• Español
  1. Home
  2. Research
  3. Organic Chemistry
  4. MedChemLab

MedChemLab

 

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR:  María Luz López Rodríguez

 

GROUP MEMBERS

  • Bellinda Benhamú Salama

  • Silvia Ortega Gutiérrez

  • Mar Martín-Fontecha Corrales

  • Ángeles Canales Mayordomo

  • Henar Vázquez Villa

  • Beatriz Marcos Ramiro

  • Sergio Algar Lizana

  • Nora Khiar Fernández

  • Ana Andrea Escobar Peña

  • Iván Arribas Álvarez

  • Mónica Martínez Orts

  • Jon Macicior Michelena

  • Anabel Sánchez Merino

 

GENERAL RESEARCH OBJECTIVE OF THE GROUP

 

In the Medicinal Chemistry Laboratory at Complutense University our work is focused on two main research interests: the development of new pharmacological agents and the identification of therapeutic targets.

In the first approach we are carrying out research lines on two fields of major relevance for human health nowadays: cancer and CNS-associated diseases. In this regard, we are developing new compounds with antitumor activity (inhibitors of isoprenylcysteine carboxyl methyltransferase -ICMT- enzyme) and agents acting at the central nervous system (monoacylglycerol lipase enzyme –MAGL-; new ligands for the lysophosphatidic acid -LPA- receptors and allosteric modulators of G protein-coupled receptors -GPCRs-). Additionally, in the last years we have also expanded our research to the design and synthesis of new antibiotics (inhibitors of FtsZ and antibody-drug conjugates as new antituberculosis agents), to the burgeoning field of microbiota, and to the rare diseases field working on progeria.

In the second approach, we are implementing forward chemical genomic methodologies in order to identify therapeutic targets and to find new molecular entities. In this part of the work, our objective is to develop methodologies that generate de novo information about the physiological and/or pathological state of the biological system under study. In particular, we are implementing phenotypic approaches to identify therapeutic targets and to find new molecular entities both in mammalian cells and in the human microbiota.

In the MedChemLab we combine medicinal chemistry, chemical biology, metabolomics, and proteomics, and we develop novel nuclear magnetic resonance methodologies to characterize biologically relevant molecular recognition processes to successfully tackle these two challenging objectives.

 

LINES OF THE RESEARCH GROUP AND RESPONSIBLE RESEARCHER

 

  • Inhibitors of isoprenylcysteine carboxyl methyltransferase (ICMT) enzyme (María Luz López Rodríguez, Silvia Ortega Gutiérrez)

  • Inhibitors of monoacylglycerol lipase (MAGL) enzyme (María Luz López Rodríguez, Silvia Ortega Gutiérrez)

  • New ligands for the lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) receptors (María Luz López Rodríguez, Silvia Ortega Gutiérrez, Henar Vázquez Villa)

  • Allosteric modulators of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) (María Luz López Rodríguez, Bellinda Benhamú Salama, Henar Vázquez Villa)

  • New antibiotics inhibitors of the FtsZ protein (María Luz López Rodríguez, Mar Martín-Fontecha Corrales, Henar Vázquez Villa)

  • Antibody-drug conjugates as antituberculosis agents (María Luz López Rodríguez, Mar Martín-Fontecha Corrales)

  • Identification of new metabolites of the human microbiota (Silvia Ortega Gutiérrez)

  • New pharmacological strategies for the treatment of progeria (Silvia Ortega Gutiérrez)

  • Identification of new therapeutic targets using chemical probes (Silvia Ortega Gutiérrez)

  • Phenotype-based drug discovery and therapeutic target identification (María Luz López Rodríguez, Bellinda Benhamú Salama, Henar Vázquez Villa)

  • Development of new nuclear magnetic resonance methodologies for the study of  biologically relevant molecular recognition processes (Ángeles Canales Mayordomo)

 

LINK TO THE GROUP'S WEBSITE

https://webs.ucm.es/info/quimicamedica/