I was Born in Salamanca in 1957. I obtained my PhD at University of Salamanca (USAL) in 1983 with Extraordinary Award, under the supervision of Prof. Joaquín Pascual Teresa and Prof. Manuel Grande Benito. Then, I made a post-doctoral stay at University of Munich in 1984, under the supervision of Prof. Rolf Huisgen, where I worked on a project related with Concerted Reactions. Then, I made a second post-doctoral stay at University of Los Angeles, UCLA, in the group of Prof. Francois Diederich, on a topic related with Molecular Recognition, which inspired me to start a new research line at University of Salamanca. I was appointed as Assistant Professor in 1986 in the Organic Chemistry Department at University of Salamanca (USAL) and Full Professor of Organic Chemistry at USAL since 1998.
The first research topics which we studied were Natural Products and Concerted Reactions, but since the last two decades our research has been focused in Molecular Recognition: synthesis of molecular receptors that associate organic compounds with the intention to obtain catalytic activity analogous to that of enzymes. This topic has allowed us to prepare molecular receptors that catalyze organic reactions. The presence of hydrogen bonds in the associate increases the reaction rate because they are stronger in the transition state than in the ground state. These molecular receptors have also enabled the development of fluorescent sensors, which are promising in the field of analysis and in addition many of them are enantioselective. They also allow the resolution of racemic mixtures of amino acid derivatives. All this work has been published in high impact-factor journals (JACS, Angewandte, Chem. Commun., ACS Catal., Org. Lett. etc.).
The search for activity analogous to that of enzymes has allowed us to begin a new research field with application in industrially important biofuels (Adv. Synth. Catal. 2011, Appl. Catal. B Environ. 2014), in which we have obtained remarkable results which have already been patented. The use of long chain sulfonic acids has made almost possible the industrialization of the procedure. Currently, we are developing promising small-molecule chymotrypsin mimics for transacylation reactions which are able to perform the transesterification of non-activated esters (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2022, 10.1002/ange.202206072).
I am also the current Organic Chemistry Department Director at University of Salamanca and referee of ANEP (Agencia Nacional de Evaluación y Prospectiva).
