The coronavirus research group
Replication and transcription, virus-host interactions, and protection
Our group is based in the Spanish National Centre for Biotechnology (CNB) a research centre in Madrid that forms part of the Spanish National Research Council (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, CSIC).
Principal Investigators
Luis Enjuanes
Principal Investigator
Luis Enjuanes
Enjuanes has been a “Fogarty Visiting Fellow” at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the US, and a Visiting Scientist at the Cancer Research Center (FCRC) of the US National Institutes (NIH).
Enjuanes is a professor of Virology at the Autonomous University of Madrid and at the Pasteur Institute in Paris. He has been named “Distinguished Senior Virologist” by the Spanish Society of Virology, Academician of the Royal Academy of Exact, Physical and Natural Sciences, and Academician of the “American Academy of Microbiology” and the US National Academy of Sciences. He has received the Medal for Merit in Research and University Education awarded by the Ministry of Science and Innovation, the Health Department Recognition, the National Award for Biotechnology 2022, and the National Research Award Gregorio Marañón in Medicine.
Enjuanes is an “Expert Consultant” of the NIH and the World Health Organization. He has been Editor-in-Chief of Virus Research, among other distinctions.
Additional distinctions:
1997-2003: Chair of the International Coronavirus Study Group.
2006: Prize with Special Distinction in the “I Concurso de Patentes Madri+d”. Dirección General de Universidades e Investigación, Madrid, Spain. February.
2015: Member of the “Civil Order of Health” (“Enmienda de la Orden Civil de Sanidad”).
2021: Distinction by “Iniciativa Ciencia e Investigación” a los virólogos del CSIC Luis Enjuanes y Mariano Esteban por liderar proyectos en torno a la vacuna contra el coronavirus. SARS-CoV-2. XVIII Edición Premios Madrid, 2021 Aniversario de Madridiario.
2021: Distinction by Amigos Biblioteca Pública “Joaquín Rodríguez”, Ayuntamiento de Valdés, Asturias, en el campo de la Ciencia. Luarca, June.
2021: Official invitation as director of the coronavirus group in the CNB- CSIC and consultant of the World Health Organization to the official lunch offered by Their Majesties the Kings, Royal Palace of Madrid in honor of His Excellency António Manuel de Oliveira Guterres Secretary General of the United Nations.
2021: Neumomadrid Award, in recognition of the Covid-19 pandemic, for his scientific and research work and for his career in the field of medical research. XXI premios Neumomadrid 2021, Fundación Neumomadrid Sociedad Madrileña de Neumología y Cirugía Torácica, Madrid, Spain.
2021: Prize Maimonides of the Friends of the University of Tel Aviv in Spain, in recognition for the contributions to Science and Society.
2021: Insignia de oro y brillante, highest award from the Association of Chemists and Chemical Engineers of Madrid.
2021: Premio de Paz por la Paz 2021, for his work looking for the COVID vaccine in Spain. VI Peace Prizes for Peace. Ana de Paz Foundation. Madrid, Spain.
2021: Mayores en Acción Award 2021, in recognition for developing vaccine prototypes against the coronavirus pandemic. Confederación Española de Organizaciones de Mayores-CEOMA. Madrid, Spain.
2021: Valencia Award for the 21st Century, as leader of the team that designs the Spanish vaccine against Covid-19. 21st Edition of the Valencia Awards for the 21st Century, organized by the newspaper Las Provincias de Valencia. Valencia, Spain.
2021: IX FEI Award for Innovative Researcher of the Year 2021 in recognition of the search for a Spanish vaccine against COVID-19. Foro de Empresas Innovadoras-FEI, CaixaForum, Madrid, Spain.
2021: Constantes y Vitales Award for Scientific Career in Biomedical Research, 7th edition of the Constantes y Vitales Awards. Atresmedia, LaSexta. Madrid, Spain.
2021: International Award from the Spanish Society of Immunology and the Jean Boulle Group. First Edition, awarded this recognition to the research teams working against the COVID-19 virus in Spain, Luis Enjuanes, Isabel Sola and Sonia Zúñiga for their contributions to COVID-19 vaccines. ‘Alicante Winter Immunology Symposium in Health’ (A- WISH). Alicante, Spain. December.
