Jorge Gonzalez Garcia

I studied Chemistry at the University of Valencia (Spain), spending my last undergraduate academic year as Erasmus Fellow at the University of Salford (United Kingdom). I graduated in July 2005 and started my PhD in Chemical Sciences at the University of Valencia under the supervision of Prof. Garcia-Espana in Supramolecular Chemistry. At the beginning of my PhD, I was involved in the synthesis of polytopic poly-azamacrocyclic ligands and the interaction with metals, focusing on the thermodynamics and kinetics aspects of Zn2+, Cu2+ and Mn2+ coordination and the catalytic antioxidant properties of metal complexes. During the first years of my PhD, I combined my PhD studies with being a technician at Torres Film Plastic. Then, I obtained a FPU fellowship of the Spanish Science Ministry and focused in my PhD studies. I was involved in the preparation of nucleic acids binding agents. During my PhD, I spent several periods in the groups of Dr. Piantanida (Ruder Boskovic Institut, Croatia), Prof. Pina (New University of Lisbon, Portugal) and Prof. Gale (University of Southampton, United Kingdom) where I learnt different techniques and a range of subjects from Supramolecular Chemistry field. I obtained my PhD with the qualification of Summa cum Laude in February 2013 and started a first post-doctoral period at the University of Kansas in Prof. Bowman-James’s group, where I studied anion encapsulation in macrocycles and cryptands. I was later awarded with the postdoctoral Vali+I Fellowship to join the group of Dr. Teulade-Fichou at the Institut Curie (France) where I expanded my interests towards unusual DNA/RNA structures such as hairpins, mismatches, triplexes or quadruplexes. In particular, I developed a new tool for screening the interaction of small synthetic molecules for G-quadruplexes of different topology using dynamic combinatorial chemistry. In April 2015 I moved to the Chemistry Department at Imperial College London, where I worked as a Newton Fellow (associated with Prof. Vilar’s group) to develop new tools for detecting G-quadruplex DNA/RNA in vivo. Actually, I'm conducting my research project based in the development of a toolbox to visualise G-quadruplex structures in cells and unravel their roles in cancer or neurological diseases. I received several prizes such as Fernando Pullidori Prize from the European Group on Thermodynamics Complexes in 2012 and the best PhD thesis of 2013 in University of Valencia.