Scientist, Computational Biology
I am a computational biologist at GSK. I was previously a PhD fellow at the European Bioinformatics Institute EMBL-EBI and the University of Cambridge, supervised by Dr. Alex Bateman. I also completed a Bachelor’s degree in Biotechnology at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, followed by a Master’s in Computational Biology at the ETH Zurich, where I joined the research group of Dr. Guido Capitani at the Paul Scherrer Institute.
I develop computational methods and algorithms, applying machine learning and other statistical methods, to model the sequence and structure of proteins with the aim to understand their function, evolution and role in disease. As part of my PhD, I have worked on a project to computationally classify and model tandem domain repeats in multidomain proteins, integrating various genomics and protein structure datasets. I have worked on several research projects and methods, including the EPPIC tool for the classification of protein-protein interfaces, the analysis of symmetry in protein structures with CE-Symm, and the BioJava open-source bioinformatics library. I have also been an assessor of protein assembly models in two editions (2016 and 2018) of CASP (an international challenge for protein structure prediction methods) and developed new evaluation scores and analyses.
Protein-EDM Modelling protein structures from distance matrices using Euclidean geometry. GitHub: https://github.com/lafita/protein-edm-demo
TADOSS Method to estimate the stability of domain swap misfolding in proteins. GitHub: https://github.com/lafita/tadoss
CE-Symm Tool to detect and analyse the symmetry in protein structures and complexes. GitHub: https://github.com/rcsb/symmetry
EPPIC Evolutionary Protein-Protein Interface Classifier, available as a web-app (www.eppic-web.org). GitHub: https://github.com/eppic-team/eppic
BioJava General-purpose and open-source bioinformatics library written in Java. GitHub: https://github.com/biojava/biojava
2021-present GSK, UK
2017-2021 European Bioinformatics Institute EMBL-EBI, UK - PhD fellow
2016-2017 Paul Scherrer Institute & University of Zurich, CH - MSc thesis
2015-2016 Paul Scherrer Institute, CH - Research intern
2013-2014 Laboratory of Computational Medicine, ES - BSc thesis
2013 IHT Innovation S.L.U., ES - Trainee
2017-2021 PhD Bioinformatics - University of Cambridge, UK
Thesis: Computational discovery and modelling of tandem domain repeats in proteins
2014-2017 MSc Computational Biology and Bioinformatics - ETH Zurich, CH
Thesis: Assessment of protein assembly prediction in CASP12 & Conformational dynamics of integrin alpha-I domains
2010-2014 BSc Biotechnology - Autonomous University of Barcelona, ES
Thesis: A study of transmembrane helix distortions with computational tools