Montserrat Pulido, Núria – ICREA Memoir 2021

Núria Montserrat Pulido

Institut de Bioenginyeria de Catalunya

Life & Medical Sciences

My research activity was recognized with the prestigious ERC-Starting grant (call 2014) and the ERC Consolidator Grant (call 2020). I received >11 M€ in competitive projects. I published 70 papers in peer review journals (Cell, Cell Metabolism, Nature Materials, among others). I combine my research activity being Deputy Director [CMRB:2011-13 and IBEC:2018-today]. From January 2021 I have been selected Coordinator of the Spanish Platform for Biobanks and Biomodels from the Institute of Health Carlos III (> 40 Units accross Spain).

Research interests

My fascination to understand how tissues develop have helped me to start revealing early programs that fail when organs get disease. I lead my group to develop fundamental knowledge and new bioengineered approaches to emulate the native tissue milieu. By developing new organoid model systems and human pluripotent stem cells we explore how systemic conditions (i.e., diabetes) and physical constrains (i.e., changes in extracellular matrix) can lead to disease in kidney and heart. In front of COVID19 outbreak we have adapted our research identifying therapeutic compounds to treat COVID19.

Selected publications

– Dhillon P, …Montserrat N*, Susztak K* 2021, ‘The Nuclear Receptor ESRRA Protects from Kidney Disease by Coupling Metabolism and Differentiation‘. Cell Metabolism. 33, 2. *co-correspondency

– Garreta, Elena …..Montserrat, Nuria* 2021, ‘Rethinking organoid technology through bioengineering‘, Nature Materials, 20, pages145-155. *correspondency.

– Garreta, Elena; Nauryzgaliyeva, Zarina; Montserrat, Nuria 2021, ‘Human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived kidney organoids toward clinical implementations’, Current Opinion In Biomedical Engineering, 20, 100346.

– Monteil V, ….Montserrat N, Penninger JM & Mirazimi A 2021, ‘Human soluble ACE2 improves the effect of remdesivir in SARS-CoV-2 infection‘. EMBO Mol Med. 13426.

– Selfa, Idoia Lucia; Gallo, Maria; Montserrat, Nuria; Garreta, Elena 2021, ‘Directed Differentiation of Human Pluripotent Stem Cells for the Generation of High-Order Kidney Organoids’, Programmed Morphogenesis: Methods And Protocols, 2258, 171 – 192.

– Berishvili, Ekaterine; …; Montserrat, Nuria 2021, ‘Mini-organs forum: how to advance organoid technology to organ transplant community’, Transplant International, 34, 9, 1588 – 1593.

– Pilat, Nina; …. Montserrat, Nuria; Amarelli, Cristiano; Casiraghi, Federica 2021, ‘T- and B-cell therapy in solid organ transplantation: current evidence and future expectations’, Transplant International, 34, 9, 1594 – 1606.

– Calistri, Arianna; ….Montserrat, Nuria; Mirazimi, Ali; Lolli, Marco Lucio; Gribaudo, Giorgio; Parolin, Cristina 2021, ‘The New Generation hDHODH Inhibitor MEDS433 Hinders the In Vitro Replication of SARS-CoV-2 and Other Human Coronaviruses’, Microorganisms, 9, 8, 1731.

Selected research activities

Commissioner City and Science Biennial of Barcelona (2019 and 2021). Deputy Editor in Transplant International journal (official journal of the European Society of Transplantation). Co-organizer of international meetings (Keystone Symposium, among others).