Bio
Ramon Eritja is a research professor at the Institute for Advanced Chemistry of Catalonia (IQAC) of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) located in Barcelona, Spain. He is also a staff member at the Spanish Nanomedicine Network (CIBER-BBN). He is the group leader of the Nucleic Acid Chemistry group at IQAC and scientific director of Nanbiosis oligonucleotide synthesis platform, U29. Ramon is most interested in the development of a methodology for the synthesis of modified oligonucleotides for therapeutic and diagnostic uses, as well as the study of the properties of non-canonical nucleic acid structures such as G-quadruplex, triplex and i-motif. Recently, he became interested in the development of DNA biosensors for viral RNA detection and the functionalization of DNA origami to enhance their biomedical properties.

Bio
Daniela Montesarchio is Professor of Organic Chemistry at Federico II University of Naples, where she graduated with honors with a Chemistry degree in 1989. In 1993, she obtained her Ph.D. in Chemical Sciences with a thesis on the chemical synthesis of modified oligonucleotides and nucleoside analogues (supervisor Prof. Ciro Santacroce). After her postdoctoral experience in the laboratories of Prof. George Just in McGill University, Montréal, she came back to Federico II University, where, in 1994, she became Assistant Professor and, since 2005, has been an Associate Professor. Her research interests are mainly devoted to the design and synthesis of hybrid systems at the interface between chemistry and biology, including oligonucleotide, nucleoside analogues, aptamers, peptido- and glycomimetics, as well as metal-based drugs for therapeutic/diagnostic applications. In the field of nucleic acid chemistry, her most recent efforts have focused on non-canonical DNA structures, and particularly on the synthesis, modification and characterization of G-quadruplex-forming aptamers, as well on the search for selective ligands for cancer-related telomeric and oncogenic G-quadruplex structures, as potential anticancer drugs.

Bio
Montserrat Terrazas’ professional career has been focused on the design and synthesis of chemically modified nucleosides, nucleotides and oligonucleotides of structural and biological interest. She graduated with a degree in Chemistry in 2001 from the University of Barcelona and obtained her PhD in Organic Chemistry from the same University (2006) under the supervision of Prof. Xavier Ariza and Prof. Jaume Vilarrasa, where she worked on the development of synthetic methodologies for the specific labelling of nucleosides with 15N, and on the computational design of new anti-HIV-1 nucleosides. After a 3-month stay at the University of Siena (Prof. Maurizio Botta’s group), she joined Prof. Piet Herdewijn’s research group (University of Leuven, Belgium) to work as a postdoctoral fellow on the development of new nucleotide triphosphate derivatives. In 2007, she moved to Stanford University (Prof. Eric T. Kool’s group) to perform a second postdoctoral stay, focused on a research area of great impact in the field of therapeutic oligonucleotides, which forms the basis of her present line of research: the development of new chemical modifications aimed at improving the biological properties of siRNAs, among other therapeutic oligonucleotides. In 2009, she joined Prof. Ramon Eritja’s group (IQAC, CSIC, Barcelona), and in 2013 she was awarded a Miguel Servet Grant to join Prof. Modesto Orozco’s group at the IRB Barcelona, where she started her own research line focused on the design and synthesis of new forms of therapeutic siRNA tools to overcome drug resistance in cancer. In 2021, she joined the Organic Chemistry Section of the Faculty of Chemistry at the University of Barcelona as Associate Professor, where she is developing new multifunctional oligonucleotide-based tools for the treatment of diseases involving multiple targets, as well as new delivery systems for the selective administration of oligonucleotide-based drugs to the tumor.