Person


Pablo Iván Nikel Senior Researcher and Group Leader

As a biotechnologist, I have been always interested in microorganisms and bioproduction―and to mediate a change towards a sustainable lifestyle. My team at the Center for Biosustainability focuses on this objective by engineering environmental bacteria for bioproduction of novel chemicals.


About Me

I was born and raised in Argentina, a beautiful country with a likewise interesting tradition in Science. I received an undergraduate degree in Biotechnology in the University of San Martin in 2004, and a Ph.D. degree in Biotechnology and Molecular Biology while working in the Institute for Research in Biotechnology and the Department of Biological Chemistry of the University of Buenos Aires. Back then, my research focused on re-purposing two-component signal transduction systems in Escherichia coli for the production of biopolymers and biofuels. Funded by the European Molecular Biology Organization and the Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions of the European Commission, I moved to Europe in 2011 as a post-doctoral fellow in Prof. Víctor de Lorenzo’s laboratory in Madrid. It was during my post-doctoral training that I came across with environmental bacteria, and especially with Pseudomonas putida. Inspired by the many possibilities that these bacteria offer for bioengineering, I established the Systems Environmental Microbiology group at the Center for Biosustainability with the aim of re-designing the biosynthesis of novel compounds with a focus in new-to-Nature fine chemicals.