree in Biology from the University of Seville in 2010, where she was a collaborating student in the Genetic Department for two years. Then, she studied for a Master’s Degree in Sanitary Biotechnology at Pablo de Olavide University, specializing in Cell Therapy, with the view to doing a doctorate. In 2016 she obtained a Ph.D. fellowship (FPU) funded by the Ministry of Education and Professional Training to perform her Doctoral Thesis within the Symmetric Synthesis and Functional Nanosystems Laboratory at the Chemical Research Institute, a joint Center by the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and the University of Seville.   The Thesis was carried out under the supervision of Dr Noureddine Khiar from the Chemical Research Institute and Dr Jordi Muntanéfrom the Biomedicine Institute of Seville. The main objective of her Thesis was the construction of different types of nanomaterials by a "bottom-up" approach with the design of a small synthetic amphiphile capable of complex and modulable self-organization. She designed and synthesized supramolecular organic nanosystems based on carbohydrates with different sizes and topologies such as micelles, liposomes, lipid nanotubes, functional carbon nanotubes, and hydrogels (3D matrix). Additionally, she studied their possible application in biomedicine with the performance of drug release studies, protein adhesion, and bacterial agglutination assays, as well as 3D cell culture growth and cell viability studies. In 2021 she was hired in her own thesis laboratory to participate in a new project for the development of new Anti-SARS-CoV-2 drugs. Finally, she received her PhD degree in Molecular Biology, Biomedicine, and Clinical Research in 2022 from the University of Seville. It has been a multidisciplinary work with the collaboration of different Research Institutes and Universities.

Research

In November 2022 she will join the Responsive Polymer Therapeutics Group as a postdoctoral researcher under the supervision of Prof. Marcelo Calderón and Dr. Ana Beloqui. Her research work will be focused on the development of a methodology to encapsulate proteins within responsive polymeric nanogels, which are able to cross the BBB. Moreover, the nanogels will be designed to have the ability to release antibodies in the environment of glioblastoma cancer cells.

Responsive Polymers for Therapeutics

Multifunctional Protein-polymer Hybrids

Publicaciones