Montserrat Terrazas Martinez

Professora agregada

Researcher ID: L-4200-2017

Àrea de coneixement : Química Orgànica

Dr. Terrazas' professional career has been focused on the design and synthesis of chemically modified nucleosides, nucleotides and oligonucleotides of structural and biological interest, as well as on their structural and biological evaluation. After graduating in Chemistry (2001), she started her MSc and PhD studies at the Department of Organic Chemistry of the Univ. of Barcelona under the supervision of Professors Xavier Ariza and Jaume Vilarrasa, were she worked on the development of synthetic methodologies for the labelling of nucleosides with 15N at specific positions, as well as on the computational design of new anti-HIV-1 nucleoside analogues, which was completed with a 3-month stay at the University of Siena (Dr. Botta's group, Italy). After her Ph.D. (2006), she moved to the Univ. of Leuven (Belgium) to perform a 1-year postdoc in the group of Prof. Herdewijn, to work in the synthesis and biological evaluation of new nucleotide triphosphate analogues as potential antiviral agents. In 2007, she moved to Stanford (Prof. Eric Kool's group) with a Beatriu de Pinós Fellowship to perform a second postdoctoral stay, focused on a research area of great impact in the field of therapeutic RNAs that constitutes the basis for her present line of research: understanding the mechanism of RNA interference (induced by siRNAs) and improving the properties of siRNAs, as therapeutic tools, by using chemical modifications. In 2009, she returned to Barcelona to join Prof. Eritja's group at the IQAC, CSIC (with JAE-Doc and Juan de la Cierva contracts), where she combined her background in RNAi, synthetic organic chemistry and molecular modelling to design and develop new forms of chemically modified siRNAs with potential therapeutic applications. In 2014, she joined Prof. Orozco's group as a Miguel Servet I Reasearch Associate, were she started her own research line focused on the design and synthesis of new therapeutic siRNA tools to overcome drug resistance in cancer. She joined the Organic Chemistry Section of the Faculty of Chemistry (University of Barcelona) as Associate Professor (Professora Agregada) in march 2021, where she is developing new multifunctional oligonucleotide-based tools for the treatment of cancer (and diseases involving multiple targets), as well as on new delivery systems for selective administration of the drug to the tumor - info

Grup de Recerca: Bioimatge, bioconjugació, estructura i teràpies amb molècules de mida petita, pèptids i oligonucleòtids

Informació de contacte
Departament de Química Inorgànica i Orgànica
Research group: Síntesi i Estructura de Biomolècules. Department of Inorganic and Organic Chemistry, Section of Organic Chemistry, University of Barcelona, Martí I Franquès 1-11
934039272
montserrat.terrazas(a)ub.edu

Formació acadèmica

Llicenciatura de Química . Facultat de Química, Universitat de Barcelona . 31/07/2001 . (Diplomatura / Llicenciatura / Grau)

Doctorat en Química Orgànica . Departament de Química Orgànica, Facultat de Química, Universitat de Barcelona . 13/07/2006 . (Doctorat )

Màster Experimental en Química Orgànica . Departament de Química Orgànica, Facultat de Química, Universitat de Barcelona . 01/11/2002 . (Màster Oficial)

Linies de Recerca

Chemically modified nucleosides/tides of biological/structural interest

Solid-phase synthesis of chemically modified oligonucleotides

Design and synthesis of mutilfunctional oligonucleotide-based tools for the treatment of cancer

Development of new delivery systems for the selective delivery of oligonucleotide-based drugs to the tumor

Participació en Projectes (últims 10 anys)

Desarrollo de nuevas herramientas terapéuticas de ARN contra la resistencia farmacológica en cáncer . 2021 - 2021 . Ref.PI18/01964 . Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad . IP: Montserrat Terrazas Martinez

Miguel Servet I . 2014 - 2019 . Ref.CP13/00211 . Ministerio de Sanidad y Consumo . IP: Montserrat Terrazas Martinez

MServet II MTerrazas . 2019 - 2022 . Ref.CPII18/00032 . Instituto de Salud Carlos III . IP: Montserrat Terrazas Martinez

Characterization of model therapeutic oligonucleotides by NMR . 2024 - 2025 . Ref.312793 . Bruker Biospin GMBH . IP: Montserrat Terrazas Martinez

Publicacions en revistes (últims 10 anys)

