Docteur en chimie et chercheur expérimenté (chime organique, médicale et computationnelle) propose son aide (niveaux secondaire, technique et universitaire)

Curriculum Vitae d'Ed

Resourceful chemist with a highly multidisciplinary and international profile and a passion for teaching

EDUCATION

PhD in Chemistry University of Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, ES, Cum laude. 1997-2003.
Remote Functionalisation on the Synthesis of 1a,25-Dihydroxyvitamin D3 Analogues.
I completed the total synthesis of four novel vitamin D analogues (collaboration with Solvay Pharmaceuticals, NE), which resulted in two publications. Working on my own initiative, I also developed a remote functionalisation-cyclisation free radical tandem process which enabled us to access other long sought-after analogues with intricate structures. An additional publication resulted from this work, but most of it remains unpublished due to IP considerations. In addition to my research work, four students transitioning from industrial engineering to chemical engineering in need of support lessons were referred to me by the Dean after realising that their organic chemistry background was inadequate for the successful completion of the transition course. I devised a custom-tailored 3-hours-per-week teaching program in a very short time and, at the end of the term, all four students were successful in all of the organic chemistry-related tests.

BSc in Chemistry University of Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, ES, Honours in Advanced Organic Synthesis. 1991-1996.

LANGUAGES

English (full professional proficiency), French (professional proficiency), Galician Portuguese (native), German (B1), Italian (good comprehension, basic expression), Portuguese (full professional proficiency), Slovak (basic), Spanish (native).

TEACHING

1.Qualified Teacher Status (QTS), National College for Teaching and Leadership, UK, 2017.
2.Self-taught Montessori teacher (0-3), parental leave at home, Luxembourg, 2014-2016.
3.Supervision of a MSc thesis in bioinformatics, Saarland University, DE, 2009.
4.Organiser and lecturer at the Molecular Modelling Workshop, University of Extremadura, ES, 2008/2009.
5.Supervision of a final-year student and a TREO student, RCSI, Dublin, IE, 2005.
6.Undergraduate chemistry laboratory teacher, RCSI, Dublin, IE, 2004-2005.
7.Advanced Organic Chemistry support lessons, USC, Galicia, ES, 2000-2001.
8.Chemistry undergraduate laboratory teacher, USC, Galicia, ES, 1998-2001.
9.Certificate of Pedagogical Aptitude (CAP), USC, Galicia, ES, 1997. It involved teaching a trimester of organic chemistry to
16-year-old International Baccalaureate students at the multilingual secondary school Rosalia de Castro.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Postdoctoral ResearcherRoyal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI), Dublin, IE, 2016-present.
Virtual screening and biological evaluation of novel FXR modulators by means of on-target TR-FRET and cell-based assays. I have developed new technologies specifically for the current project, including a new protein-ligand binding/activity database (Ceangal) and a machine learning scoring function (Scóráil). These technologies have already shown a very promising performance and enabled the discovery of novel natural products as FXR modulators. The fact that many of this natural products are abundant in food opens the possibility for a new project in the field of functional foods / nutraceuticals.

Parental leaveLU. 2014-2016 (2.5 years).
When I learned we were expecting a second child, I decided to terminate Prosciens SÀRL and go on parental leave. However, I continued coordinating the development of Prosciens' internal drug discovery portfolio.

Founder & CEOProsciens SÀRL, LU. 2008-2013 (5 years).
I moved to Luxembourg for family reasons and established myself as a pharmaceutical scientific consultant. This also involved research stays in different institutions as detailed below. Later I founded the CRO Prosciens SARL, developed novel technologies to advance our partnerts’ projects – including a new reverse virtual screening protocol built ex novo –and coordinated several international networks of researchers to advance Prosciens' internal drug discovery portfolio. The most successful project to date has led to the discovery of a series of compounds that selectively hamper the proliferation of cancer cells by preventing them from meeting their abnormal metabolic requirements. One compound from this series has recently been accepted by NIH’s NCI-60 development programme, while different other aspects of its activity profile, such as the possibility of being developed as a non-hormonal male contraceptives, are currently under investigation.