2022: Passion for Science Award. International Scientific Film Festival #LabMeCrazy!, together with Mariano Esteban and Vicente Larraga, for their scientific career and for their commitment in the fight against COVID-19. Science Museum University of Navarra, with the collaboration of the Government of Navarra, Pamplona City Council, Laboral Kutxa and the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology FECYT / Ministry of Science and Innovation. Pamplona, Navarra, Spain.
2023: XXVIII Carmen and Severo Ochoa Commemorative Lesson 2023. Origin, evolution and vaccines against SARS-CoV-2: what should we expect in the future? Carmen and Severo Ochoa Foundation. Oviedo, Spain. November.
Isabel Sola
Principal Investigator
Isabel Sola
Isabel Sola has been working in the coronavirus (CoV) field for more than 25 years. Her first publications addressed the development of strategies to provide passive protection against CoV infections by the engineering of neutralizing antibodies to be orally administered. Recombinant antibodies were expressed in the mammary gland of transgenic animals and in different systems such as mammalian cell cultures, bacteria and plants.
She made relevant contributions, with a team of collaborators, to understand the coronavirus transcription mechanism by identifying novel transcription-regulatory RNA motifs and long-distance RNA-RNA interactions required for optimal transcription. These studies have significantly contributed to the currently accepted model for CoV discontinuous transcription, a unique mechanism in RNA viruses.
She and her team also contributed to understand the mechanisms of coronavirus-host interactions involved in pathogenesis, with special emphasis on the interference with innate immune response pathways. She and her team identified virus accessory genes involved in virulence by modulating innate immune responses. Her team demonstrated the relevance of small non-coding RNAs in CoV-host interactions, by the identification of small viral RNAs and host miRNAs that contribute to the SARS-CoV-induced lung inflammatory pathology. This knowledge will contribute to attenuate the virus for vaccine development and to define potential targets for antivirals.
The subject of the current application, which is built on her previous work and expertise, is to study the contribution of dysregulated inflammation or viral RNA persistence as potential mechanisms of pathogenesis in post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC) syndrome in order to identify novel therapeutical approaches.
Sonia Zuñiga
Principal Investigator
Sonia Zuñiga Lucas
Sonia Zúñiga (ORCID 0000-0003-2549-6826) is a CSIC Research Scientist in the Coronavirus Laboratory at the National Centre for Biotechnology (CNB-CSIC), Spain. Her research line is focused in the analysis of the molecular bases of coronavirus pathogenesis for the development of vaccine candidates and identification of novel therapeutic targets. She made key contributions to the mechanism of coronavirus transcription, molecular mechanisms of innate immunity antagonism by viral proteins, engineering of reverse genetics systems for emergent coronaviruses, and development of vaccine candidates both for animal and human health. Sonia Zúñiga is member of the Spanish Society for Virology (SEV) and the European Society for Virology (ESV). She was the co-coordinator of the Vaccines sub-thematic in the “Global Health” Interdisciplinary Platform (PTI-SG) from CSIC. In 2022 she received the Isabel Minguez Tudela Prize to Innovation in Animal Health. She is member of the Editorial Board of Virus Research, Pathogens, Frontiers in Virology, Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology and PLoS One. She has participated in more than 35 funded projects and she is co-inventor in five patents. She has published 41 papers, 18 of them as first or senior author, with more than 2450 times cited and an h-index of 23. Sonia also collaborates in teaching and divulgation activities and has reviewer experience for both national and international funding agencies.
Postdoctoral researchers
Iván Nombela
Postdoctoral researcher
Iván Nombela Díaz
Iván Nombela obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Biology and a Master’s Degree in Molecular Biology from UCM (Complutense University of Madrid). Later in 2019, he acquired a PhD in Molecular and Cell Biology at Miguel Hernández University of Elche (UMH). During his postdoctoral period, he studied the immune response of bats against coronavirus infection at Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin. Currently, he is working on the development of an oral vaccine for COVID-19 based on a SARS-CoV- 2 replicon, at the CNB-CSIC.
Diego Muñoz
Postdoctoral researcher
Diego Muñoz Santos
Diego Muñoz-Santos holds a Bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry and Biology from UAM (Autonomous University of Madrid). He further pursued his education and obtained a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the same institution. In his current role, is the research scientist responsible for the in vivo platform designing, carrying out and analysing information from experiments developed in laboratory animals under a Biosafety Level 3 (BSL-3) to evaluate vaccine candidates.
