The Meet Our Scientists series presents Ernest Giralt, doctor of chemical sciences, who is the head of the Peptides and Proteins laboratory at IRB Barcelona.
In the video "The power of medicinal chemistry", Giralt highlights his interest in deciphering the language used by proteins to interact with each other.
The chemist Ernest Giralt (Viladecans, 1948) is the head of the Peptides and Proteins Laboratory at IRB Barcelona, composed of more than 20 people among researchers and PhD students. This group focuses its research on peptides, small proteins, and on the dynamic properties of proteins.
Giralt has always been interested in trying to decipher the language that different proteins use to interact with each other, not only to unravel the biology of these interactions but also for their biomedical applicability since "there are many illnesses that are caused by errors in these interactions ".
The peptides designed in their laboratory are destined to interrupt or favour the unwanted interaction between the proteins. Among other advances, they have discovered some that interrupt very effectively an interaction between proteins related to cancer, which could open a door to new therapies against this disease. Likewise, they develop shuttle peptides that cross the blood-brain barrier to be able to supply drugs to the brain and that can be used for the treatment of pediatric brain cancer and for Friedrich's ataxia, a hereditary neurodegenerative disease.
