Dr. A. Villaverde is Chair Professor of Microbiology at the Department of Genetics and Microbiology and leader of the Nanobiotechnology group at the Institute for Biotechnology and Biomedicine, Autonomous University of Barcelona. He coordinates a research team of 18 people, which is also member of the Networking Biomedical Research Center in Bioengineering, Biomaterials and Nanomedicine (CIBER-BBN). A. Villaverde has authored more than 240 peer-reviewed research and review papers on microbiology-biotechnology-nanosciences, apart from other many publications, books, book chapters and patents. A. Villaverde founded and was Editor-in-Chief of the Open-Access journal Microbial Cell Factories, published by BioMed Central, from 2002 to 2016 (ISSN: 1475-2859).

Research interests

The research interests of A. Villaverde are the design, engineering and biological production of bio-inspired, nanostructured protein materials of therapeutic interest. These functional materials are mainly addressed to diverse applications in regenerative medicine and in  cell-targeted drug delivery, especially in oncology. By using cell factories and biofabrication principles, the team he coordinates investigates and develops methodological approaches aimed to the production of self-assembling, protein-based nanoparticles for gene therapy and drug delivery and to the design of non-toxic, functional amyloids and other protein-based materials for the sustained released of protein and chemical drugs.

Keywords

Biotechnology; Nanomedicine; Nanobiotechnology; Biomaterials; Recombinant proteins