Víctor F. Puntes

Víctor F. Puntes

Vall d'Hebron Institut de Recerca

Experimental Sciences & Mathematics

Born in Barcelona in 1970, Prof. Víctor Franco Puntes studied chemical engineering at the Louis Pasteur University (Strasbourg, France) and chemistry at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (Barcelona, Spain), graduating in 1994. He obtained his PhD in Physics at the University of Barcelona (1998), working on Giant Magnetoresistance in granular alloys. Then he spent more than 3 years in Berkeley (California, USA) as a postdoc, first in the group of Prof. Krishnan Kannan (National Center for Electron Microscopy, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory) and then in the group of Prof. Paul Alivisatos (College of Chemistry, UC Berkeley). In 2003 he obtained a Ramón y Cajal Fellowship and worked in the Physics Dep. at the University of Barcelona. In 2005, he moves to the Catalan Institute of Nanotechnology (ICN - now ICN2) as ICREA Research Professor and creates the Inorganic Nanoparticles Group. Since December 2014 he holds a double affiliation ICN2 and VHIR.


Research interests

Prof. Víctor Puntes works on the synthesis, characterisation and applications of engineered inorganic nanoparticles (NPs). By controlling the size, structure and shape of the inorganic core, and manipulating the linking of organic molecules to the nanoparticle surface, the group aims to design nanoparticles that interact with a variety of systems (biological, medical, materials, etc.). This allows for the deliberate modification of these systems, or the use of NPs for witnessing and reporting things.

Selected publications

- Casals, Eudald; Zeng, Muling; Parra-Robert, Marina; Fernandez-Varo, Guillermo; Morales-Ruiz, Manuel; Jimenez, Wladimiro; Puntes, Victor; Casals, Gregori 2020, 'Cerium Oxide Nanoparticles: Advances in Biodistribution, Toxicity, and Preclinical Exploration', Small, 1907322.

- Bastus, Neus G.; Gonzalez, Edgar E.; Puntes, Victor 2020, 'Increasing complexity of nanocrystals', Nano Today, 32, UNSP 100859.

- Vitali, Michele; Casals, Eudald; Canals, Francesc; Colome, Nuria; Puntes, Victor 2020, 'Simple spectroscopic determination of the hard protein corona composition in AuNPs: albumin at 75%', Nanoscale, 12, 29, 15832 - 15844.

- Fernandez-Varo, Guillermo; Perramon, Meritxell; Carvajal, Silvia; Oro, Denise; Casals, Eudald; Boix, Loreto; Oller, Laura; Macias-Munoz, Laura; Marfa, Santi; Casals, Gregori; Morales-Ruiz, Manuel; Casado, Pedro; Cutillas, Pedro R.; Bruix, Jordi; Navasa, Miquel; Fuster, Josep; Garcia-Valdecasas, Juan Carlos; Pavel, Mihai C.; Puntes, Victor; Jimenez, Wladimiro 2020, 'Bespoken Nanoceria: An Effective Treatment in Experimental Hepatocellular Carcinoma', Hepatology, 72, 4, 1267 - 1282.

- Peixoto, S.; Khodaparast, Z.; Cornelis, G.; Lahive, E.; Etxabe, A. Green; Baccaro, M.; Papadiamantis, A. G.; Goncalves, S. F.; Lynch, I; Busquets-Fite, M.; Puntes, V; Loureiro, S.; Henriques, I 2020, 'Impact of Ag2S NPs on soil bacterial community - A terrestrial mesocosm approach', Ecotoxicology And Environmental Safety, 206, 111405.

- Elje, Elisabeth; Mariussen, Espen; Moriones, Oscar H.; Bastus, Neus G.; Puntes, Victor; Kohl, Yvonne; Dusinska, Maria; Runden-Pran, Elise 2020, 'Hepato(Geno)Toxicity Assessment of Nanoparticles in a HepG2 Liver Spheroid Model', Nanomaterials, 10, 3, 545.

- Merkoci, F.; Patarroyo, J.; Russo, L.; Piella, J.; Genc, A.; Arbiol, J.; Bastus, N. G.; Puntes, V 2020, 'Understanding galvanic replacement reactions: the case of Pt and Ag', Materials Today Advances, 5, UNSP 100037.