Virginie Lhiaubet-Vallet graduated from the University Paul Sabatier (Toulouse, France); in 2001, she defended her Doctoral Thesis untitled “Mechanisms of DNA damage photosensitized by drugs derived from aromatic ketones” supervised by Nicole Paillous and Nadia Chouini-Lalanne. In 2001, she was granted with an Individual Marie Curie Fellowship to join Prof. M. A. Miranda’s group at the Institute of Chemical Technology (ITQ) as a postdoctoral researcher. In 2008, she obtained a ‘‘Ramón y Cajal’’ contract; and since 2016, she is a Tenured Scientist of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC).

Her main research interests are:

• Interaction between light and biomolecules (particularly DNA) to obtain information on the molecular processes responsible for photosensitivity and to design new photoprotection tools
• Study of DNA photodamage formation and repair (such as thymine dimers)
• Design of photocages based on prodrug/profilter systems to allow a controlled photorelease of photosensitizing drugs together with a solar filter acting as protecting shield

 

ORCID number: 0000-0002-8205-8892

The list of its scientific publications, as well as its index h, can be seen in this link

 

Her scientific career has been recognized internationally in 2007 by the “Young Investigator Award of the European Society for Photobiology”, an outstanding award given biennially by the society to a scientist under 35 years old. In addition, Dr. Lhiaubet has given 2 plenary lectures, 15 invited lectures and 14 oral communications. She has been PI of 7 projects, including national and international projects. She has been the supervisor of 4 theses and is currently supervising 2 others. She has also tutored 6 postdoctoral students and 9 short-stays of PhD or graduated students.

In addition, she is the author of 66 publications, being corresponding author of 19 of them. Since her doctoral thesis, her research has been centered on the study of DNA damage and photochemistry of drugs and biomolecules. Thus, she participated in central contributions such as (i) the reductive photocycloreversion of azetidines as a model of DNA repair by (6-4) photolyase (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2016, Chem. Eur. J. 2018) (ii) the discovery of the role of DNA lesions as intrinsic photosensitizer (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2013, ACS Chem. Biol. 2018), (iii) the study of np* higher excited states of thymine (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2013), (iv) establishing the energy of the excited triplet state of thymine in DNA (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2006), (v) demonstrating the stereoselective quenching of ketoprofen triplet excited state in the presence of thymine (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2005), (vi) the use of triplet excited states as probes for protein binding sites (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2004).

 

Most successful publications in the last 10 years:

1. A. B. Fraga-Timiraos, A. Francés-Monerris, G. M. Rodríguez-Muñiz, M. Navarrete-Miguel, M. A. Miranda, D. Roca-Sanjuan, V. Lhiaubet-Vallet “Experimental and theoretical study on the cycloreversion of a nucleobase-derived azetidine by photoinduced electron transfer” Chem. Eur. J. in press, doi: 10.1002/chem.201803298
2. M.-D. Li, Z. Yan, R. Zhu, D. Lee Phillips, I. Aparici-Espert, V. Lhiaubet-Vallet, M. A. Miranda “Enhanced drug photosafety by interchromophoric interaction due to intramolecular charge separation” Chem. Eur. J. (2018) 24, 6654.
3. I. Aparici-Espert, G. Garcia-Lainez, I. Andreu, M. A. Miranda, V. Lhiaubet-Vallet “Oxidatively generated lesions as internal photosensitizers for pyrimidine dimerization in DNA” ACS Chem. Biol. (2018), 13, 542.
4. I. Aparici-Espert, M. C. Cuquerella, C. Paris, V. Lhiaubet-Vallet, M. A. Miranda “Photocages for protection and controlled release of bioactive compounds” Chem. Commun., (2016), 52, 14215.
5. A. B. Fraga-Timiraos, V. Lhiaubet-Vallet, M. A. Miranda “Repair of a dimeric azetidine related to thymine–cytosine (6-4) photoproduct by electron transfer photoreduction” Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. (2016) 55, 6037.
6. I. Aparici-Espert, A. Francés-Monerris, G. M. Rodríguez-Muñiz, D. Roca-Sanjuán, V. Lhiaubet-Vallet, Miguel A. Miranda “A combined experimental and theoretical approach to the photogeneration of 5,6-dihydropyrimidin-5-yl radicals in non aqueous media” J. Org. Chem. (2016), 81, 4031.
7. V. Vendrell-Criado, G. Rodríguez-Muñiz, M. C. Cuquerella, V. Lhiaubet-Vallet, M. A. Miranda* “Photosensitization of DNA by 5-methyl-2-pyrimidone deoxyribonucleoside: (6-4) photoproduct as a possible Trojan horse” Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. (2013) 52, 6476.
8. V. Vendrell-Criado, G. Rodríguez-Muñiz, M. Yamaji, V. Lhiaubet-Vallet, M. C. Cuquerella, M. A. Miranda “Two-photon chemistry from upper triplet states of thymine” J. Am. Chem. Soc. (2013) 135, 16714.
9. G. Rodriguez-Muñiz, M. L. Marin, V. Lhiaubet-Vallet, M. A. Miranda “Reactivity of nucleosides with hydroxyl radical in non-aqueous medium” Chem. Eur. J. (2012) 18, 8024.
10. M. C. Cuquerella, V. Lhiaubet-Vallet, J. Cadet, M. A. Miranda “Benzophenone photosensitized DNA damage” Acc. Chem. Res. (2012) 45, 1558.

