Principal Investigator
Mohit Kumar
Dr. Mohit Kumar completed his PhD in 2014 at Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), Bangalore, India under the supervision of Prof. Subi George. His Ph.D. was focused on developing supramolecular helical assembly of organic molecules to develop functional nanomaterials for sensing and opto-electronic applications. In 2015, he moved to the Advanced Scientific Research Center (ASRC) at the City University of New York, USA, to work with Prof. Rein Ulijn as a Postdoctoral Fellow. His research in New York aimed at developing active and out-of-equilibrium self-assembly of peptide derivatives to control the functional lifetime of nanostructures.
In 2021, he obtained the La Caixa junior leader fellowship and moved to the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) for a semi-independent position. After winning the Ramon Y Cajal fellowship, in Jan 2023 he joined the University of Barcelona as an independent group leader. His current research interests aims to apply systems chemistry approaches in developing active soft matter for applications in nanomedicine, sensing and diagnostics etc.
Email: mohit.kumar@ub.edu, mkumar@ibecbarcelona.eu
Postdoctoral Fellows
Master, M. Phil. (Chemistry): Himachal Pradesh University, India
PhD: Chemistry Dept., Guru Nanak Dev University, India, 2022
Supervisor: Dr. Prabhpreet Singh.
Dr. Poonam joined us in Feb 2024. She comes with extensive experience in design and synthesis of π-conjugated molecules for molecular recognition, preparing solid- and solution-based diagnostic kits, biolabeling, and visualizing latent fingerprints for forensics.
Her current research involves out-of-equilibrium self-assembled materials as a multifunctional scaffold.
Apart from research, she loves cooking and playing badminton.
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Email: poonam.sharma@ub.edu,
Dr. Poonam Sharma
Doctoral Students
Bachelor and master's in science: Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Mohali
He joined the group in Jan, 2022. His research involves synthesis and self-assembly of custom-made lipid molecules to study their active self-assembly into vesicles with programmable lifetime. These vehicles upon functionalization with targeting ligands will be used for application in targeted drug delivery and adaptive bio-interfacing.
Apart from research, he loves cooking and playing cricket, badminton.
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Email: avenugopal@ibecbarcelona.eu, avenugve7@alumnes.ub.edu
Akhil Venugopal
Lei started his PhD in 2023 in the Organic Chemistry doctoral program of the University of Barcelona. He is jointly supervised by Prof. Giuseppe Battaglia and Dr. Mohit Kumar.
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Email: lhu@ibecbarcelona.eu,
Lei Hu
Undergraduate and Masters Students
Fatima Zouhra Aakki Akhnikh
Fatima joined us in Feb 2024 as a Master student from the Organic Chemistry program. She is investigating hydrogen bonding assisted heparin responsive supramolecular material for sensing applications.
Ivette Ruiz Camps
Ivette joined us in Feb 2024 as a Chemistry Undergrad student. She is investigating polysulfonate responsive helical supramolecular polymer.
Mauri Serra (University of Barcelona)
He is investigating the non-equilibrium supramolecular polymerization under controlled diffusion conditions by using microfluidic device.
