Alicia Arroyo Nogales was born in Madrid in 2001. She graduated in Biotechnology at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM) in 2019 and carried out her undergraduate research in the organic nanotechnology (ONT) lab (UPM) developing protocells capable of delivering enzymatic tandems having antitumoral activity. After completing her Master's in Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Biomedicine at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM), working on the development of double functionalized liposomes to act as a bridge between tumoral and immune cells, she is currently a Research Assistant in the ONT lab, being in the first year of her Ph.D., with a thesis aiming at boosting CART therapies with smart nanomedicines for the effective treatment of neuroblastoma.
Guillermo Plaza Palomo was born in Madrid in 2002. He graduated in medical biotechnology, specializing in fields such as pharmaceutical design and the development of bio- and nanomaterials. In 2023, he conducted his undergraduate research, aimed at the development of highly penetrative drug-loaded liposomes and silicasomes capable of reaching deep areas of the tumor. Currently, he is pursuing a Master’s degree in Biomaterials at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and is working on devising multifaceted nanomedical strategies to tackle the challenges associated with solid tumor treatment.
Javier González Larre was born in Madrid in 1999. He obtained his bachelor’s degree in Biomedicine at the Universidad Francisco de Vitoria in 2023. He worked in a Microbiology lab as a research assistant at Tufts University (Boston, MA, US), where he researched the electron transport chain of anaerobic bacteria. In 2024, he obtained his Master’s degree in Biomaterials at Universidad Complutense de Madrid. During this year, he joined the ONT group as a master’s student, where he worked on a project involving the synthesis of silica and liposome-based nanosystems to enhance cellular therapy for cancer therapy. Javier is currently in his first year of a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering at UPM, where he is working as a researcher on a project involving the development of combinatory pharmacological nanotherapies for neuroblastoma and nanosystem assembly with microfluidic reactors.
Sandra Jiménez Falcao obtained her degree in Chemistry in 2014 (Universidad Complutense de Madrid, UCM), her Master's in Chemical Science and Technology (UCM) in 2015, and in 2021 she finished a Ph.D. in Advanced Chemistry titled “Nanosensors and smart delivery systems based on porous materials” (UCM). Afterwards, she worked in IMDEA Agua, developing analytical methods for the determination of relevant environmental pollutants. In 2022, she obtained a Margarita Salas grant to undertake a postdoc at the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos developing metallic complex-based nanosystems for both environmental and biomedical purposes. She is currently working as a professor and researcher at the Materials and Aerospace Production Department at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. Sandra’s scientific activity is focused in the field of materials science, for the development of a variety of nanosystems based on inorganic supports (like mesoporous silica, titanium dioxide, or metal nanoparticles), organic moieties, and biomolecules like enzymes or aptamers.
Alejandro Baeza received his Ph.D. at the Universidad de Alcaláin in 2007 in developing a novel total synthesis of marine alkaloids. During 2008–2009, he completed a postdoctoral stay in the group of Prof. Ben Feringa at Groningen University, working in the development of Wacker-type oxidations. Since 2018, he has been an Associate Professor at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM). His research interests are focused on nanomaterials for antitumoral applications, with a special interest in the development of stimuli-responsive nanocarriers, the synthesis of novel targeting moieties able to enhance the selectivity of the nanomedicines towards tumoral tissues, and antitumoral immunotherapy.
