Ramon Eritja
Ramón Eritja
Ramon Eritja Casadellá, a member of the CB06/01/0019 CIBER-BBN holds a degree in Chemistry and in Pharmacy from University of Barcelona obtained in 1977 and 1982 respectively. He completed his PhD at University of Barcelona in 1983 in solid-phase peptide synthesis supervised by Prof. Ernest Giralt. Postdoctoral Fellow in Dr. Itakura’s (Beckman Research Institute at Hope, CA, USA, 1984-1988) and Dr. Caruthers’s (University of Colorado at Boulder, USA, 1988-1989) laboratories. He returned to University of Barcelona in 1989. He became Tenure Scientist at CSIC in Barcelona in 1990. Then, in 1994, he moved to EMBL, Heidelberg, Germany as Group Leader and responsible of DNA synthesis facility at EMBL. He returned to Barcelona as Research Professor at CSIC leading the Nucleic Acid Chemistry Group in 1999. He was an invited member of the IRB Barcelona (2006-2012) and director of institute (IQAC, 2012-2017). He is a member of the Networking Center on Bioengineering, Biomaterials and Nanomedicine of Spain (CIBER-BBN) since 2006 being responsible of the Nucleic Acid Chemistry Research Group.
The Nucleic Acid Chemistry Research Group focuses on the preparation and evaluation of novel modified oligonucleotides with potential interest in diagnostic and therapeutic applications. With more than 40 years’ experience in Nucleic Acids Chemistry the group is well-known for their activities in oligonucleotide synthesis being selected for the presidency of the international society of nucleotides, nucleotides and nucleic acids (IS3NA). In addition the group supervises the Oligonucleotide Synthesis Platform (NANBIOSIS Unit 29). This platform focus their services in providing modified oligonucleotides that are difficult to obtain from commercial sources. These include microgram to milligram amounts of DNA and RNA derivatives carrying several modifications as well as oligonucleotide conjugates carrying lipids, membrane-receptors ligands, carbohydrates and peptides designed for therapeutic or diagnostic purposes.
Dr. Eritja’s main scientific contributions include: 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) Modulation of the structural parameters of non-canonical DNA structures such as G-quadruplex, i-motif and parallel duplex by chemical modification. 3) Development of oligonucleotides carrying 8-aminopurines for enhanced binding by triple helix formation. 4) Functionalization of DNA bidimensional arrays and DNA origami. 5) Synthesis and properties of oligonucleotides carrying non-natural nucleobases for the study of mutagenesis, DNA repair, and DNA methylase inhibition. 6) Development of novel oligonucleotide-peptide and DNA-protein conjugates. His background in Pharmacy is a valuable asset in the investigation of new therapeutic approaches.