- Life & Medical Sciences
Dr. Xabier Contreras
email: xabier.contreras@ehu.eus
In the last decade, chemical biology has emerged as a powerful discipline that attempts to answer biological questions by directly probing living systems at the chemical level and, thus helping to develop novel therapeutic drugs and better diagnostic tools to improve human health. Small molecules play essentials roles in many types of research, helping to elucidate the complete cellular connectome. This activity is difficult to characterize on account of the complex scenario where cellular molecules interact and the dearth of accurate methodologies. The chemical cell biology unit contributes and supports other research groups to address biological questions by identifying and isolating key biological molecules, and designing novel chemical probes for in vivo and in vitro studies.
We provide to the research community a chemical toolbox to investigate a broad range of biological processes such a lipid-lipid, protein-lipid, protein-protein interactions, glycobiology, as well as novel smart probes for molecular imaging of cellular process in vivo.
Applications of interest:
-intracellular lipid trafficking
-lipid-mediated receptors activities
-protein partitioning into lipid microdomains
-lipid and protein-related diseases
-drug delivery
Unidad de Biofísica (Biophysics Unit)
Campus Universitario de Leioa (University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU)
Barrio Sarriena s/n
48940 Leioa, Vizcaya (Spain)