 

 

 

Dr. Gonzalo Prieto graduated in Chemical Engineering at the University of Oviedo (Spain) and obtained his PhD degree in 2010 at the Institute of Chemical Technology (ITQ in Valencia, Spain) under the guidance of Prof. Martinez. From 2010-2013 he conducted postdoctoral research in the de Jong(h) group at the Debye Institute for Nanomaterials Science, Utrecht University (The Netherlands), as part of the Center for Atomic-Level Catalyst Design research consortium of the US Department of Energy. After a short stay as visiting researcher in the Spivey group at Louisiana State University (USA), in fall 2013, he received an Alexander von Humboldt personal grant and joined the department of Heterogeneous Catalysis led by Prof. Schüth, at the Max Planck Institut für Kohlenforschung (MPI-KOFO, Mülheim, Germany) were he later obtained a Group Leader position. In 2017 he joined the ITQ as a Senior Tenured Researcher of the Spanish Research Council (equivalent to Assoc. Prof.).

His research activities encompass aspects of material synthesis, nanotechnology, tomographic imaging methods and reactivity assessment methods, jointly focused on the design and development of solid catalyst materials and processes for the conversion of unconventional carbon feedstocks into fuels and platform chemicals. Gonzalo has authored around 40 scientific articles and book chapters, with an average impact factor >10 (Thomson Reuters, January 2018), alongside 3 patents (2 of them transferred to industry), and has contributed >50 papers to scientific conferences/workshops and delivered ~20 invited lectures. He has participated in 15 research projects, being a Principal Investigator in 50% of them, and has supervised/currently supervises 5 PhD theses. Awards: DuPont Chemical Engineering Award (2004), National MSc Chemical Engineering Award (2005), the National PhD Thesis Award by the Spanish Catalysis Society (2010), Innovation Proposal Award by the CALCD-EFRC of the US Department of Energy (2012), Honorary Entry (top 3) at the ExxonMobil Chemical European Science and Engineering Award (2017).

Google scholar profile
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=BYMRorUAAAAJ&hl=en

E-mail: prieto@itq.upv.es

1985-1990, Degree of Chemistry, Department of Physical-Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry (University of Valencia). Physical and Quantum Chemistry.
1995, PhD Chemistry (University of Valencia). Quantum-chemical studies of xylene isomerisation in zeolites (supervisor: Prof. Avelino Corma).
1995-1996, Postdoc Computational Chemistry, Davy-Faraday Research Laboratory, London (U.K.). Physico-chemical properties of zeolites and silico-alumino-phosphates, and diffusion of hydrocarbons in zeolites (supervisor: Prof. Richard Catlow).
2000-current, Staff Research Member (Research Scientist), Institute of Chemical Technology (ITQ).
Visiting researcher at: University College London, 1999, London (U.K.) (host professor: Dewi W. Lewis); Imperial College of Science, 2002, London (U.K.) (host professor: Julian D. Gale); Nanochemistry Research Institute, 2004, Perth (Australia) (host professor: Julian D. Gale); Department of Materials Science, Tottori University, 2007, 2008 and 2010, Tottori (Japan) (host professor: Miki Niwa).

Main Research Topics:
Computational methods: molecular mechanics, molecular dynamics, atomistic forcefields, quantum chemistry, ab-initio methods, density functional theory.
Theory: chemical bonding in microporous materials, electric field in micropores, topology of three dimensional tetracoordinated nets.
Materials: solid state chemistry, zeolites, zeotypes, doped zeotypes, microporous materials, mesoporous materials, proton sponges, fullerenes, metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), coordination polymers, organometallic complexes.
Processes: reactivity in zeolites as catalysts (alkylation, acylation, isodewaxing, Knoevenagel condensation, Baeyer-Villiger oxidation), diffusion of hydrocarbons in zeolites, shape-selectivity, acidity (Brønsted and Lewis) in microporous materials, isomorphic substitution in zeolites (Ti, Ge, Sn, Al, P), synthesis of zeolites (effect of templates, synthesis in fluoride media, effect of germanium), physisorption of molecular hydrogen in metal-organic frameworks (hydrogen storage), excited states of organometallic complexes.

More information:

https://gsastre.webs.upv.es