Marcos was born in Noreña (Asturias) in 1981 and graduated in Chemistry from the Universidad de Oviedo in 2003. In February 2009, he obtained a PhD degree in the Institute of Organometallic Chemistry Enrique Moles of the Universidad de Oviedo, where he worked under the direction of Prof. José Barluenga and Prof. Josefa Flórez on Fischer carbene chemistry. During the summer of 2005 he joined the laboratory of Prof. Andrew Myers at Harvard University working on the synthesis of novel tetracycline antibiotics as a PhD visiting student. In May 2010 he moved to the University of Cambridge to work with Professor Matthew Gaunt on copper(III) catalysis and methionine bioconjugation as a Postdoctoral Marie Curie Fellow and in October 2014 he started his independent research career at the Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia (ICIQ) within the CELLEX-ICIQ starting career programme. In December 2023, Marcos was appointed ICREA Research Professor.
Research interests
Marcos uncovered the innovative nature of monovalent carbynes by using the following approach: the conceptual decoration of free carbynes with different masking (leaving) groups that provides stable sources. Selective activations (metal catalysts, light or/and electrons) remove one mask and form reactive equivalents that unveils dual reactivities of the free carbyne species and control the sequence of the different bond-forming processes. The combined radical, carbene and carbocation reactivity is a privileged platform that has allowed me to discover and develop new concepts for molecular editing, using peripheral carbon-hydrogen bonds and skeletal carbon-carbon bonds in chemical feedstocks, drug molecules or materials. The synthetic advantages of the new methods have been exploited in the synthesis or modification of complex molecules.