Dr. Andrea Taladriz-Sender

Andrea was born and raised in Madrid and completed her undergraduate studies in chemistry at Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Spain). In 2008 she was awarded with an Erasmus scholarship and joined the group of Professor Floris Rutjes at Radboud University Nijmegen in The Netherlands. After extending her time in Nijmegen, working in flow chemistry at a Dutch spin-off company (Future Chemistry), she moved back to Madrid to pursue her PhD at the Spanish Research Council (IQOG-CSIC). She obtained her cum laude PhD in 2015 under the supervision of Dr. Cristina Vicent exploring DNA- sugar binders, their properties and interactions. After a brief postdoctoral position at the Medicinal Research Institute (IQM-CSIC, Madrid) working on brain radiotracers, she crossed the English Channel and arrived to Cardiff. She joined the group of Dr Niek Buurma at the University of Cardiff for a few months, where she learnt the joys of biophysical analysis. In 2017 she headed up (even more) north to Glasgow to make it her new home. Her current work as a postdoctoral researcher in the group focuses in nucleic acid chemistry, molecular tools to modulate gene expression and bioconjugation.

Andrea likes playing basketball, dancing all sorts of dances (this includes belly dancing) and watching rugby (especially the Six Nations). Some members of the group like to introduce Andrea as a Mexican which might have been taken seriously by another group member who once suggested to her the Gran Canaria as the ideal destination if she wanted to try a full Spanish experience. 

• Elected as co-chair of the Nucleosides, Nucleotides and Oligonucleotides Gordon Research Seminar 2025.
• Andrea's collaborative effort with Dr John Parkinson was rewarded with a £1.1 M BBSRC grant received by the University to establish a state-of-the-art UK national facility for studying biomedicines and biomaterials aimed at aiding the invention of new medicines. The NMR-BASE (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance for Biomolecule Analysis in Supported Environments) project is led by Strathclyde’s Dr John Parkinson and Dr Andrea Taladriz-Sender.