Prof. Ramon ERITJA obtained his Ph.D. degree in 1983 at University of Barcelona supervised by Prof. Giralt in peptide synthesis. Postdoctoral training in oligonucleotide synthesis at the Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope (Dr. B. Kaplan and K. Itakura) from 1984-1987 and at University of Colorado at Boulder (Dr. M. H. Caruthers) 1987-1988. He returned to University of Barcelona in 1988. He was group leader at CSIC, Barcelona 1990-1994. He was group leader and director of DNA synthesis core facility at European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Heidelberg (Germany) 1994-1999. He is research professor at CSIC, Barcelona from 2000 until now. He was the Director of the Institute for Advanced Chemistry of Catalonia (IQAC) from 2012 to 2017. His group is a member of the CIBER-BBN Networking Centre on Bioengineering, Biomaterials and Nanomedicine. He is coauthor of more than 350 publications and several patents on the synthesis and properties of nucleic acids derivatives. Research efforts have been concentrated in the following areas: 1) Development of novel RNA derivatives to enhance specific gene silencing properties of siRNA by RNA interference, including nuclease resistant siRNAs, lipid-RNA and development of lipid formulation for siRNA transfection. 2) Conformational analysis of biologically relevant non-canonical DNA structures such as G-quadruplex, and i-motif. 3) Development of biosensors using clamp oligonucleotides for enhanced binding by triple helix formation. 4) Functionalization of DNA origami to enhance biomedical properties. 5) Synthesis and properties of oligonucleotides carrying non-natural nucleobases for the study of mutagenesis, DNA repair, and DNA methylase inhibition. 6) Synthesis of oligonucleotide-peptide and protein conjugates
A synthetic oligonucleotide duplex containing the chemotherapeutic and mutagenic agent 5-fluorour... more A synthetic oligonucleotide duplex containing the chemotherapeutic and mutagenic agent 5-fluorouracil paired with guanine has been studied in solution by proton and fluorine NMR. The 7-mer duplex containing a central FU.G base pair adopts a normal right-handed configuration. At low pH, the predominant base-paired structure is wobble, whereas at higher pH an ionized structure in Watson-Crick geometry is observed. The two structures are in a pH-dependent equilibrium with one another with an apparent pK of 8.3 at 23 degrees C. This is the first demonstration of an equilibrium between two distinct base pairing schemes and the first demonstration of a negatively charged base pair in DNA.
Instituto de Carboquimica, CSIC. Miguel Luesma,4 Zaragoza, Spain b Electrical Engineering and Com... more Instituto de Carboquimica, CSIC. Miguel Luesma,4 Zaragoza, Spain b Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department. Cory Hall, Berkeley CA 94720-1770 UC, California. c CIDETEC Po Miramon, 196 Parque Tecn. Miramon.,20009 San Sebastian, Spain d Instituto de Investigaciones Quimicas y Ambientales CSIC. IIQAB-CSIC Jordi Girona, 18-26 , 08034-Barcelona, Spain Molecular Foundry, LBNL, One Cyclotron road, MS 67R3208-22 Berkeley, California, 94720, USA mtmatinez@icb.csic.es
Lipid nanocarriers, such as niosomes, are considered attractive candidates for non-viral gene del... more Lipid nanocarriers, such as niosomes, are considered attractive candidates for non-viral gene delivery due to their suitable biocompatibility and high versatility. In this work, we studied the influence of incorporating chloroquine in niosomes biophysical performance, as well as the effect of non-ionic surfactant composition and protocol of incorporation in their biophysical performance. An exhaustive comparative evaluation of three niosome formulations differing in these parameters was performed, which included the analysis of their thermal stability, rheological behavior, mean particle size, dispersity, zeta potential, morphology, membrane packing capacity, affinity to bind DNA, ability to release and protect the genetic material, buffering capacity and ability to escape from artificially synthesized lysosomes. Finally, in vitro biological studies were, also, performed in order to determine the compatibility of the formulations with biological systems, their transfection efficienc...
Alginate (ALG) is a lineal hydrophilic polysaccharide present in brown algae cell walls, which tu... more Alginate (ALG) is a lineal hydrophilic polysaccharide present in brown algae cell walls, which turns into a gel state when hydrated. Gelation readily produces a series of three dimensional (3D) architectures like fibers, capillaries, and microspheres, used as biosensors and bio‐actuators in a plethora of biomedical applications like drug delivery and wound healing. Hydrogels have made a great impact on regenerative medicine and tissue engineering because they are able to mimic the mechanical properties of natural tissues due to their high water content. Recent advances in neurosciences have led to promising strategies for repairing and/or regenerating the damaged nervous system. Spinal cord injury (SCI) is particularly challenging, owing to its devastating medical, human, and social consequences. Although effective therapies to repair the damaged spinal cord (SC) are still lacking, multiple pharmacological, genetic, and cell‐based therapies are currently under study. In this framewo...
