Xavier Salvatella

Xavier Salvatella

Institut de Recerca Biomèdica de Barcelona

Experimental Sciences & Mathematics

I was born in Barcelona, Spain. I obtained my first degree in Chemistry at the University of Barcelona followed by a MSc in Chemical Research at the University of London and a PhD in Organic Chemistry at the University of Barcelona. In 2003, I moved to the University of Cambridge to work as a Research Fellow with Christopher Dobson on the structural and dynamical characterization of proteins. In July 2008, I joined ICREA as a Researcher and the IRB as a Group Leader and in 2013 I became ICREA Research Professor.


Research interests

A high resolution description of the structure and dynamics of proteins is a very useful tool to study the properties and the function of these important biomacromolecules and, most importantly, to understand how changes in sequence or environment can lead to disease. My research work aims, on the one hand, at developing methods to probe the fluctuations of the structure of proteins by combining experimental data and molecular simulations and, on the other hand, at understanding how changes in such motions relate to the molecular recognition of proteins, to their function and to disease.

Selected publications

- Escobedo, Albert; Topal, Busra; Kunze, Micha; Aranda, Juan; Chiesa, Giulio; Eftekharzadeh, Bahareh; Pierattelli, Roberta; Felli, Isabella C.; Diercks, Tammo; Millet, Oscar; Garcia, Jesus; Orozco, Modesto; Crehuet, Ramon; Lindorff-Larsen, Kresten; Salvatella, Xavier 2020, 'Glutamine Side-Chain to Main Chain Hydrogen Bonds Can be used to Design Single Alpha-Helices that are Stable at Room Temperature', Biophysical Journal, 118, 3, 369A - 370A.

- Batlle, Cristina; Yang, Peiguo; Coughlin, Maura; Messing, James; Pesarrodona, Mireia; Szulc, Elzbieta; Salvatella, Xavier; Kim, Hong Joo; Taylor, J. Paul; Ventura, Salvador 2020, 'hnRNPDL Phase Separation Is Regulated by Alternative Splicing and Disease-Causing Mutations Accelerate Its Aggregation', Cell Reports, 30, 4, 1117 - +.

- Pena-Diaz, Samuel; Pujols, Jordi; Pinheiro, Francisca; Santos, Jaime; Pallares, Irantzu; Navarro, Susanna; Conde-Gimenez, Maria; Garcia, Jesus; Salvatella, Xavier; Dalfo, Esther; Sancho, Javier; Ventura, Salvador 2020, 'Inhibition of alpha-Synuclein Aggregation and Mature Fibril Disassembling With a Minimalistic Compound, ZPDm', Frontiers In Bioengineering And Biotechnology, 8, 588947.

- Bhak, Ghibom; Mendez-Ardoy, Alejandro; Escobedo, Albert; Salvatella, Xavier; Montenegro, Javier 2020, 'An Adhesive Peptide from the C-Terminal Domain of alpha-Synuclein for Single-Layer Adsorption of Nanoparticles onto Substrates', Bioconjugate Chemistry, 31, 12, 2759 - 2766.