Dr. Felipe Viela

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I obtained the degree in Biochemistry at the University of Zaragoza (Spain) in 2012 and completed my training with the Molecular and Cellular Biology master degree at the same university a year later. During that time, I joined the Nanoscience Institute of Aragon to study protein-DNA interaction at the single-molecule level by using atomic force microscopy (AFM).

Then, I moved to Madrid to start my PhD in Prof. Isabel Rodríguez’s group at IMDEA Nanociencia, where I used cutting-edge techniques in materials science to drive cellular functions. Specifically, I engineered a range of bioinspired polymer nanotopographies to manipulate the biological response of stem cells and bacteria

My fascination with the complexity of bacterial-surface interaction encouraged me to specialize on this topic, so I joined the laboratory of Prof. Yves Dufrêne at Université Catholique de Louvain (Belgium) as a postdoctoral fellow by the end of 2017. I learnt how to use single-molecule and single-cell atomic force spectroscopy to unravel several medically-relevant bacterial adhesion mechanisms.

Since October 2020, I am a postdoctoral researcher at Prof. Cristina Flors’ group. I would like to combine AFM force spectroscopy with advanced fluorescent nanoscopy to better understand and improve the bactericidal performance of bioinspired polymer nanotopographies.​