Prof Fernando Albericio

After several years of collaboration with researchers at UKZN, I was appointed Research Professor at the School of Chemistry of UKZN in 2012. 

I received my Ph.D. in Chemistry from the Univ. of Barcelona (Spain) in 1981. Following postdoctoral work at Tufts Univ. (Boston, USA), at the Université d’Aix-Marseille (France), and at the Univ. of Minnesota (USA), I returned to Barcelona in 1985 as an Associate Professor. From 1992 to 1994, I was Director of Peptide Research at Millipore in Boston. I rejoined the Univ. of Barcelona after this period, where I was promoted to Full Professor in 1995.  I participated in the foundation of the Barcelona Science Park, taking on different responsibilities, and served as General Director of the park (2005-2012).  Currently, I am Full Professor at the Univ. of Barcelona, Research Professor at the Univ. of KwaZulu-Natal, and Principal Investigator at the Inst. for Research in Biomedicine-Barcelona.

I consider myself as a representative of the New University, which allows me to combine teaching and research with a strong vocation for the transfer of knowledge from such research to society. I think I perform basic research, but with a goal to become transformative.  In this sense, I founded several biotech companies and sit on the Board of Directors of several foundations and companies. Furthermore, I am consultant for several companies in the chemical and pharmaceutical areas.  I am a member of Steering Committee, Science & Technology Innovation Park (STIP) at UKZN.  

The main goal in my ongoing research projects is to identify compounds, mainly natural products or analogues, with therapeutic activity (drug discovery), to facilitate these modified products to reach the target (drug delivery systems), and/or to identify the disease (diagnostics). 

In collaboration with Professors Essack, Govender, and Kruger from the Health Sciences Department, we are developing a new family of peptides with antimicrobial and anti-tuberculosis properties. 

I have published over 750 papers, filled more than 50 patents, and have co-authored four books. I am also Editor of several scientific journals and acted in the editorial board of several others.