Jun-Prof. Dr. Mercedes Alfonso Prieto

Junior Professor

Publications and Statistics

Personal Home Page

CURRICULUM VITAE

I have a dual appointment as Assistant Professor (W1 Junior-Professor) at Forschungszentrum Jülich (INM-9/IAS-5 Computational Biomedicine) and the Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (Cécile and Oskar Vogt Institute for Brain Research).

My position is partly funded by the Ernesto Illy Foundation through the grant "Computational science of chemical senses".

Professional career

10.2014 - 09.2016	Marie Curie postdoctoral fellow (Univ. of Barcelona, Spain) Advisor: Prof. Carme Rovira
04.2010 - 09.2014	Postdoctoral researcher (Temple University, USA) Advisor: Prof. Michael L. Klein
10.2004 - 12.2009	Master and PhD student (Barcelona Science Park, Spain) Supervisor: Prof. Carme Rovira

 

Education

12.2009	PhD degree (Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain)
05.2006	Master degree (Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain)
02.2005	Degree in Biochemistry (University of Barcelona, Spain) Prize for excellence as undergraduate student
09.2004	Degree in Chemistry (University of Barcelona, Spain)

 

Scientific honours

10.2014 - 09.2016        Marie Curie postdoctoral fellow at Univ. of Barcelona (Spain)

Funding in the last 3 years raised as PI

Name of the Grant	Co-PIs	Call	Time Period	Amount €
Multidisciplinary approach for mapping protein-protein interactions surfaces: From mass spectrometry to computational and cell biology	Prof. Patricia Hidalgo (FZJ, ICS-4) and Dr. Beatrix Santiago-Schuebel (FZJ, ZEA-3)	Networking Doctoral Position funded by the FZJ Board of Directors	10.2019 – 09.2021	3 year PhD position
Prediction of ligand protein interactions and brain signaling cascades using machine learning approaches: olfaction as a test scenario	Prof. Marc Spehr (RWTH Aachen University) and Prof. Alejandro Giorgetti (FZJ)	Doctoral position in Simulation and Data Sciences	06.2019 – 05.2021	3 year PhD position

Funding in the last 3 years contributing as participant personnel

Name of the Grant	PI	Call	Time Period	Amount €
Molecular simulation-based rational design of painkillers targeting the opioid receptor (PaTOR).	Prof. Paolo Carloni	BMBF call for funding for bilateral cooperation with Vietnam	02.2019 – 01.2022	240,000

Supervision of PhD students

• Dr. Fabrizio Fierro (10.2016 – 04. 2019), co-supervised together with Prof. Paolo Carloni and Prof. Alejandro Giorgetti.
• Mr. Giuliano Santarpia (06.2019 – present), co-supervised with Prof. Marc Spehr and Prof. Alejandro Giorgetti.
• Mr. Francisco Castilla Porras (10.2019 – present), co-supervised with Prof. Patricia Hidalgo and Dr. Beatrix Santiago-Schuebel.

Research interest and activity

Our research aims at understanding the function of chemosensory receptors [1-5] and ion channels [6-7] at the molecular level, combining structural bioinformatics and molecular dynamics simulations (both atomistic and hybrid atomistic/coarse-grained).

Selected publications (2017 - 2019)

1. Dual binding mode of “bitter sugars” to their human bitter taste receptor target.
   F. Fierro, A. Giorgetti, P. Carloni, W. Meyerhof, M. Alfonso-Prieto*, Sci. Rep. 9, 8437 (2019). (Link)
2. Understanding ligand binding to G-protein coupled receptors using multiscale simulations.
   M. Alfonso-Prieto, L. Navarini, P. Carloni, Front. Mol. Biosci. 6, 29 (2019). (Link)
3. Multiscale simulations on human Frizzled and Taste2 GPCRs.
   M. Alfonso-Prieto*, A. Giorgetti*, P. Carloni, Curr. Opin. Struct. Biol. 55, 8-16 (2019). (Link)
   * Equal first authorship.
4. Predicting ligand binding poses for low-resolution membrane protein models: Perspectives from multiscale simulations.
   J. Schneider, K. Korshunova, F. Musiani, M. Alfonso-Prieto*, A. Giorgetti, P. Carloni*, Biochem. Biophys. Res. Comm. 498(2), 366-374 (2018). (Link)
5. Agonist binding to chemosensory receptors: a systematic bioinformatics analysis.
   F. Fierro, E. Suku, M. Alfonso-Prieto*, A. Giorgetti*, S. Cichon, P. Carloni, Front. Mol. Biosci. 4, 63 (2017). (Link)
6. Photocontrol of endogenous glycine receptors in vivo.
   A. Gomila-Juaneda, K. Rustler, G. Maleeva, A. Nin-Hill, D. Wutz, A. Bautista-Barrufet, X. Rovira, M. Bosch, E. Mukhametova, F. Mukhamedyarov, F. Peiretti, M. Alfonso-Prieto, C. Rovira, B. König, P. Bregestovski, P. Gorostiza, bioRxiv, 744391 (2019). (Link)
7. A photoswitchable GABA receptor channel blocker.
   G. Maleeva, D. Wutz,  K. Rustler,  A. Nin‐Hill,  C. Rovira, E. Petukhova,  A. Bautista‐Barrufet,  A. Gomila‐Juaneda,  P.  Scholze,  F. Peiretti,  M. Alfonso-Prieto*,  B. König,  P. Gorostiza*,  P. Bregestovski*, Br. J. Pharmacol. 176, 2661-2677 (2019). (Link)

Collaborations

• Prof. Paolo Carloni, Forschungszentrum Jülich and RWTH Aachen University (Germany).
• Prof. Alejandro Giorgetti, Dept. of Biotechnology - University of Verona (Italy).
• Ernesto Illy Foundation, Trieste (Italy).
• Prof. Patricia Hidalgo, Forschungszentrum Jülich and Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (Germany).
• Dr. Beatrix Santiago-Schuebel, Forschungszentrum Jülich (Germany).
• Prof. Pau Gorostiza, Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (Spain).
• Prof. Piotr Bregestovski, Aix-Marseille Université (France).
• Prof. Burkhard König, Universität Regensburg (Germany).
• Prof. Carme Rovira, University of Barcelona (Spain).

Contact