How would you describe yourself in 3 words?
Curious, persistent, creative.
Brief background/short CV
I am a native of Barcelona and lived there (and the surrounding areas) all my youth. When I was a child I used to spend many summers in the fields with my grandparents, where I became fascinated by the natural sciences. This interest in biology and science was reinforced by the luck to have a parent engineer, who was always keen to walk me through never endless questions about how the world that surrounds us works. My motivation for science came from early age, but I went through different stages during my early high school years: my interests were always divided between biomedical (medical doctor, psychology and osteopathy) and more basic disciplines (biochemistry and philosophy).
We scientists have the benefit that our language is universal and we can work across the globe sharing ideas and ways to understand / do research. This allowed me to follow my Bs. in Biochemistry and PhD in Biotechnology at the Autonomous University of Barcelona with a postdoc at Georgia Tech and I’m now a Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellow in Philipp Holliger’s laboratory at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, where I have been for 3 years now. This is by far one of the most wonderful experiences I ever had at the personal level, and in my view has allowed me to grow personally as well as scientifically.
A part from my lab work in science, during my high school years I have always worked during the summers helping my parents with their business in graphic arts and industrial printing. Moreover, my love for the sea/ocean brought me to practice free-diving and scuba diving, and to help some friends in their field work during their PhD theses in marine biology.
What do you do?
My interest revolves around the self-assembly and biophysics of nucleic acids, with particular interest in technological applications and the origins of life. In the last years, my work has been focused on the use of the DNA origami methodology for the development of nanosensors and surface patterning, and the self-replication of nucleic acids in prebiotic conditions. My current work is focused on trying to obtain the three dimensional structure of ribozymes that can make copies of itself.
Brief description of a typical day
On a typical day I would prepare samples to observe on the cryo-electron microscope. Some days I observe these samples on the microscope. I regularly have a chat/discussion about my project and other co-worker’s project. We also talk about recent work published in other laboratories and discuss what can we learn from it and how it relates to our own work.
What’s the best thing about your job?
I like the flexibility to work in different projects and collaborate with people of other fields of knowledge, and from around the world. Science stimulates creativity, to explore new things and contribute to advance humanity’s knowledge.
If you weren’t doing this job, what would you be doing instead?
Working in a start-up, in a creativity consultant firm or work in education from a more theoretical framework to bring science concepts closer to education and the layman.
Your top tip for someone thinking about a career in science?
Science is fun, but can be very challenging when it comes to research. Do it with passion and make sure that you enjoy what you do.
What or who inspired you to follow your career?
I always was interested in nature and how it works. When I was 15-16 years old I watched a TV programme where there was a debate on how life could have a emerged from simple chemical reactions in the early Earth—this triggered my interest on research in biochemistry and origins of life. Two of the invited researchers where Steve Miller and Antonio Lazcano—17 years later, while being a researcher I met Antonio in person. Moreover, during my last year of high school I was fascinated with how the replication machinery of the cell works. I wanted to know how scientists where able to figure out how such tinny machinery was worked out.
What did you want to be after you left school?
Medical doctor or researcher / biochemist.