Beatriz Prieto

Beatriz Prieto

Universitat Rovira i Virgili

Engineering Sciences

Beatriz obtained her PhD in chemistry (UAB), conducting part of her doctoral research on biosensors at AgResearch (New Zealand) and at the University of Ioannina (Greece). She conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Perpignan (UPVD) (2005–07), with stays at LISE (CNRS) and at the International Center of Biodynamics (Romania). In 2007, she joined the Tokyo University of Technology as Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Fellow. In 2009, she returned to the UPVD and then joined IBEC as Juan de la Cierva Fellow. In 2012, she moved to the University of South Australia where she won a Senior Research Fellowship. After four years, she joined Monash University as Senior Research Fellow. In 2018 she joined the URV as Ramón y Cajal Fellow, where she became ICREA Research Professor in 2020.She is group leader of the Bioinspired Nanotechnologies lab, recently funded by the AGAUR as Emerging Research Group.

Research interests

Her research aims to deliver versatile nanoarchitectures to build bespoke diagnostics, by harnessing high-precision fabrication methods, and advances in engineering surface functionalities. Their assembly in hierarchical structures, with tuneable electrochemical properties and surface chemistry, and displayed bioreceptors, is strongly intertwined with the material’s functions. Her interest lies in gathering new knowledge on the relationship between nanoarchitecture/displayed functionalities and function, to design sensors underpinning personalised clinical management of infections. The next generation of diagnostics is expected to meet the needs for host-immune response assessment, pathogen-associated and antibiotic resistance biomarkers detection, and monitoring of antibiotic levels. The potential of these tools to guide antibiotics choice is foreseen as a key driver toward effective treatment, protecting patients from antibiotics adverse effects, and dwindling antibiotic resistance.

Selected publications

- Guo K, Alba M, Chin GP, Tong Z, Guan B, Sailor MJ, Voelcker NH & Prieto-Simon B 2022, 'Designing Electrochemical Biosensing Platforms Using Layered Carbon-Stabilized Porous Silicon Nanostructures', Acs Applied Materials & Interfaces, 14, 13, 15565-15575.

- Suthar J, Prieto-Simon Beatriz, Williams GR & Guldin S 2022, 'Dual-Mode and Label-Free Detection of Exosomes from Plasma Using an Electrochemical Quartz Crystal Microbalance with Dissipation Monitoring', Analytical Chemistry, 94, 5, 2465-2475.

- Jara Fornerod MJ, Alvarez-Fernandez A, Williams ER, et al. 2023, 'Enhanced Structural Control of Soft-Templated Mesoporous Inorganic Thin Films by Inert Processing Conditions', Acs Applied Materials & Interfaces, 14, 50, 56143−56155.

- Vitenberga-Verza Z, Pilmane M, Serstnova K, Melderis I, Gontar L, Kochanski M, Drutowska A, Maroti G & Prieto-Simon B 2022, 'Identification of Inflammatory and Regulatory Cytokines IL-1 alpha-, IL-4-, IL-6-, IL-12-, IL-13-, IL-17A-, TNF-alpha-, and IFN-gamma-Producing Cells in the Milk of Dairy Cows with Subclinical and Clinical Mastitis', Pathogens, 11, 3, 372.

- Ceto X, Perez S & Prieto-Simon B 2022, 'Fundamentals and application of voltammetric electronic tongues in quantitative analysis', Trac-trends In Analytical Chemistry, 157, 116765.

Selected research activities

- Principal investigator of DIAG4AMR (Next generation of diagnostics to fight the emergence of antimicrobial resistance) (PID2021)

- Executive editor of Analytical Biochemistry

- Keynote speaker at Trends in NanoTechnology 2022 and NanoBio&Med 2022, and invited speaker at the Chemistry department, University of Ioannina (Greece)

- Research contract with Arquimea (2022) to develop wearable biosensors

- Director of PhD thesis defended by Muhammad Zikri Budiman Abdul Halim: Porous alumina nanostructures for electrochemical sensing. Monash University.

- Member of two PhD thesis examination committees (UB, URV)