Profile

The central research of Dr. Miguel Alcalde primarily focusses on the engineering of enzymes by directed molecular evolution and hybrid/semi-rational design for a wide range of biotechnological purposes; the development of high-throughput biomolecular screening tools and genetic methods for library construction and exploration, as well as synthetic biology studies for environmental, energy and industrial applications (www.miguelalcaldelab.eu).

Dr Alcalde studied Biology at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain (1988-1993) and in 1994, he obtained the M.Sc in Biology. In 1999, he completed his doctoral studies in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology under the supervision of Prof. A. Ballesteros and Dr F.J. Plou at the Institute of Catalysis (ICP-CSIC, Madrid). From 2001 to 2003, Dr Alcalde took up a postdoctoral fellowship in Biochemistry in Prof. F.H. Arnold’s group (recently awarded with the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2018) at the Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at the California Institute of Technology, CALTECH. In 2003 he returned to ICP-Madrid obtaining an I3P-CSIC contract (2003) and a Ramón y Cajal position (2005). He was later appointed as a Staff Scientist of the CSIC (Científico Titular) in 2007 and promoted to Researcher (Investigador Científico) in 2014.

Among distinctions and fellowships, Dr Alcalde was awarded with the first prize of the program HealthStart from Fundación Madri+D to the best spin-off in the area of health, he was recipient of the first National Award of Comunidad de Madrid to the best Patent 2008; and he was granted with postdoctoral fellowships from NATO and Ministerio-Fullbright programs (CALTECH) and pre-doctoral fellowships from Comunidad de Madrid (FPU), Institute Danone and Fundación Caja de Madrid. Dr Alcalde is co-author of 109 publications and 14 patents. He has supervised 11 PhD Thesis and 16 Master Thesis. Dr Alcalde has been principal investigator in 29 research projects, including 7 EU projects, 2 European networks, 5 National projects (Ministerio de Educación), 3 projects of Comunidad de Madrid, 4 CSIC projects and 6 contracts with different industries. Dr. Alcalde is the current coordinator of the section of Synthetic Biology and Molecular Biotechnology of the SEBBM (Sociedad Española de Bioquímica y Biología Molecular). Dr. Alcalde is founder of a spin-off from CSIC, EvoEnzyme S.L., whose main activities are focused on the engineering of enzymes by directed evolution for pharma and industrial sectors (www.evoenzyme.com).

Since 2007, Dr. Alcalde has made short-term stays (as invited scientist) in the Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, USA (Professor LianHong Sun, 2008, 2011 RIP2015) and in the Division of Chemistry & Chemical Engineering, California Institute of Technology, CALTECH, Pasadena, USA (Professor Frances H. Arnold, 2007, 2010 and 2015). Dr. Alcalde is frequently attending as invited speaker to Congress; among the most recent events: the Royal Spanish Academy of Science (Madrid, Spain, March2019), the Gordon Conference on Lignin (Boston, EEUU, Sept2018), the Enzyme Engineering Conference (Toulouse, France, Sept2017), the EMBO-Biocatalysis Conference (Oulu, Finland, June2016), the Industrial Biotechnology Forum (Munich, Germany March 2016), The European Summit of Industrial Biotechnology ESIB (Graz Nov2016), the CALTECH-25 years of Directed Evolution: Frances H. Arnold lab reflections (Pasadena, EEUU July2016), BIOTECH2014 (Madrid, July2014), SEBBM2014 (Granada, Sept2014).

10. Freakley, S.J., Kochius, S., van Marwijk, J., Fenner, C., Lewis, R.J., Baldenius, K., Marais, S.S., Opperman, D.J., Harrison, S.T.L., Alcalde, M., Smit, M.S. and Hutchings, G.J. (2019). A chemo-enzymatic oxidation cascade to activate C–H bonds with in situ generated H2O2. Nature Communications 10: 4178. In press. Ranking: Q1. IF: 13.811.

9. Viña-Gonzalez, J., Jimenez-Lalana, D., Sancho, F., Serrano, A., Martinez, A.T., Guallar, V. and Alcalde, M. (2019). Structure-guided evolution of aryl alcohol oxidase from Pleurotus eryingii for the selective oxidation of secondary benzyl alcohols. Advanced Synthesis and Catalysis. 361: 2514-2525. HIGHLIGHTED AS A VERY IMPORTANT PAPER Ranking: Q1. IF: 5.029.

