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Scientific

“I am confident that we will soon have a potent cancer treatment, approved on the market, based on nanoparticles loaded with mRNA”

Scientific Careers of CiMUS Graduates

 

What is your work at Merck KGaA focused on?

I am a Principal Scientist at Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany (since 2021), focusing on supporting developers with the preclinical lipid nanoparticle formulation development for mRNA vaccines and therapeutics. We have an amazing team of scientists and experts, who is obsessed with improving the lives of patients. We are active on several programs, developing formulations for mRNA therapies for genetic diseases, metabolic diseases, vaccines for infectious diseases and cancer applications, but also other nucleic acid-based therapies (such as RNA interference approaches, novel modalities etc.) with developers’ requests coming from over 24 different countries. At Merck KGaA, we have designed our workflows to make the pathway of RNA medicine to the market as straightforward as posible.

 

What has your time at CiMUS, your training at the USC and working alongside leading figures such as María José Alonso brought you? 
Working as a Postdoctoral reasearcher at the lab of Prof. María José Alonso, at CiMUS in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, was a door-opener for me, and where my career in nanotechnology lifted off. Prof. María José Alonso gave me the opportunity to be enganged in different scientific projects, in collaboration with large scientific consortia, with experts both from industry and academia. Throughtout the years that I was in Prof. Alonso’s lab, I build critical scientific mindset, under her mentorship and a very strong network in the field. I became exposed in multidisciplinary teams and different ways of scientific thinking. I will be forever thankful to Prof. Alonso for this opportunity and for her great support and mentorship that played a crucial role for my career development.

 

What does it mean to develop nanotechnology today?

Nanotechnology, apart for the numerous and diverse application fields, has revolutionized the medical field and the way we treat diseases. Developing nanotechnology, in this field, means to rationally design high-performing nanoparticles as drug delivery vehicles to allow medicine to reach the target tissue in a safe and efficient manner. Working in this field, we get to work in the cross section of multiple scientific streams; biology, medicine, physics and bioengineering to find solutions for applications such as disease treatment, disease prevention, pain relieving technologies, human health improvement medicine. Despite the huge potential of nanomedicine, there are significant challenges to be overcome. There is no one-size-fits-all in this field. Each nanoparticle delivery system is designed and customized to the specific therapeutic load, disease and route of administration, keeping always as first priority its safety for use in vivo. The nanoparticles, that are designed for such use, must be fully reproducible, with controlled properties (tiny differences in size can add up to huge differences in function), to enable production in scales sufficient for mass vaccination or treatment, and at the same time have sufficient long-term storage stability at logistically convenient storage temperatures. Working in this innovative field, we apply our scientific curiosity daily in order to improve peoples lives, and this is the highest reward.

 

In what fields could nanotechnology make a difference in the future?

Nanotechnology, has been successfully applied in numerous and diverse application fields for years now. From where I stand, I see the huge role of nanotechnology in medicine.There have been extensive advancements in nanomedicine in recent years, culminating with approval of the of the Covid-19 mRNA vaccines, that have expanded the market for nanomedicine. Nanomedicine is poised to disrupt modern medicine and augment traditional pharmaceutics in a meaningful way. It will undoubtedly play a crucial role in future applications, such as personalised medicine, from prediction to monitoring to treatment. I am confident that we will soon have a potent cancer treatment, approved on the market, based on nanoparticles loaded with mRNA. 

 

What do you think about the application of ICT (AI) in medicine?

AI is here to stay. The field has already started taking advantage of its unique benefits to automate manual work and speed up processes. AI is already used in:

  • drug development: screening of therapeutic molecules, allowing the prediction of the good versus bad candicates – saving enormous amount of time, costs and efforts for the scientific community.
    diagnostic biomarker/progress of disease: to give indication of disease severity and minimize death cases.
    enabling personalized treatment: to predict individual reaction to medicine.

Despite its huge potential, AI is still a developing tool and requires significant training to enable a true difference in the field.

 

What advice would you give to young researchers who aspire to project their careers?

  • Choose to work on something that motivates you and makes you wake up in the morning fulfilled.
  • Invest on building a strong network – this is key for career development.
  • Always remember where you started and the people that supported you along the way.
  • Be a life-long learner and learn to find alternative paths, when the things dont go as planned.

 

What is talent for you? Do you think that it is being taken care of in the scientific field? In Galicia, Spain, Europe...?

In our field, I believe that talent is not a gift - It is something that you need to develop with deep practice, ignition and proper coaching, leading to extraordinary competence in the field. Talent needs proper nurturing to make a difference.

I believe that Galicia, and in general Spain, has generated brilliant scientists in all kinds of different fields. From my personal experience, I saw state-of-art research centers, proper talent identification and scholarship supports to ensure the talent retention, while I was in Prof. Alonso lab in CiMUS at Santiago de Compostela.

Speaking also more general, the European Union is actively promoting research, technological development and innovation with several funding opportunities. Therefore, it is important for the young researchers to be proactive and follow those calls and apply for support to further develop their talent.