Juan Mangas wins the SEBiot Young Research Talent Award 2023
For four days, from 17 to 20 July, the Faculty of Pharmacy of the UCM hosted the XVIII National Biotechnology Congress Biotec 2023, which brought together more than 200 researchers, students and biotechnology professionals to learn about the latest advances in our sector. Within this framework, Juan Mangas, from the Department of Organic and Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Oviedo, received the SEBiot Young Research Talent Award 2023, sponsored by Solmeglas.
Juan Mangas Sánchez obtained his PhD in Chemistry from the University of Oviedo (2013), under the supervision of Vicente Gotor Santamaría and Vicente Gotor-Fernández (Department of Organic and Inorganic Chemistry), working on the design of new enzymatic processes to prepare compounds of pharmacological interest. In his first postdoctoral stage, he worked for two years in the group of Professor Patrick Adlercreutz, at the University of Lund (Sweden), where he studied the optimisation of enzymatic processes to obtain biodiesel and special triglycerides.
In 2015, he joined Professor Nicholas Turner’s group at the Manchester Institute of Biotechnology (UK) as a research associate to work on the discovery of new enzymes for the more sustainable preparation of chiral amines, compounds of great importance in the chemical industry. These enzymes are now used to prepare drugs on an industrial scale. As a result of these studies, he received the 2021 Rita and John Cornforth Award from the Royal Society of Chemistry, along with colleagues from the University of York and the companies Prozomix and GSK.
In 2020, Mangas joined the Institute of Chemical Synthesis and Homogeneous Catalysis (ISCQH-CSIC) in Zaragoza as an ARAID researcher to begin his career as an independent scientist. There he started to develop new lines of research combining different types of catalysts to prepare chemical compounds of interest in a more efficient way.
Recently, he joined as a Ramón y Cajal researcher the Department of Organic and Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Oviedo, where he was trained years ago. Juan Mangas has co-authored 40 research articles on the use of enzymatic catalysis in asymmetric chemical synthesis in prestigious international journals and has been awarded the Zaragoza Royal Society of Sciences Chemistry Award 2022 and the Thieme Chemistry Journals Award 2023.
“Receiving the award for young researchers in biotechnology from the SEBiot is something that makes me very excited”, explains Juan Mangas. For the researcher “it is an honour and tremendously gratifying that such a prestigious society as SEBiot recognises my professional career. At the Biotec 2023 congress, organised by the Society this week in Madrid, the high level of biotechnology in Spain was evident, which makes this recognition even more valuable. I am also very grateful to Solmeglas for sponsoring these awards”.
Four intense days
It is impossible to summarise in a few lines the content of a congress that offered almost 70 talks – including plenary lectures, keynotes and oral communications – distributed in seven tracks, four round tables, the presentation of almost 70 posters and several networking activities. On the social media profiles of SEBiot and many of the participants, using the hashtag #Biotec2023, you can see how the congress has been followed.
In this image gallery you can take a look at some of the highlights of Biotec 2023, an event that would not have been possible without the support of all our partners, sponsors and collaborating companies, whom we would like to thank once again for their participation and commitment.
Monday 17 July
- Biocatalysis and omics technology courses were the prelude to the Congress (17 Jul)
- Official opening of Biotec 2023, with the Secretary General for Research of the MICIN (17 Jul)
- Plenary lecture by Sabine L. Flitsch [Univ. Manchester] (17 Jul)
Tuesday 18 July
- José Antº Aznar (Inst. de la Grasa-CSIC) opened the Food Biotechnology track (18 Jul)
- Food Biotechnology track speakers (18 Jul)
- Food Biotechnology track speakers [2] (18 Jul)
- Vicente Gotor Fernández (Uni. Oviedo) opened the Biocatalysis track (18 Jul)
- Susana Nieto (Univ. Murcia) spoke on biocatalysis for the sustainable synthesis of panthenyl monoesters
- Ángela Fernández (IQF-CSIC), on the biocatalysis track (18 Jul)
- Marc García Borrás (IQCC-UdG) talked about the use of computational tools in the design of biocatalytic processes.
- Plenary lecture by Víctor de Lorenzo: “Design meets evolution” (18 Jul)
Wednesday 19 July
- Industrial Biotech track: Francesc Godia (UAB) introduces MELISSA project (19 Jul)
- Industrial Biotech: Manuel Rendueles (Univ. Oviedo) talks about bioplastics for packaging
- Plant Biotech: Rafael Catalá (CIB-CSIC) talks about plants and environmental stress (19 Jul)
- Round table on the situation of biotechnology studies (19 Jul)
- Lecture by Marisol Soengas (CNIO): new strategies for metastasis
- Lecture by Juan Mangas, after receiving the SEBiot Young Research Talent Award 2023
Thursday 20 July
- Ana Torrejón (AINA), in the Microbial Biotech track (20 Jul)
- Sílvia Ávila (UAB) talking about Microbial Biotech (20 Jul)
- Antonio Barreiro presents Hipra’s anti-COVID vaccine (New Challenges, 20 Jul)
- Xavier García Ortega (UAB) spoke on AI applied to bio-manufacturing (New Challenges, 20 Jul)
- Round table on biotech companies in Spain and Europe (20 Jul)
- Plenary lecture by Lluis Montoliu: new CRISPR tools