8. Mateljak, I., Monza, E., Lucas, M.F., Guallar, V., Aleksejeva, O., Ludwig, R., Leech, D., Shleev, S. and Alcalde, M. (2019). Increasing redox potential, redox mediator activity and stability in a fungal laccase by computer-guided mutagenesis and directed evolution. ACS Catalysis 9: 4561-4572. Ranking Q1. IF: 10.614.

7. Mateljak, I., Rice, A., Yang, K., Tron, T. and Alcalde, M. (2019). The generation of thermostable fungal laccase chimeras by SCHEMA-RASPP structure-guided recombination in vivo. ACS Synthetic Biology. 8: 833-843. JOURNAL COVER. Ranking: Q1. IF: 5.253.

6. Gomez de Santos, P., Cañellas, M., Tieves, F., Younes, S.H.H., Molina-Espeja, P., Hofrichter, M., Hollmann, F., Guallar, V. and Alcalde, M. (2018). Selective synthesis of the human drug metabolite 5´-hydroxypropranolol by and evolved self-sufficient peroxygenase. ACS Catalysis. 8: 4789-4799. Ranking Q1. IF: 10.614.

5. Zhang, W., Fernandez-Fueyo, E., Ni, Y., van Schie, M., Gacs, J., Renirie, R., Wever, R., Mutti, F.G., Rother, D., Alcalde, M. and Hollmann, F. (2018). Selective aerobic oxidation reactions via combination of photocatalytic water oxidation and enzymatic oxyfunctionalizations. Nature Catalysis. 1: 55-62.

4. Ramirez-Escudero, M., Molina-Espeja, P., Gomez de Santos, P., Hofrichter, M., Sanz-Aparicio, J. and Alcalde, M. (2018). Structural insights into de substrate promiscuity of a laboratory-evolved peroxygenase. ACS Chemical Biology. 13: 3259-3268. Ranking Q1: IF: 4.794.

3. Gomez-Fernandez, B., Garcia-Ruiz, E., Martin, J., Gomez de Santos, P., Santos-Moriano, P., Plou, F.J., Ballesteros, A., Garcia, M., Rodriguez, M., Risso, V.A., Sanchez-Ruiz, J.M., Whitney, S.M. and Alcalde, M. (2018). Directed –in vitro- evolution of Precrambrian and extant Rubiscos. Scientific Reports. 8: 5532. Ranking Q1: IF: 4.847.

2. Molina-Espeja, P., Viña-Gonzalez, J., Gomez, B.J., Martin-Diaz, J., Garcia-Ruiz, E., and Alcalde, M. (2016). Beyond the outer limits of nature by directed evolution. Biotechnology Advances. 34: 754-767 Ranking Q1. IF: 11.885.

1. Alcalde, M. (2015). Engineering the ligninolytic enzyme consortium. Trends in Biotechnology. 33: 155-162. Ranking Q1. IF: 11.681.

PATENTES
5. Rodríguez-Buey, M., Garcia-Ruiz, M., Martin-Diaz, J., Santos-Moriano, P.C., Molina-Espeja, M., Garcia-Ruiz, E., Plou, F.J., and Alcalde, M. Modified unspecific peroxygenase and uses thereof. EP17382151.3 (REPSOL).

4. Molina-Espeja, P., Plou, F.J. and Alcalde, M. Unspecific peroxygenase mutants with high monooxygenase activity and their applications. WO/2017/081355 (National phases in EU and USA, license agreement to EvoEnzyme SL).

3. Alcalde M., Maté, D., González-Perez, D., Pita, M., de Lacey, A., Ludwig, R., and Kittl, R. High redox potential laccase active in blood by directed evolution. P201330222. PCT/ES2014/070113.

2. Mate, D., Valdivieso U., Fernández, L. and Alcalde, M. Laccase with high redox potential. WO/2011/144784.

1. García-Ruiz, E., Martínez, M.J., Dueñas, J., Martínez, A.T. and Alcalde, M. High redox potential peroxidases designed by directed evolution. WO/2010/130862.