Mónica López Fanarraga (MLF) is full professor of Molecular Biology at the University of Cantabria. She received a B. Vet. Med. (Hons) at the University of Zaragoza in 1989 and obtained her PhD in neurobiology 1993 at the University of Glasgow (UK). MLF is also a Doctor in Medicine and Surgery (PhD) by the University of Cantabria (1999). She has been a postdoctoral scientist at the Hubrecht Institute (Holland, 1994) and at the European Molecular Biology Laboratorium (EMBL, Germany 2000-01). She has been visiting scientist at the University of Wisconsin (USA, 1993), the University of the Basque Country (Spain, 1994) and has been recipient for several competitive fellowships, among others: Erasmus, HFSP or EMBL. MLF has been researcher of the Ramón y Cajal Program (2005-2009), has a recognized research trajectory for the effects of program I3 and was accredited by the ANECA as full professor in 2014.

MLF has a H index of 27 (index i10 =44) and more than 50 peer-reviewed including papers in Nature, JCB, ACS Nano, Adv. Healthc. Mat., Nanoscale, Nanomedicine, Current Pharm. Res., most as first or corresponding author in the areas of nanomedicine/cellular/ molecular biology/neurobiology. In nanomedicine, MLF has led more than 20 papers, most published in Q1-D1 journals, and 3 patents in nanobiotechnology. To date, MLF has participated in more than 30 research competitive national and international projects and is currently PI of 2 competitive national multidisciplinary projects in Nanomedicine with collaborators of the Nanomedicine-IDIVAL Team that she leads since 2014 (http://mlfanarraga.wix.com/grupo-nanomedicina).

Research interests:

The Nanomedicine group investigates the biosynthetic relationship between nanomaterials and proteins, cells or tissues to apply this knowledge in the development of unique nano-tools for treatment of complex disease where conventional therapeutic compounds have failed, including cancer or neurodegeneration. The major interest of the team is to develop new biocompatible therapeutic systems based in nanobiotechnology and spectroscopy expertise.

Academic achievements and interests:

M. L. Fanarraga has lectured in Molecular Cell Biology, Genetics and Nanomedicine, in undergraduate and postgraduate programs at the University of Cantabria. She is a qualified professional PhD supervisor (2015) and has so far directed 8 PhD thesis (all outstanding, cum laude) and numerous master's/grade projects, 9 of them in Nanomedicine.