Juan R. Granja Guillán
Prof. Juan R. Granja received the PhD in chemistry from the University of Santiago de Compostela in 1988, under the guidance of Profs. Antonio Mouriño and Luis Castedo, working on the synthesis of main metabolites of vitamin D2. After postdoctoral studies (1989-1990) in the group of Prof. Barry M. Trost at the Chemistry Department of Stanford University working on the synthesis of macrolides using Pd chemistry, he returned to the University of Santiago de Compostela as Assistant Professor (Ayudante de Universidad, Oct-1990). In 1995 he was promoted to associate professor (Professor Titular) and in 2006 to Full Professor (Catedrático de Universidad) after a national habilitation in 2005 in Barcelona.
In 1992 he started a long-term collaboration with Professor M. Reza Ghadiri at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) in La Jolla, that included several stages at TSRI as visiting professor. As a consequence of this scientific collaboration, novel key studies on peptide chemistry were developed, such as self-assembling peptide nanotubes, supramolecular ion channels and antimicrobial agents or peptide-based self-replicating processes.
His research interest is devoted to the synthesis of complex structures by efficient methods, especially those based on supramolecular chemistry. One of his research programs is seeking for the synthesis of functional nanotubes by self-assembling process of cyclic peptides. Specially, he is interested on peptide nanotubes based on cyclic peptides that contains cyclic amino acids. The goal is to create tubular shaped structure with taylor-made properties and use their inner and outer surface features to create new tools for material sciences and biology.
At this respect, he is specially interested in creating this type of structures with pre-designed properties to interfere with the phospholipid membranes to change their biological properties. Therefore, transmembrane nanotubes, which simulates the natural protein channels in their transport properties and selectivity, or cytotoxic agents that destroy membrane properties and can be used as antibacterial or anticancer therapies are also envisaged. Finally, new systems to encapsulate different type of molecules are also seeking by his group.