2018–Now
Antimicrobial Peptides
Multidomain recombinant proteins that combine host defense peptides to overcome antibiotic resistance.
Protein EngineeringAMR
Engineering proteins
and viral vectors.
Combating antimicrobial resistance and advancing gene therapy through computational design and experimental validation.
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01. Selected Works
2019–2022
Protein Engineering
Functional inclusion bodies and leucine-zipper scaffolds as bioactive nanomaterials.
Inclusion BodiesNanomaterials
2022–Now
ML in Biology
Applying deep learning to antimicrobial peptide discovery and capsid optimization.
Machine LearningProtein Design
2021–Now
AAV Capsid Engineering
Directed evolution of AAV capsids for improved tissue targeting and CAR-T cell transduction.
AAVDirected Evolution
2018–2023
Functional Inclusion Bodies
Engineering protein aggregates as bioactive nanoparticles for pharmaceutical applications.
BiomaterialsNanoparticles
2023–Now
Gene Therapy Vectors
Preclinical AAV vector evaluation using ex situ liver perfusion and humanized mouse models.
Gene TherapyRare Disease
02. The Story
Exploring spaces no bench can cover.
My background spans from a Biotechnology degree in Barcelona to a Masters in Biomedical Engineering at UC Irvine. During my PhD, I spent four years on multidomain antimicrobial protein design, leading to two patents.
At the Children's Medical Research Institute (CMRI) in Sydney, I built and led a computational peptide discovery platform. I combined large-scale sequence analysis, protein language models, and GPU-accelerated pipelines to design and experimentally validate over 100 antimicrobial peptide candidates.
I also contributed heavily to AAV capsid engineering and directed evolution for gene therapies. I don't use computation as a replacement for the bench, but to explore spaces and sequences that no bench can cover alone.
Core Competencies
- Protein Language Models
- AAV Capsid Engineering
- Python & Data Science
- Antimicrobial Discovery
- GPU-Accelerated Pipelines
- Molecular Biology
2021 – 2026
Research Officer
Children's Medical Research Institute, SydneyBuilt and led a computational peptide discovery platform combining large-scale sequence analysis, protein language models, and GPU pipelines. Designed and experimentally validated over 100 antimicrobial peptide candidates.
2016 – 2020
Pre-doctoral Researcher
UAB & IRTA, BarcelonaStarted a new antimicrobial peptide research line from scratch; designed broad-spectrum recombinant proteins, filed 2 patents and published 8 papers.
2015 – 2016
Graduate Researcher
University of California, IrvineTracked estrogen receptor dynamics in living cells using single-molecule fluorescence microscopy and quantitative image analysis.
03. Writing
2020
Microbial Cell Factories
A New Generation of Antimicrobial Proteins
We fused multiple antimicrobial domains into single recombinant polypeptides that outperform their individual parts against resistant bacteria.
Microbial Cell Factories
Leucine Zippers for Functional Inclusion Bodies
Leucine zippers drive controlled protein aggregation into bioactive nanoparticles — opening a new class of biomaterials for drug delivery.
Exploring spaces no bench can cover.
Bridging computation and biology. 20+ publications, 300+ citations, and 2 patents in antimicrobial drug discovery and protein engineering.
ramon.rocap@gmail.com