Hydrogels are tridimensional networks that are able to retain important amounts of water. These s... more Hydrogels are tridimensional networks that are able to retain important amounts of water. These soft materials can be obtained through self-assembling processes involving either hydrophilic molecules or polymers, allowing the formation of the corresponding covalently and physically cross-linked networks. Although the applicability of hydrogels in biomedicine has been exponentially growing due to their biocompatibility and different responses to stimuli, these materials have exhibited the particular feature of poor mechanical strength, and consequently, are brittle materials with low deformation. Due to this reason, a race has started to obtain more stretchable and tough hydrogels through different approaches. Within this context, this review article describes the most representative strategies and examples involving synthetic polymers with potential for biomedical applications.
Cationic niosomes have become important non-viral vehicles for transporting a good number of smal... more Cationic niosomes have become important non-viral vehicles for transporting a good number of small drug molecules and macromolecules. Growing interest shown by these colloidal nanoparticles in therapy is determined by their structural similarities to liposomes. Cationic niosomes are usually obtained from the self-assembly of non-ionic surfactant molecules. This process can be governed not only by the nature of such surfactants but also by others factors like the presence of additives, formulation preparation and properties of the encapsulated hydrophobic or hydrophilic molecules. This review is aimed at providing recent information for using cationic niosomes for gene delivery purposes with particular emphasis on improving the transportation of antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs), small interference RNAs (siRNAs), aptamers and plasmids (pDNA).
Molecular self-assembling is ubiquitous in nature providing structural and functional machinery f... more Molecular self-assembling is ubiquitous in nature providing structural and functional machinery for the cells. In recent decades, material science has been inspired by the nature’s assembly principles to create artificially higher-order structures customized with therapeutic and targeting molecules, organic and inorganic fluorescent probes that have opened new perspectives for biomedical applications. Among these novel man-made materials, DNA nanostructures hold great promise for the modular assembly of biocompatible molecules at the nanoscale of multiple shapes and sizes, designed via molecular programming languages. Herein, we summarize the recent advances made in the designing of DNA nanostructures with special emphasis on their application in biomedical research as imaging and diagnostic platforms, drug, gene, and protein vehicles, as well as theranostic agents that are meant to operate in-cell and in-vivo.
Boronic acid-modified alginate allows the direct formation of biocompatible hydrogels under basic... more Boronic acid-modified alginate allows the direct formation of biocompatible hydrogels under basic conditions with remarkable injectable, self-healing and multistimuli-responsive properties.
Supramolecular hydrogels based on N-protected phenylalanine (Fmoc–Phe–OH) were used to encapsulat... more Supramolecular hydrogels based on N-protected phenylalanine (Fmoc–Phe–OH) were used to encapsulate non-ionic surfactant vesicles (niosomes).
Liposome-encapsulated hydrogels have emerged as an attractive strategy for medical and pharmaceut... more Liposome-encapsulated hydrogels have emerged as an attractive strategy for medical and pharmaceutical applications.
A synthetic oligonucleotide duplex containing the chemotherapeutic and mutagenic agent 5-fluorour... more A synthetic oligonucleotide duplex containing the chemotherapeutic and mutagenic agent 5-fluorouracil paired with guanine has been studied in solution by proton and fluorine NMR. The 7-mer duplex containing a central FU.G base pair adopts a normal right-handed configuration. At low pH, the predominant base-paired structure is wobble, whereas at higher pH an ionized structure in Watson-Crick geometry is observed. The two structures are in a pH-dependent equilibrium with one another with an apparent pK of 8.3 at 23 degrees C. This is the first demonstration of an equilibrium between two distinct base pairing schemes and the first demonstration of a negatively charged base pair in DNA.
Instituto de Carboquimica, CSIC. Miguel Luesma,4 Zaragoza, Spain b Electrical Engineering and Com... more Instituto de Carboquimica, CSIC. Miguel Luesma,4 Zaragoza, Spain b Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department. Cory Hall, Berkeley CA 94720-1770 UC, California. c CIDETEC Po Miramon, 196 Parque Tecn. Miramon.,20009 San Sebastian, Spain d Instituto de Investigaciones Quimicas y Ambientales CSIC. IIQAB-CSIC Jordi Girona, 18-26 , 08034-Barcelona, Spain Molecular Foundry, LBNL, One Cyclotron road, MS 67R3208-22 Berkeley, California, 94720, USA mtmatinez@icb.csic.es
Lipid nanocarriers, such as niosomes, are considered attractive candidates for non-viral gene del... more Lipid nanocarriers, such as niosomes, are considered attractive candidates for non-viral gene delivery due to their suitable biocompatibility and high versatility. In this work, we studied the influence of incorporating chloroquine in niosomes biophysical performance, as well as the effect of non-ionic surfactant composition and protocol of incorporation in their biophysical performance. An exhaustive comparative evaluation of three niosome formulations differing in these parameters was performed, which included the analysis of their thermal stability, rheological behavior, mean particle size, dispersity, zeta potential, morphology, membrane packing capacity, affinity to bind DNA, ability to release and protect the genetic material, buffering capacity and ability to escape from artificially synthesized lysosomes. Finally, in vitro biological studies were, also, performed in order to determine the compatibility of the formulations with biological systems, their transfection efficienc...
