Montserrat Calleja Gómez

Montserrat Calleja Gómez

ERC Project: “Liquidmass”:

The aim of LIQUIDMASS is to develop a nanomechanical spectrometry technique capable of studying proteins in physiological conditions. LIQUIDMASS proposes a new protein spectrometry concept, new technology capable of characterising not only the mass of individual proteins but also their hydrodynamic radius, geometry and effective rigidity.

This multi-parameter focus will be used to open up new routes to understand how structure relates to the function of the protein. We want to develop technology capable of providing information on the fast, conformational changes that take place in proteins in a liquid medium. Understanding protein-folding better is relevant to understand the diseases related to bad folding of certain proteins, as happens in Alzheimer’s disease.

Bio

I was born in Ourense in 1973 and I have lived in Cercedilla and A Coruña. I attended a conference on astrophysics at the planetarium in A Coruña that fascinated me. I was in my last year at high school, already a physics fan, and that conference spurred me on to study Physics at the USC in Santiago de Compostela. One of my favourite subjects was Mechanics and Waves that was given by Professor Labastida. I specialised in Opto-electronics and the last two years of my degree were very exciting, matched by my first postgrad position in a laboratory with Professor Vicente Moreno who got me interested in research.

A PhD grant took me to Madrid again, to do my doctoral dissertation in Professor Ricardo García’s group where I learnt to be a scientist and where my interest in nanotechnology began.

My post-doc took me further afield, to Denmark, where I worked for two years in the Mikrolektronik Centre white room, manufacturer nanomechanical devices.

On my return to Madrid, at the Institute of Micro and Nanotechnology (formerly Microelectronics), I enjoyed applying these sensors to biology and that’s what I’m still doing today.

More about Montserrat Calleja Gómez

Bio

I was born in Ourense in 1973 and I have lived in Cercedilla and A Coruña. I attended a conference on astrophysics at the planetarium in A Coruña that fascinated me. I was in my last year at high school, already a physics fan, and that conference spurred me on to study Physics at the USC in Santiago de Compostela. One of my favourite subjects was Mechanics and Waves that was given by Professor Labastida. I specialised in Opto-electronics and the last two years of my degree were very exciting, matched by my first postgrad position in a laboratory with Professor Vicente Moreno who got me interested in research.

A PhD grant took me to Madrid again, to do my doctoral dissertation in Professor Ricardo García’s group where I learnt to be a scientist and where my interest in nanotechnology began.

My post-doc took me further afield, to Denmark, where I worked for two years in the Mikrolektronik Centre white room, manufacturer nanomechanical devices.

On my return to Madrid, at the Institute of Micro and Nanotechnology (formerly Microelectronics), I enjoyed applying these sensors to biology and that’s what I’m still doing today.

ERC Project: “Liquidmass”:

The aim of LIQUIDMASS is to develop a nanomechanical spectrometry technique capable of studying proteins in physiological conditions. LIQUIDMASS proposes a new protein spectrometry concept, new technology capable of characterising not only the mass of individual proteins but also their hydrodynamic radius, geometry and effective rigidity.

This multi-parameter focus will be used to open up new routes to understand how structure relates to the function of the protein. We want to develop technology capable of providing information on the fast, conformational changes that take place in proteins in a liquid medium. Understanding protein-folding better is relevant to understand the diseases related to bad folding of certain proteins, as happens in Alzheimer’s disease.

More about Montserrat Calleja Gómez