Group picture

Dr. Terrazas’ professional career has been focused on the design and synthesis of chemically modified nucleosides, nucleotides and oligonucleotides of structural and biological interest, as well as on their structural and biological evaluation. After graduating in Chemistry (2001), she started her MSc and PhD studies at the Department of Organic Chemistry of the Univ. of Barcelona under the supervision of Professors Xavier Ariza and Jaume Vilarrasa, where she worked on the development of synthetic methodologies for the labelling of nucleosides with ¹⁵N at specific positions, as well as on the computational design of new anti-HIV-1 nucleoside analogues, which was completed with a 3-month stay at the University of Siena (Dr. Botta’s group, Italy). After her PhD (2006), she moved to the Univ. of Leuven (Belgium) to perform a 1-year postdoc in the group of Prof. Herdewijn, to work in the synthesis and biological evaluation of new nucleotide triphosphate analogues as potential antiviral agents. In 2007, she moved to Stanford (Prof. Eric Kool’s group) with a Beatriu de Pinós Fellowship to perform a second postdoctoral stay, focused on a research area of great impact in the field of therapeutic RNAs that constitutes the basis for her present line of research: understanding the mechanism of RNA interference (induced by siRNAs) and improving the properties of siRNAs, as therapeutic tools, by using chemical modifications. In 2009, she returned to Barcelona to join Prof. Eritja’s group at the IQAC, CSIC (with JAE-Doc and Juan de la Cierva contracts), where she combined her background in RNAi, synthetic organic chemistry and molecular modelling to design and develop new forms of chemically modified siRNAs with potential therapeutic applications. In 2014, she joined Prof. Orozco’s group as a Miguel Servet I Reasearch Associate, where she started her own research line focused on the design and synthesis of new therapeutic siRNA tools to overcome drug resistance in cancer. She joined the Organic Chemistry Section (SQO) of the Faculty of Chemistry (University of Barcelona) as Associate Professor (Professora Agregada) in march 2021, where she is developing new multifunctional oligonucleotide-based tools for the treatment of cancer (and diseases involving multiple targets), as well as on new delivery systems for selective administration of the drug to the tumor. Since her incorporation at the SQO she has stablished strong collaborations with Bruker Biospin coorporation, Prof. Marçal Pastor-Anglada and Dr. Sandra Pérez-Torras group (Molecular Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics group, Faculty of Biology, UB-IBUB), Dr. Alessandro Sorrenti’s group (Nessa Lab, SQO, UB) and Dr. Maria Francesca Cortese (VHIR, Vall d’Hebron Institut de Recerca).