Alginate (ALG) is a lineal hydrophilic polysaccharide present in brown algae cell walls, which tu... more Alginate (ALG) is a lineal hydrophilic polysaccharide present in brown algae cell walls, which turns into a gel state when hydrated. Gelation readily produces a series of three dimensional (3D) architectures like fibers, capillaries, and microspheres, used as biosensors and bio‐actuators in a plethora of biomedical applications like drug delivery and wound healing. Hydrogels have made a great impact on regenerative medicine and tissue engineering because they are able to mimic the mechanical properties of natural tissues due to their high water content. Recent advances in neurosciences have led to promising strategies for repairing and/or regenerating the damaged nervous system. Spinal cord injury (SCI) is particularly challenging, owing to its devastating medical, human, and social consequences. Although effective therapies to repair the damaged spinal cord (SC) are still lacking, multiple pharmacological, genetic, and cell‐based therapies are currently under study. In this framewo...
Hydrogels are tridimensional networks that are able to retain important amounts of water. These s... more Hydrogels are tridimensional networks that are able to retain important amounts of water. These soft materials can be obtained through self-assembling processes involving either hydrophilic molecules or polymers, allowing the formation of the corresponding covalently and physically cross-linked networks. Although the applicability of hydrogels in biomedicine has been exponentially growing due to their biocompatibility and different responses to stimuli, these materials have exhibited the particular feature of poor mechanical strength, and consequently, are brittle materials with low deformation. Due to this reason, a race has started to obtain more stretchable and tough hydrogels through different approaches. Within this context, this review article describes the most representative strategies and examples involving synthetic polymers with potential for biomedical applications.
Cationic niosomes have become important non-viral vehicles for transporting a good number of smal... more Cationic niosomes have become important non-viral vehicles for transporting a good number of small drug molecules and macromolecules. Growing interest shown by these colloidal nanoparticles in therapy is determined by their structural similarities to liposomes. Cationic niosomes are usually obtained from the self-assembly of non-ionic surfactant molecules. This process can be governed not only by the nature of such surfactants but also by others factors like the presence of additives, formulation preparation and properties of the encapsulated hydrophobic or hydrophilic molecules. This review is aimed at providing recent information for using cationic niosomes for gene delivery purposes with particular emphasis on improving the transportation of antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs), small interference RNAs (siRNAs), aptamers and plasmids (pDNA).
Molecular self-assembling is ubiquitous in nature providing structural and functional machinery f... more Molecular self-assembling is ubiquitous in nature providing structural and functional machinery for the cells. In recent decades, material science has been inspired by the nature’s assembly principles to create artificially higher-order structures customized with therapeutic and targeting molecules, organic and inorganic fluorescent probes that have opened new perspectives for biomedical applications. Among these novel man-made materials, DNA nanostructures hold great promise for the modular assembly of biocompatible molecules at the nanoscale of multiple shapes and sizes, designed via molecular programming languages. Herein, we summarize the recent advances made in the designing of DNA nanostructures with special emphasis on their application in biomedical research as imaging and diagnostic platforms, drug, gene, and protein vehicles, as well as theranostic agents that are meant to operate in-cell and in-vivo.
Boronic acid-modified alginate allows the direct formation of biocompatible hydrogels under basic... more Boronic acid-modified alginate allows the direct formation of biocompatible hydrogels under basic conditions with remarkable injectable, self-healing and multistimuli-responsive properties.
Supramolecular hydrogels based on N-protected phenylalanine (Fmoc–Phe–OH) were used to encapsulat... more Supramolecular hydrogels based on N-protected phenylalanine (Fmoc–Phe–OH) were used to encapsulate non-ionic surfactant vesicles (niosomes).
Liposome-encapsulated hydrogels have emerged as an attractive strategy for medical and pharmaceut... more Liposome-encapsulated hydrogels have emerged as an attractive strategy for medical and pharmaceutical applications.
Uploads
Papers by Ramon Eritja