María J. Vicent

Cancer Program Coordinator and Head of the Polymer Therapeutics Lab., Príncipe Felipe Research Center (CIPF), Valencia

PI at CIBERONC, IISCIII, Madrid

Editor-in-chief Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews

Spain

Group Website: www.VicentResearchLab.com

Prof. Vicent is the head of the Polymer Therapeutics Lab. at Príncipe Felipe Research Center (CIPF) since 2006, coordinator of the Cancer Program and serves as Scientific Director since 2023. She is also responsible for the Screening Platform, a Specialist Site in the European infrastructure EU-OpenScreen. She serves as president-elect for the Controlled Release Society (CRS). She is a member of the editorial board of 8 journals and is the editor in chief of Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews. Dr. Vicent's research group, specializes in developing novel nanopharmaceuticals for therapeutic and diagnostic applications, particularly in addressing unmet clinical needs through Polymer Therapeutics. Her work has been supported by national and European grants, including prestigious awards like the ERC Consolidator grant-MyNano, ERCPoC-Polymmune, ERCPoC-Polybraint, and Fund Health La Caixa-NanoPanTher and NanoGBA, received from both academia and industry. María has been honored with several awards, including Idea, the Samyang award and several Women in Science recognitions. Recognized for her contributions, Dr. Vicent is a member of the National Academy of Inventors (FNAI) and a fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) College of Fellows since 2019. She was also inducted into the Controlled Release Society (CRS) College of Fellows in 2021. María has co-authored over 150 peer-reviewed papers and holds 15 patents. Six of these patents have been licensed to the pharmaceutical industry, with one contributing to the founding of the spin-off company 'Polypeptide Therapeutic Solutions S.L.' in Valencia, Spain, established in 2012 and rebranded as Curapath after its acquisition by Arcline in 2021 now a well-known CDMO with >90 employees.

Representative Publications

[1] Duro-Castaño, A., Nebot, V.J., Niño-Pariente, A., Armiñán, A., Arroyo-Crespo, J.J., Paul, A., Feiner-Gracia, N., Albertazzi, L., Vicent, M.J. (2017). Capturing Extraordinary Soft-Assembled Charge-Like Polypeptides as a Strategy for Nanocarrier Design. Advanced Materials, 29(39), 1702888.

[2] Arroyo-Crespo, J.J., Deladriere, C., Nebot, V.J., Charbonnier, D., Masiá, E., Paul, A., James, C., Armiñán, A., Vicent, M.J. (2018). Anticancer Activity Driven by Drug Linker Modification in a Polyglutamic Acid-Based Combination Drug Conjugate. Advanced Functional Materials, 28(22), 1800931.

[3] Duro-Castano, A., Borras, C., Herranz-Pérez, V., Blanco-Gandía, M.C., Conejos-Sánchez, I., Armiñán, A., Mas-Bargues, C., Inglés, M., Miñaarro, J., Rodríguez-Arias, M., García-Verdugo, J.M., Viña, J., Vicent, M.J. (2021). Targeting Alzheimer's Disease with Multimodal Polypeptide-based Nanoconjugates. Science Advances, 7, eabf9180.

[4] Vicente-Ruiz, S., Armiñán, A., Maso, K., Zagorodko, O., Gallon, E., Rodriguez-Otormín, F., Movellan, J., Baues, M., May, J., De Lorenzi, F., Lammers, T., Vicent, M.J. (2023). Poly-L-Glutamic Acid Modification Modulates the Bio-nano Interface of a Therapeutic Anti-IGF-R1 Antibody in Prostate Cancer. Biomaterials, 301, 122280.

[5] Dordevic, S., Medel, M., Hillaert, J., Masiá, E., Conejos-Sánchez, I., Vicent, M.J. (2024). Critical Design Strategies Supporting Optimized Drug Release from Polymer-Drug Conjugates. Small, 20(4), 2303157.