PhD researchers
Jesús Hurtado
PhD researcher
Jesús Hurtado Tamayo
Ricardo Requena
PhD researcher
Ricardo Requena Platek
Bachelor Degree in Biotechnology by University Miguel Hernández (Elche). Master Degree in Virology by Universidad Complutense-Spanish Society of Virology. Ricardo is interested in the development of next-generation vaccine candidates. More specifically, he is working on the engineering of coronavirus RNA-replicons to express immunomodulatory micro RNAs that enhance the efficacy of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines in older adults. Ricardo is a predoctoral fellow of Arnhold de la Camara Foundation (ORCID: 0000-0001-7961-4512).
María Guzmán
PhD researcher
María Guzmán Colomina
Graduated in Biology with Mention in Health Biology at Complutense University of Madrid and Master’s Degree in Health Biology by Universidad Complutense of Madrid, with expertise in expression and purification of antibodies against coronaviruses. Currently PhD student in the Coronavirus Laboratory of the National Center of Biotechnology (CNB-CSIC), studying the molecular bases of coronavirus-host interaction. Specifically, Maria’s work is focused in analyzing the role in pathogenesis of SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid protein interaction with host cell proteins.
Marta Villarejo
PhD researcher
Marta Villarejo Torres
Graduated in Biology with Mention in Health Biology by Complutense University of Madrid. During the degree, I obtained a Collaboration at University Departments Fellowship (Ministerio de Educación y Formación Profesional). Subsequently, I completed a Master’s degree in Immunology Research by Complutense University of Madrid, and was awarded with a JAE Intro SOMdM Centers and Units of Excellence Fellowship (CSIC) at the National Center for Biotechnology (CNB-CSIC). Currently, I am working on the protection against human pathogenic coronaviruses by the development of RNA replicons as vaccines with a research FPU fellowship (Department of Sciences).
Ana Marchena
PhD researcher
Ana Marchena Pasero
Bachelor degree in biochemistry and MSc in molecular biomedicine at Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, I was awarded a JAE-Intro grant during the master’s thesis by the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC). I am interested in the development of next-generation coronavirus vaccine candidates and I am currently working in the detoxification of SARS-CoV-2 E protein to create stably transfected cell lines capable of complementing SARS-CoV-2 RNA replicons, and in the attenuation of this virus by the modification of its nsp1 protein.
María Rueda
PhD researcher
María Rueda Huélamo
Graduated in Biology at the Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM) and MSc in Immunology (Complutense University of Madrid), with expertise in molecular and cellular biology and cytotherapy. Currently working in the Coronavirus laboratory of the National Biotechnology Center (CNB-CSIC) studying the molecular basis of SARS-CoV-2 virus-host interaction, and participating in the generation of a replication-competent, propagation-deficient RNA replicon. María’s work is aimed to study the effect of furine cleavage site in RNA replicon amplification, pathogenesis, and safety.
Technicians
Carlos M. Sánchez
Technician
Carlos M. Sánchez Sánchez
Licensed in Chemical Sciences by Complutense University of Madrid and PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology by Autonomous University of Madrid. Since 2007, he got a permanent position as Specialized Laboratory Technician in the Coronavirus Laboratory of the National Center of Biotechnology (CNB-CSIC). Carlos has long-term expertise in coronavirus reverse genetics and in the study of the molecular basis of coronavirus-host interactions with special focus in their role in pathogenesis.
Margarita González
Technician
Margarita González
Master degree in Biology by the Autonomous University of Madrid. Public Organisms Scientific Research Staff (OPIS). Technical Editing and Laboratory Administrative Assistant at the National Center for Biotechnology (CNB-CSIC). Virus Research Editorial Assistant. Permanent Staff. Equality Price awarded by the Department of Equality Policies.
Jorge Ripoll
Technician
Jorge Ripoll Gómez
High-Level Research Technician with Environmental-Health Certificate. Jorge has experience in Technical Animal Experimentation Laboratory and in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology at the National Center for Biotechnology (CSIC). He is currently involved in the preclinical evaluation of vaccine candidates and antiviral drugs against coronavirus infection in animal models in Biosafety Level 3 (BSL3) laboratories.
Mercedes Ruiz
Technician
Mercedes Ruiz Yuste
Bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry and MSc in Molecular Genetics and Biotechnology from the University of Seville. She performed research in immunotherapies at Systems Biology Ireland (Dublin). She is Research Assistant at the Coronavirus Laboratory at the National Center of Biotechnology (CNB-CSIC), studying the development of RNA replicon vaccines to protect against human pathogenic coronaviruses