Terrazas, M.; Sánchez, D.; Battistini, F.; Villegas, M.; Brun-Heath, I.; Orozco, M. (2019). A multifunctional toolkit for target-directed cancer therapy. Chemical Communications, 55, pp. 802 - 805 . https://doi.org/10.1039/c8cc08823c . ISSN: 1359-7345

Terrazas, M.; Genna, V.; Portella, G.; Villegas, N.; Sánchez, D.; Arnán, C.; Pulido-Quetglas, C.; Johnson, R.; Guigó, R.; Brun-Heath, I.; Aviñó, A.; Eritja, R.; Orozco, M. (2019). The origins and the biological consequences of the Pur/Pyr DNA·RNA asymmetry. Chem, 5, pp. 1619 - 1631 . Repositori Institucional . ISSN: 2451-9294

Aranda, J.; Terrazas, M.; Gómez, G.; Villegas, N.; Orozco, M. (2019). An artificial DNAzyme RNA ligase shows a reaction mechanism resembling that of cellular polymerases. Nature Catalysis, 2, pp. 544 - 552 . ISSN: 2520-1158

Gandioso, A.; Massaguer, A.; Villegas, N.; Salvans, C.; Sánchez, D.; Brun-Heath, I.; Marchán, V.; Orozco, M.; Terrazas, M. (2017). Efficient siRNA-peptide conjugation for specific targeted delivery to tumor cells. Chemical Communications, 53(19), pp. 2870 - 2873 . Repositori Institucional . ISSN: 1359-7345

Terrazas, Montserrat; Ivani, Ivan; Villegas, Nuria; Paris, Clement; Salvans, Candida; Brun-Heath, Isabelle; Orozco, Modesto (2016). Rational design of novel N-alkyl-N capped biostable RNA nanostructures for efficient long-term inhibition of gene expression. Nucleic Acids Research, 44(9), pp. 4354 - 4367 . https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkw169 . ISSN: 0305-1048

Portella, G.;* Terrazas, M.;* Villegas, N.; González, C.; Orozco, M. (2015). Can a denaturant stabilize DNA? Pyridine reverses DNA denaturation in acidic pH. Angewandte Chemie-International Edition, 54(36), pp. 10488 - 10491 . Repositori Institucional . ISSN: 1433-7851

Genna, V.; Iglesias-Fernández, J.; Reyes-Fraile, L.; Villegas, N.; Guckian, K.; Seth, P.; Wan, B.; Cabrero, C.; Terrazas, M.; Brun-Heath, I.; González, C.; Sciabola, S.; Villalobos, A.; Orozco, M. (2023). Controlled sulfur-based engineering confers mouldability to phosphorothioate antisense oligonucleotides. Nucleic Acids Research, 51(10), pp. 4713 - 4725 . https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkad309 . ISSN: 0305-1048

Mir, B.; Serrano-Chacón, I.; Medina, P.; Macaluso, V.; Terrazas, M.; Gandioso, A.; Garavís, M.; Orozco, M.; Escaja, N.; González, C. (2024). Site-specific incorporation of a fluorescent nucleobase analog enhances i-motif stability and allows monitoring of i-motif folding inside cells. Nucleic Acids Research . https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkae106 . ISSN: 0305-1048

Altres publicacions (últims 10 anys)

Hoogstraten, C.; Terrazas, M.; Aviñó, A.; White, N.A.; Sumita, M. (2020). Dynamics-function analysis in catalytic RNA using NMR spin relaxation and conformationally-restricted nucleotides . En Ribozymes. Methods and Protocols. Methods in Molecular Biology . (pp. 183 - 202) . Springer USA . ISBN: 978-1-0716-0715-2 .

Eritja, R.; Terrazas, M.; Grijalvo, S.; Aviñó, A.; Alagia, A.; Pérez-Rentero, S.; Morales, J.C. (2014). Challenges and opportunities for oligonucleotide-based therapeutics by antisense and RNA interference mechanisms . En Chemical Biology of Nucleic Acids: Fundamentals and clinical applications. (Erdmann, V.A., Markiewicz, W.T. Barciszewski, J. Eds) . (pp. 227 - 242) . Springer USA . ISBN: 9780470664001 .

Patents, Programari i Base de Dades

Oligonucleótidos modificados como reguladores de la expresión génica (ESPANYA, 27/04/2010)

A compound comprising RNA compounds and BCm moieties (Països Membres de la Convenció Europea de Patents, 31/10/2017)

A compound comprising RNA compounds and BCm moieties (Països membres del Tractat de Cooperació en Matèria de Patents, 30/10/2018)