Juana Inmaculada Pérez Dorado

She obtained her Diploma in Chemistry (1999) and her Master’s Degree in Biochemistry (2001) at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Later on, she carried out her PhD investigations in macromolecular crystallography under the supervision of Prof. Juan A. Hermoso at the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) (2002-2008), and she obtained her PhD Degree in Biochemistry at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid in 2008. Her PhD research focused on two topics, pneumococcal virulence factors and pneumococcal bacteriophage endolysins of therapeutic interest, and electron-transfer proteins involved in nitrogen fixation. Next, she gained interest in the topic of membrane trafficking and joined Dr Phil Evans’ group at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology of the Medical Research Council (Cambridge, UK) as a FEBS fellow and Postdoctoral Researcher (2009-2013). There, and in collaboration with Dr. David Owen from the CIMR (Cambridge, UK), she worked on projects aiming at understanding the function of membrane-trafficking protein factors at a molecular level. To do so, she used X-ray crystallography, biochemistry and molecular biology techniques in combination with cell biology approaches.
After her postdoc in Cambridge, she decided to move back to the topic of host-pathogen interactions and joined Dr. Ernesto Cota’s and Prof. Edward Tate’s groups at Imperial College London (ICL, London, UK) as Research Associate (2013-2017). In London, her main research centred in the characterization of adhesins from Candida albicans, and N-myristoyltransferases from human and pathogenic parasites, as well as in generating inhibitors targeting these protein factors. In her studies, she combined techniques of molecular biology, protein biochemistry, structural biology, and other biophysical techniques. At ICL, she established independent collaborations with the groups of Prof. Steve Matthews, for the characterization of phospholipid-transfer complexes and Pseudomonas aeruginosa adhesins, and with Dr. Gerald Larrouy-Maumus, for the study of enzymes involved in oxidative-stress resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Moreover, at Imperial, she gained interest in the subject of drug discovery and joined Evotec Ltd. (Abingdon, UK), a drug discovery and development company, where she worked as Senior Scientist in Structural Biology (2018-2020). At Evotec, she performed in numerous drug-discovery projects using X-ray crystallography as the main technique.
In 2020, Dr. Pérez-Dorado was awarded with a contract from the “Programa de Atracción de Talento” of the Comunidad de Madrid, with which she joined the Department of Crystallography and Structural Biology (Institute of Physical-Chemistry “Rocasolano”, CSIC). At the IQFR, she currently leads a research program centred in the study of secretion systems in Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), at the time she continues her collaboration with Dr. Larrouy-Maumus for the characterization of proteins involved in oxidative-stress resistance in Mtb. Her goals comprise not only understanding these biological processes at a molecular level but exploring the potential of the protein factors involved as drug targets. To solve these biological problems, she uses a multidisciplinary approach combining molecular biology, protein engineering, X-ray crystallography and other biophysical techniques. She has published in high impact journals such as Nature Communications, Nature Chemistry, EMBO Reports, Nature Structural and Molecular Biology or Developmental Cell, and has been cited over 700 times. She is also a member of the Spanish Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.