María Isabel Montañez Vega

Biography

aría Isabel Montañez Vega obtained her Chemistry degree (2000) and PhD (2007) at the University of Málaga (UMA). Her PhD studies were carried out in the Organic Chemistry Department, under supervision of Prof. Suau and Prof. Perez-Inestrosa, with thesis entitled: “Synthesis and Study of Antigenic Determinants of Cephalosporins and Dendrimeric Antigens of Penicillins, for Detection of IgE Specific to Betalactams”. These studies were done in collaboration with the Hospital Research Group of Allergic Diseases, in which these new materials were clinically evaluated. She also joined the group of Prof. Tomalia at Central Michigan University (Michigan, US) for 3 months (2003), to learn about dendrimer structural characterization. As a result of these joint studies (organic synthesis, macromolecules binding and their immunological recognition), structure/immunological recognition relationships could be established. In 2008 she joined the group of Prof. Hult and Prof. Malkoch, the Division of Coating Technology, at Royal Institute of Technology (Stockholm, Sweden) for a postdoctoral stay of 2 years, and worked in projects related with highly efficient and versatile design of complex macromolecules via click chemistry for advanced biomedical applications. Among them it is noteworthy the accelerated synthesis of monodisperse dendrimers and the fabrication of hybrid polymeric materials for biosensor applications.

Research Interest

She joined the Research Group of Allergic Diseases at IBIMA (Biomedicine Institute of Malaga) in 2010 and has been awarded two Postdoctoral Research Fellowships, Sara Borrell and IEF-Marie Curie. In 2012 she also joined BIONAND´s Therapeutic Nanosystems Area as a postdoctoral fellow. In 2016, she has been selected as a Miguel Servet senior investigator from ISCIII and got promoted as emergent PI in BIONAND. Her research is dealing with the study of drug allergy mechanisms from a chemical approach. The long-term goal of her main research line is to understand the mechanisms by which different models of drugs induce allergy and deliver a tool box for the design of versatile nanostructural materials to the diagnosis and/or therapy of allergy to drugs. She belongs to the coordinator group of the national thematic networks and cooperative research centre ARADyAL (Asthma, Adverse and Allergic Reactions, ISCIII) led by Dr. Torres. She has 4 patents and more than 40 publications in the fields of Multidisciplinary or Medicinal Chemistry, Polymeric Sciences and Allergy. She has participated in more than 20 research projects and authored around 60 presentations in conferences.