Team

Marco Mariotti / Principal Investigator

Marco Mariotti graduated in Biotechnologies (BSc) and Bioinformatics (MSc) in his hometown Bologna, Italy. He then obtained a PhD in Biomedicine at the Centre de Regulació Genòmica / Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, supervised by Roderic Guigó. He later worked as postdoc at the Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School (USA), after a brief stint at University College Cork (Ireland).

In May 2021, he joined the Universitat de Barcelona as Ramón y Cajal Fellow / Group Leader. In December 2025, he was promoted to Associate Professor (Professor Agregat).

A more extensive CV is available here.

Nadezhda (Nadya) Makarova / PhD student

I am PhD student from Russia. I am interested in post transcriptional regulation of protein biosynthesis with all its diversity across species. My project is devoted to the investigation of possible mechanisms of read through in insects, where the translation after annotated stop codon is observed for much higher number of genes than in mammals. I am excited about NGS, data analysis and designing figures in R. I was working as a technician at NGS facility and now want to improve my expertise in the research projects. I adore to organize and coordinate things, starting from research projects and finishing with travelling and parties. Active interaction with people, discussion and communication during the project - that is the most inspiring for me in science. But also I love small trips, not too extreme hiking, sport activities like yoga or swimming. Sometimes I play the guitar and sing Russian old (from 1960x) songs (it is called singer-songwriter genre).

Max Ticó / PhD student

Max is a bioinformatician who graduated from ESCI-UPF. He completed a Master's degree in Biomedical Research at Universitat Pompeu Fabra and a Master's degree in Data Science at UOC. Max is highly interested in genomics and bioinformatics, but he also enjoys sports such as surfing, hiking, and cycling. He is currently focused on bioinformatics and the evolutionary study of selenoproteins.

Mihajlo Stašuk / Technician (soon PhD student)

Mihajlo is a MSc in Genomics, born and raised in Novi Sad, Serbia. His interest in biology is longstanding, having participated in the Biomedical program at Petnica Science Center in high-school. Mihajlo is interested in molecular mechanisms and novel therapeutic approaches to human genetic diseases. His master’s thesis, conducted at the Center for Human Molecular Genetics, Faculty of Biology, University of Belgrade, was an investigation into transcriptomic perturbations in human cell models of Myotonic dystrophy type I. He is continuing his research at the Mariotti lab, where he will be working on developing RNA molecular devices for induced stop-codon readthrough, a promising approach to treatment of a variety of genetic diseases, e.g. Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Outside of the lab, Mihajlo spends his time watching horror movies and TV shows, deciphering the works of Thomas Pynchon, and hanging out with his friends. He is an enthusiast for natural history and quality science education, and a Liverpool FC fan.

Ivet Ortiga Martínez / Student in training

Ivet is a third year undergraduate student at University of Barcelona. Ever since she started her bachelor's degree in Biotechnology, genetics were her main interest. Finding out about stop codon readthrough being a common event in humans and insects made her want to know and learn more about it. Right now she is doing practicals in our lab. Besides science, Ivet enjoys drawing and strength training.

Former lab members

Monica [Mahsa] Amani Tehrani / MSc Student

Monica is currently pursuing her MSc in Molecular Biology and Genetics at the University of Pavia (Italy) and completing her thesis project at the University of Barcelona as Erasmus student. She holds a previous MSc in Plant Biotechnology from Iran, where her curiosity about cellular mechanisms and molecular tools led her to shift her academic focus toward human molecular biology. Her main research interests include exploring new genetic tools and studying cancer cell's metabolic pathways. She is passionate about understanding cellular events at deep molecular level and enjoys hands-on work in lab. Before starting her MSc in Italy, she gained valuable experience in mammalian cell culture and laboratory techniques as cell culture operator for 6 month compact training course. Curious and open-minded, she enjoys taking risks with new ideas and approaches in science. Outside the lab, she loves reading, writing, and spending time by the sea. Her current goal is to expand her research experience and develop strong professional skills in experimental biology.

