Dr. Antonio Delgado (Barcelona, 1958) obtained the PhD in Pharmacy in 1986 by the University of Barcelona (UB), where he is Associated Professor of Organic Chemistry since 1988 and Full Professor (National Accreditation) since 2010.
After a doctoral thesis in the field of Medicinal Chemistry, he spent two years as postdoctoral fellow in Jon Clardy’s lab (Cornell University) working in the total synthesis of natural products. Back in Spain, he participated in several collaborative projects with CSIC, all of them addressed at the design and synthesis of pheromone analogues and to the development of synthetic methodology based on organometallic processes.
Some years later, he became one of the co-founders of the Research Unit on BioActive Molecules (RUBAM) and the Head of the UB-CSIC Associated Unit of Medicinal Chemistry
His present research interests are the design, the synthesis, and the cellular evaluation of modulators of the sphingolipid metabolism with potential therapeutic applications. He is also interested in the development of pharmacological tools and chemical probes for the study of the biophysical properties of sphingolipids and the enzymes implicated in their metabolism. More recent interests are addressed at the development of a new generation of protein targeting chimeras (protacs) with multiple biomedical applications. He has co-authored more than one-hundred papers in international journals (ORCID: 0000-0003-4586-6070).
His academic activities at the Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Barcelona have been mainly focused on subjects related to Medicinal Chemistry and Synthetic Organic Chemistry, being the coauthor of some textbooks on these topics. He has also dictated several postgraduate courses, both in the University of Barcelona and in other Universities of Spain and abroad.
Selected publications
Izquierdo, E.; Casasampere, M.; Fabriàs, G.; Abad, J. L.; Casas, J.; Delgado, A. Synthesis and Characterization of Bichromophoric 1-Deoxyceramides as FRET Probes. Org. Biomol. Chem. 2021., accepted for publication
Coll-Martínez, B.; Delgado, A.; Crosas, B. The Potential of Proteolytic Chimeras as Pharmacological Tools and Therapeutic Agents. Molecules 2020, 25 (24), 5956
Pons, G.; Riba, D.; Casasampere, M.; Izquierdo, E.; Abad, J.-L.; Fabriàs, G.; Rodríguez Ortega, P. G.; López-González, J. J.; Montejo, M.; Casas, J.; et al. A Mechanism-Based Sphingosine-1-Phosphate Lyase Inhibitor. J. Org. Chem. 2020, 85 (2), 419–429.
Casasampere, M.; Bielsa, N.; Riba, D.; Bassas, L.; Xu, R.; Mao, C.; Fabrias, G.; Abad, J.-L.; Delgado, A.; Casas, J. New Fluorogenic Probes for Neutral and Alkaline Ceramidases. J. Lipid Res. 2019, jlr.D092759
Ordóñez, Y. F.; Abad, J. L.; Aseeri, M.; Casas, J.; Garcia, V.; Casasampere, M.; Schuchman, E. H.; Levade, T.; Delgado, A.; Triola, G.; et al. Activity-Based Imaging of Acid Ceramidase in Living Cells. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2019, 141 (19), 7736–7742.
Benson, S.; Fernandez, A.; Barth, N. D.; de Moliner, F.; Horrocks, M. H.; Herrington, C. S.; Abad, J. L.; Delgado, A.; Kelly, L.; Chang, Z.; et al. SCOTfluors: Small, Conjugatable, Orthogonal, and Tunable Fluorophores for In Vivo Imaging of Cell Metabolism. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2019, 58 (21), 6911–6915.
Izquierdo, E.; Delgado, A. Click Chemistry in Sphingolipid Research. Chem. Phys. Lipids 2018, 215, 71–83.
Stauffert, F.; Serra-Vinardell, J.; Gómez-Grau, M.; Michelakakis, H.; Mavridou, I.; Grinberg, D.; Vilageliu, L.; Casas, J.; Bodlenner, A.; Delgado, A.; Compain, P. Stereodivergent Synthesis of Right- and Left-Handed Iminoxylitol Heterodimers and Monomers. Study of Their Impact on Beta-Glucocerebrosidase Activity. Org. Biomol. Chem. 2017, 15 (17), 3681–3705.
Sanllehí, P.; Casasampere, M.; Abad, J.-L.; Fabriàs, G.; López, O.; Bujons, J.; Casas, J.; Delgado, A. The First Fluorogenic Sensor for Sphingosine-1-Phosphate Lyase Activity in Intact Cells. Chem. Commun. 2017, 53 (39), 5441–5444.
Pou, A.; Abad, J.-L.; Ordóñez, Y. F.; Garrido, M.; Casas, J.; Fabriàs, G.; Delgado, A. From the Configurational Preference of Dihydroceramide Desaturase-1 towards Δ6-Unsaturated Substrates to the Discovery of a New Inhibitor. Chem. Commun. 2017, 53 (31), 4394–4397.
Sanllehí, P.; Abad, J.-L.; Casas, J.; Bujons, J.; Delgado, A. Bacterial versus Human Sphingosine-1-Phosphate Lyase (S1PL) in the Design of Potential S1PL Inhibitors. Bioorg. Med. Chem. 2016, 24 (18), 4381–4389.
Sanllehí, P.; Abad, J.-L.; Bujons, J.; Casas, J.; Delgado, A. Studies on the Inhibition of Sphingosine-1-Phosphate Lyase by Stabilized Reaction Intermediates and Stereodefined Azido Phosphates. Eur. J. Med. Chem. 2016, 123, 905–915.
