Sara Hernández finished her BSc in Physics awarded by the University of the Basque Country (UPV, Spain) in 2011 and her MSc in biophysics awarded by Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM, Spain) in 2012.  She obtained her PhD in Biophysics in 2016 supervised by Prof. Cortajarena developing nanostructured photo- and electro-active materials based on encoded protein self-assembly of engineered proteins. From 2016 to 2022, she performed her postdoctoral studies at international laboratories in the Netherlands, Sweden, and Spain supported by fellowships like Carl Tryggers Foundation research grant (Sweden) and Programa de Atracción de Talento (Spain). During her postdoctoral research, she focused on studying photoinduced processes in synthetic photosystems and deepen her experience in laser and pump-probe spectroscopy. In 2022, she launched her independent career at IMDEA Nanociencia with a 'la Caixa' Junior Leader grant and established her research group.

www.sarahmejias.com 

Dr. Atikur Rahman has received training in both material and organic chemistry. In his doctoral studies from 2017 to 2022 at the Institute of Nano Science and Technology in India, he used organoboron compounds to tune plasmon-molecule interaction in order to explore the underlying mechanism of dye-loaded gold nanoparticles' exceptional photophysical properties. He also worked as a Research Associate from 2022 to 2023 at the same institute for developing stimuli-responsive plasmon-molecule coupled systems for therapeutic applications.

Since 2024, he has been working at IMDEA Nanociencia as MSCA-IDEAL postdoctoral researcher with Dr. Sara Hernández Mejías in the field of Artificial Photoenzymes for Photocatalysis. It is anticipated that this initiative will provide a platform for the development of synthetic drug precursors with a variety of uses in biomedicine, photobiology, and photocatalysis.

Dr. Atikur Rahman is working with Generating Artificial Photoenzymes for Photocatalysis. This project allows me to work on synthesizing and characterizing photoredox biocatalysts for asymmetric photocatalysis.

His current research is focused on generating new biohybrids by embedding photoredox dyes in protein pockets. Various spectroscopic tools are needed to valid the different photo-chemical properties of such biohybrids. In this context, IMDEA Nanociencia has cutting-edge research facilities and that he will imply for his project. He is confident that working on this project will expand the scope of his future studies and strengthen his ability as an independent researcher.

More info on IDEAL Fellowhisp Program https://idealcofund-project.eu/postdoc/

The IDEAL Fellowships Program is supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) COFUND. Grant agreement ID: 101034431.

1. Hemant, A Rahman, P Sharma, A Shanavas, PP Neelakandan*, "BODIPY Directed One-Dimensional Self-assembly of Gold Nanorods," Nanoscale, 2024, 16, 12127-12133, DOI: 10.1039/D4NR02161D.
2. Hemant, A Rahman, PP Neelakandan*, "Photocatalytic Degradation of Water Pollutants and Pesticides Using Plasmon-Molecule Coupled Gold-BODIPY Nanoparticles," ChemNanoMat, 2023, 9, e202300236, DOI: 10.1002/cnma.202300236.
3. A Rahman, T Goswami, N Tyagi, HN Ghosh*, PP Neelakandan*, "Hot Electron Migration from Gold Nanoparticle to an Organic Molecule Enhances Luminescence and Photosensitization Properties of a pH Activatable Plasmon-Molecule Coupled Nanocomposite", J. Photochem. Photobiol. A: Chemistry, 2022, 432, 114067 DOI: 10.1016/j.jphotochem.2022.114067.
4. A Rahman,† PPP Kumar,† P Yadav,† T Goswami,† A Shanavas,* HN Ghosh,* and PP Neelakandan*, "Gold-BODIPY Nanoparticles with Luminescence and Photosensitization Properties for Photodynamic Therapy and Cell Imaging", ACS Appl. Nano Mater., 2022, 5, 6532-6542, DOI: 10.1021/acsanm.2c00616.
5. PPP Kumar,† A Rahman,† T Goswami, HN Ghosh*, PP Neelakandan*, "Fine‐Tuning Plasmon‐Molecule Interactions in Gold‐BODIPY Nanocomposites: The Role of Chemical Structure and Noncovalent Interactions", ChemPlusChem, 2021, 86, 87-94 (Cover Picture, DOI: 10.1002/cplu.202000714), DOI: 10.1002/cplu.202000545.

