I obtained a Ph.D. in Biophysics from the UAB where I worked on protein folding under the supervision of Professors B. Oliva, F.X. Avilés and M. Karplus (Nobel Laureate in 2013). After that, I went to the US for a postdoctoral training on protein structure modeling at the Sali Lab (Rockefeller University) as the recipient of the Burroughs Wellcome Fund fellowship. Later on, I was appointed Assistant Adjunct Professor at UCSF. Between 2006 and 2011, I headed the Structural Genomics Group at the CIPF in Valencia (Spain). Since October 2013, I am ICREA Research Professor and lead the Structural Genomics Group at the CNAG and CRG. Our group is broadly interested on how chromatin organizes and regulates cell fate. I have published over 135 articles in international peer-reviewed journals with over 20,000 citations (Google Scholar indexed).
Research interests
How biomolecules fold and function in a three-dimensional space is one of the most challenging questions in biology. For example, we have limited knowledge on how the 2-meter-long DNA molecule folds in the micro-sized nucleus or how RNA, proteins and small chemical compounds fold and interact to perform their most basic functions of the cell. Our research group employ the laws of physics and the rules of evolution to develop and apply experimental and computational methods for predicting the 3D structures of macromolecules and their complexes.
Selected publications
- Kocanova S, et al. 2023, 'Enhancer-driven local 3D chromatin domain folding modulates transcription in human mammary tumor cells', Life Science Alliance, 7, 2, e202302154.
- Yeh SC, Strilets T, Tan WL, et al. 2023, 'The anti-immune dengue subgenomic flaviviral RNA is present in vesicles in mosquito saliva and is associated with increased infectivity', Plos Pathogens, 19, 3, e1011224.
Selected research activities
President of the Catalan Society of Biology since 2021