Daniel Martín de la Fuente / Technician

Daniel is a Senior Laboratory Technician graduated in IES Ezequiel González (Segovia) and
Technician of Pathological Anatomy graduated in EPSUM (Madrid), passionate about research.
He is interested in genomics, genetics and everything related to biochemistry, more specifically
in the enzyme Telomerase. He likes to be organized, responsible and constant in his work, he
has patience and a positive attitude. He enjoys science and nature. He usually spends his free time in the countryside, with animals. Currently, his goal is to gain experience in the field of research in order to be able to dedicate
his life to it in the future.

iGEM TEAM

The iGEM group of Universitat de Barcelona is a diverse group of young synthetic biology enthusiasts that participate to the iGEM (International Genetically Engineered Machine) international competition. In 2025, the iGEM UB group developed their project "Skippit" in our lab, dedicated to using stop codon readthrough as artificial tool for gene regulation. Specifically, with Skippit we developed a first prototype of SECIS riboswitch, i.e. an inducible stop codon readthrough element. More info here: https://2025.igem.wiki/barcelona-ub/index.html
Presentation video (15min): https://video.igem.org/w/c6034b4e-8863-4ecf-878c-d5bb5b53e802
News: At the iGEM Jamboree 2025, Skippit won a Golden medal, 5 Special Prize Nominations, and made it in the Top 10 worldwide! (https://competition.igem.org/results/2025, https://teams.igem.org/5622)

Irene Agudo Zamora / Master student

Irene is a physicist from the University of Barcelona, currently studying the Master's in Modelling for Science and Engineering at UAB. What fascinates her most about physics is how it weaves through every field of science, revealing the hidden connections that shape our world. This curiosity led her to the iGEM UB team in 2024, where she remains an active member in 2025. The iGEM UB 2025 PI is Marco Mariotti, and from that project, Irene's master's thesis was born, focusing on the tertiary structure of RNA and its impact on SCR. She is also passionate about music, reading, and science outreach, having co-presented a children's TV show on SX3, the Catalan children's channel.

Ester Muñoz Del Campo / Master student

Ester is a valencian biotechnologist who came to Barcelona to become a bioinformatician. She is a student of the Master in Bioinformatics for Health Sciences at Universitat Pompeu Fabra as well as a member of the first team of Club Natació Barcelona as a sprint swimmer. She developed an interest in genomics as soon as she heard of it and also has a passion for programming. Ester is now contributing to improve bioinformatic tools with us. Besides coding and swimming she also enjoys cooking.

JOAN PALLARÈS ALBANELL / MASTER STUDENT

Joan is a Biomedical Researcher mainly interested in gene expression regulation. Currently, he is doing the Master in Bioinformatics for Health Sciences at Universitat Pompeu Fabra / Universitat de Barcelona. Despite starting his career as an experimentalist, he has always been interested in the computational analysis of biological data, and now is devoted to increase his coding literacy. Besides learning to code, he enjoys reading, loud music and CrossFit.

Sergio Sánchez Moragues / Technician

Sergio first arrived to the team as a student of the Master in Genetics and Genomics at the Universitat de Barcelona, and he is now hired as technician. Biochemist by training, geneticist at heart, Sergio is taking a dive into the deep sea of bioinformatics in search of missing selenoproteins.

Rosina Comas Ghierra / visiting master student

Rosina is a Clinical Biochemist graduated from the Faculty of Chemistry, University of the Republic (UDELAR), Uruguay. She has academic and professional training in the area of health, teaching and research, and has experience in analytical biochemistry, parasitological and genetic analyses. Currently, she works as a teacher in the Parasitology Unit of the Faculty of Chemistry, UDELAR, and is doing her postgraduate studies in Bioinformatics at the Worm Biology Laboratory of the Institut Pasteur de Montevideo, supervised by Gustavo Salinas. Her thesis addresses, from an informational perspective, the energy metabolism of parasitic helminths, the networks used by these organisms to maintain redox balance, and use the resources acquired form the host, which have been evolutionarily optimized for the normoxia-hypoxia transition associated with their lifecycles.

Rosina joins our group for a two months project for training in comparative evolutionary genomics with the main objective of studying the biosynthesis, incorporation and use of selenocysteine in helminths.

Emerson Sullivan / Visiting Undergraduate Student

Emerson is a fourth year undergraduate student at Johns Hopkins University, located in Baltimore, Maryland USA. He is currently pursuing his bachelor’s degrees in Computer Science and Biology, with additional minors in Computational Medicine and Applied Math & Statistics. Emerson is also a member and two year captain of the Johns Hopkins varsity water polo team and some of his additional hobbies include surfing, climbing, spending times outdoors, and eating delicious food.

Emerson joined our group for a summer project co-supervised by Roderic Guigó (CRG), focused on assessing the status of selenoprotein gene annotation in Ensembl.

Join us!

Interested in joining the lab? Contact us!
There are opportunities for researchers at all levels (undergrad students, master students, postdocs).