Postdoctoral ResearcherIGBMC, Illkirch, FR. 2006-2008 (2.5 years).
I was able to integrate information from different biochemical (site-directed mutagenesis) and biophysical (X-ray crystallography, SAXS, cryo-EM, FRET) techniques to build the first model of full-length nuclear receptor heterodimers bound to their DNA response elements. This pioneering work resulted in a highly-cited article on Nature Structural & Molecular Biology.

Postdoctoral ResearcherRoyal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI), Dublin, IE, 2004-2006 (2.5 years).
After acquiring computer-aided drug design skills from a zero basis and on my own initiative, I led a project that allowed to gain structural insights (both computational and empirical) on the binding mode of its natural substrate, PGG2, at the peroxidase site of the COX enzyme. This work resulted on a original article in Biochemistry and an Irish Health Research Board (HRB) grant valued at € 280,000. Moreover, quantum mechanics calculations shed light on the mechanistic of enzymatic catalysis and covalentinhibition at the cyclooxygenase site of the enzyme.

RESEARCH STAYS

Visiting postdocLuxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine (LCSB), LU, 2010 (3 months).

Visiting postdocSaarland University, DE, 2009 (12 months).
Design of CYP11B1 and 17-b-HSD2 inhibitors. Homology modelling and molecular dynamics of RDH1 mutants. I also supervised the MSc thesis of a foreign hearing-disabled student. He being a bioinformatician, I needed to devise a specific project tailored to match his particular set of skills. The project consisted in developing a novel methodology for the multiple alignment of proteins sequences taking advantage of the flexible structural alignment of existing crystal structures. The student was able to obtain his degree in less than a year. Furthermore, I significantly contributed to the application through which the department became part of the prestigious Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research.

Visiting postdocCNR, Bologna, IT. 2003 (3 months).
g-Radiolysis of nucleoside derivatives in aqueous media in order to study radiation-induced DNA damage.

Visiting scholarUniversity of California, Berkeley, USA, 1999 (6 months).
Synthesis of nicotine fused analogues as nAChRs ligands for the treatment of neurodegenerative syndromes. Prof Rapoport offered me a postdoc in his group but that opportunity was frustrated by his sad passing away.

VARIA

1. Publications (15) in international peer-reviewed scientific journals and patents (1).
2. Posters and presentations in numerous scientific meetings.
3.Reviewer for international scientific journals (ChemBioChem, J. Steroid Biochem. Mol. Biol., Eur. J. Pharm. Sci.).
4.TIDA/SFI Get Started Technology Venture Programme, DCU Ryan Academy for Entrepreneurs, Dublin, IE, 2016.
5.Codify Programming Workshops, TCD, Dublin, IE, 2016.
6.Member of a PhD Thesis jury, organic chemistry, University of Vigo, Galicia, ES, 2007.
7.Member of the organising committee of the Molecular Graphics & Modelling Society International Meeting, Trinity College Dublin, IE, 2005

SKILLS

Organic synthesis (retrosynthetic analysis, handling of air, light and moisture-sensitive compounds, NMR, HPLC), medicinal chemistry, computational chemistry (GAMESS-US, MOPAC), CADD (MOE, Sybyl, Maestro, Pharmer), computational structural biology (NAMD, Desmond, Modeller), integrative structural biology (Situs, NMFF), chemoinformatics (OpenBabel, Filter-It), biophysics (TR-FRET), biochemistry, advanced Linux administration, advanced Shell scripting, Python, Machine Learning, web development (Worpress, PrestaShop), computing hardware.

Transversal skills: Resourcefulness, problem solving, analytical thinking, teaching, confident communicator, team player, fast learner, self-motivated, creative and out-of-the-box thinking.