Prieto Simón, Beatriz
ICREA Research Professor at Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV).
Engineering Sciences
Short biography
Beatriz obtained her PhD in chemistry (UAB), conducting part of her doctoral research on biosensors at AgResearch (New Zealand) and at the University of Ioannina (Greece). She conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Perpignan (UPVD) (2005–07), with stays at LISE (CNRS) and at the International Center of Biodynamics (Romania). In 2007, she joined the Tokyo University of Technology as Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Fellow. In 2009, she returned to the UPVD and then joined IBEC as Juan de la Cierva Fellow. In 2012, she moved to the University of South Australia where she won a Senior Research Fellowship. After four years, she joined Monash University as Senior Research Fellow. In 2018 she joined the URV as Ramón y Cajal Fellow, where she became ICREA Research Professor in 2020.She is group leader of the Bioinspired Nanotechnologies lab, recently funded by the AGAUR as Emerging Research Group.
Research interests
Her research aims to deliver versatile nanoarchitectures to build bespoke diagnostics, by harnessing high-precision fabrication methods, and advances in engineering surface functionalities. Their assembly in hierarchical structures, with tuneable electrochemical properties and surface chemistry, and displayed bioreceptors, is strongly intertwined with the material’s functions. Her interest lies in gathering new knowledge on the relationship between nanoarchitecture/displayed functionalities and function, to design sensors underpinning personalised clinical management of infections. The next generation of diagnostics is expected to meet the needs for host-immune response assessment, pathogen-associated and antibiotic resistance biomarkers detection, and monitoring of antibiotic levels. The potential of these tools to guide antibiotics choice is foreseen as a key driver toward effective treatment, protecting patients from antibiotics adverse effects, and dwindling antibiotic resistance.