Angelo Beratto obtained his BSc in Bioengineering in 2016 from the Universidad de Concepción (UdeC), Chile. He joined the Interdisciplinary Group in Marine Biotechnology (GIBMAR), where he worked on the spectroscopic characterization of algal biomass, production of bioactive compounds, and optimization of microalgal cultures. From 2018 to 2023, he pursued a PhD in Chemical Engineering at the UdeC, focusing on the production, reconstitution, and immobilization of recombinant proteins onto porous surfaces to generate nanofiltration membranes. In 2024, he started his Postdoc in the Bio-engineered Nanophotonics group at IMDEA Nanociencia supported by a grant from the national agency of research in Chile. In the group, he will evaluate different strategies for protein immobilization with applications in structural studies and photocatalysis.

Alejandro Venegas obtained his BSc degree in Biology from Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM, Spain) in 2019 and his MSc in Biomaterials from Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM, Spain) in 2021. For his MSc thesis, he joined the group of María Vallet-Regí, where he worked on mesoporous nanocomposite 3D bone scaffolds for leukemia model generation and iron oxide nanoparticles functionalization against bacterial infection. From 2021 to 2022, he worked as an animal caretaker technician for the Hospital Fundación Jiménez Díaz and Centro de Biología Molecular (CBM, Spain). He joined IMDEA Nanociencia in September 2022 to do his PhD in Biophysics for the development of a magnetic biosensor for theragnosis applications, co-directed by Sara Hernández and Francisco Terán. 

Gonzalo Pérez obtained his BSc degree in Biology in 2022 at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM, Spain). He is currently doing the MSc degree in Biotechnology at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM, Spain). He was member of the Zoonosis Service and Biological Aggressive as a student trainee at the Veterinary Health Surveillance Center (VISAVET) and worked as an assistant teacher at Antonio Buero Vallejo school. He joined IMDEA Nanociencia to perform his master thesis on the design of bio-hybrids by using non-natural amino acids. In October 2023 Gonzalo started his PhD to explore vibrational coupling of protein backbone and chromophores.

Claudia Flórez obtained her BSc degree in Biology at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM, Spain) in 2022. She is now studying MSc degree in Biotechnology in the same University. In 2022, she joined the animal reproduction department at the National Institute of agriculture and food research (INIA, CSIC, Spain) as internship trainee to work in the optimization of animal reproduction protocols for mountain goat and capercaillie. She joined IMDEA Nanociencia to do her master thesis on protein engineering for chromophore emission optimization. In October 2023, she started as a PhD student in the group. 

Asier García obtained his BSc degree in Physics at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM, Spain) in 2023. He is now studying for an MSc degree in Physics of Condensed Matter and Biological Systems at the same university. During his senior year, Asier obtained a research grant from the Nicolás Cabrera Institute in collaboration with the applied physics department of the UAM. There, he worked on a project on synthesizing and characterizing iron oxide nanoparticle-based composites for lithium-ion batteries, where he worked with a bunch of characterization techniques such as electron microscopy (FESEM and TEM), OCT, and DLS. He joined IMDEA Nanociencia in October 2023 to work on the “Elucidation of photostability mechanisms in engineered photosystems” project for his MSc thesis. He started in October 2024 his PhD to explore the effect of amino acids in the photoinduced electron transfer.

Sebastián Mesa obtained his BCs degree in Mechanical Engineering and then in Industrial Engineering, both from Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (Spain), spending a year as an Erasmus student at Tampere (Finland). He also made a research stay at Delft University of Technology (The  Netherlands), studying crack growth behavior under fatigue loads on 3D-printed titanium alloys. After,  he pursued a Master’s Degree in Advanced Materials, Nanotechnology and Photonics at Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Spain). Upon graduation, he stayed at Laboratoire de Chimie de Coordination (LCC) of the CNRS (France) to work on the chemical synthesis of heterocyclic compounds to develop 2D materials. He joined IMDEA Nanociencia in August 2023 to do his PhD thesis on photocatalytic properties of 2D materials in combination with photoactive proteins, co-directed by Sara Hernández and Víctor Vega.