Education

Sergio Martin Saldaña holds a degree in Biology, an MSc in Forensic Genetics by the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid and an MSc in Pharmaceutical Sciences by the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. He obtained his PhD in Molecular Biosciences with the Outstanding Doctorate Mention by Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (2016) and the “Best PhD Thesis in the Research Excellence Awards 2017” by Instituto de Investigacion Puerta de Hierro-Majadahonda. He was supervised by Prof Rafael Ramirez Camacho (Hospital Universitario Puerta de Hierro-Majadahonda) and Prof Julio San Roman (ICTP-CSIC, Madrid).

After his PhD, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher in industry in Argentina with high interaction with the Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata and the Instituto de Investigación en Ciencia & Tecnología de Materiales INTEMA, UE-CONICET-UNMdP.

He continued his experience as Marie Sklodowska Curie Individual Fellow under the supervision of Professor Abhay Pandit at CÚRAM, SFI Research Centre for Medical Devices, National University of Ireland (Galway, Ireland) from 2018 to 2020. After the conclusion of his MSCA funding, he was funded by the HEA (Authority of Higher Education, Ireland) for Research Projects affected by COVID-19 by an additional year.

In March 2022 he joined the Responsive Polymers Therapeutic Group.

Research

During his career, he has always worked at the frontier of Biology and Materials Science, mainly focusing on inflammatory processes in the central and peripheral nervous system. He started his career working on drug delivery systems with potential as otoprotectors against cisplatin-induced ototoxicity, developing new polymeric nanovehicles capable of efficiently transporting highly insoluble drugs to the inner ear. He also described new therapeutic targets to improve the effectiveness of current treatments.

After his PhD, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the industry (Gihon Laboratorios Quimicos SRL, Mar del Plata, Argentina). He worked in the Micro/Nanotechnology Division conducting pilot-scale synthesis of biopolymers from natural sources for the circular economy.

As Marie Sklodowska Curie Individual Fellow (MSCA-IF Project number: 797716) he was focused on testing the effect of Extracellular Matrix inspired hydrogels in neural homeostasis restoration after inflammatory insults.

His current research at Polymat focuses on synthesizing nanogels with therapeutic potential in neurodegenerative processes.

Responsive Polymer Therapeutics Group

Publications