Unai Atxabal

ESR 5

Project: NMR molecular recognition of antigen by key receptors

Organisation/Institute: CIC bioGUNE | Center for Cooperative Research in Biosciences (Bilbao, Spain)

Supervisor: Prof. Jesús Jiménez-Barbero

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Unai Atxabal is an Early Research Student from the Basque Country, Spain. He will be focused on studying molecular recognition processes of antigens by key receptors using state of the art NMR techniques. The experimental data will be combined with molecular dynamics simulations and other biophysical techniques. Furthermore, organic synthesis will be used for synthesizing novel drug-like compounds.

Unai obtained his bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry at the University of the Basque Country. While he was undergraduate, he completed two internships at CICbioGUNE where he learned novel NMR techniques.

He completed a two years MSc in Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Copenhagen, where he obtained a strong background in organic chemistry and drug design and design. Then, he successfully carried out a 60ECTS Master Project in Medicinal Chemistry under the supervision of Prof. Rasmus Prætorius Clausen. The project focused on “Design and synthesis of subtype selective NMDA receptor antagonist”.

Now he is back in Bilbao for his PhD, looking forward to applying the gained knowledge throughout his scientific education to develop new vaccines against the multidrug resistant bacteria.