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Biomedical Engineer | Protein Engineering | Antimicrobial Discovery | Gene Therapy

Dreaming up proteins in silico. Proving them in the lab.

I design and validate proteins for antimicrobial discovery and gene therapy, translating sequence-level ideas into experimental proof.

Until antibiotic resistance stops outrunning us.

From protein language models to mouse models.

Research Officer, CMRI Sydney · 20+ publications · 300+ citations · 2 patents

2021 - 2026

Children's Medical Research Institute, Sydney

Research Officer

We built a computational platform for antimicrobial peptide discovery — from protein language model predictions to preclinical validation in mouse models — and extended the same approach to AAV capsid engineering for gene therapy.

20+Publications
300+Citations
2Patents
3Countries

Core Competencies

Protein Language Models
AAV Capsid Engineering
Python & Data Science
Antimicrobial Discovery
2016 - 2020

Pre-doctoral Researcher

UAB & IRTA, Barcelona

2015 - 2016

Graduate Researcher

University of California, Irvine

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01. Selected Work

Protein engineering from computational design to preclinical validation, spanning antimicrobial discovery and gene therapy.

02. The Story

Finding the therapeutic signal in a sea of biological noise.

Three countries, three labs, one obsession: turning sequence into therapy.

Barcelona / Irvine (CA, US) / Barcelona (UAB)

I trained in Biotechnology at UAB Barcelona, took a Master's in Biomedical Engineering at UC Irvine, then returned to UAB for a PhD where we designed antimicrobial proteins end-to-end — from sequence design through recombinant production and functional assays. That stage produced two patents and four first-author papers.

Sydney (CMRI, Aus)

At CMRI Sydney we built a platform to analyse millions of sequences and surface hundreds — sometimes thousands — of new antimicrobial peptides. With protein language models and recent advances in AI, we tested those predictions in the lab and in preclinical models. In parallel we applied generative AI to protein engineering, designing AAV capsids for gene therapy.

Core Competencies

Protein Language Models

ESM-2, ProtTrans, pLM-based sequence analysis

AAV Capsid Engineering

Directed evolution, capsid libraries, tropism engineering

Python & Data Science

PyTorch, scikit-learn, pandas, data pipelines

Antimicrobial Discovery

Peptide design, MIC assays, in vivo efficacy

Preclinical Validation

Mouse models, pharmacokinetics, toxicology

Molecular Biology

Cloning, protein expression, functional assays

The Story
2021 - 2026

Research Officer

Children's Medical Research Institute, Sydney

We built a computational platform for antimicrobial peptide discovery — from protein language model predictions to preclinical validation in mouse models — and extended the same approach to AAV capsid engineering for gene therapy.

2016 - 2020

Pre-doctoral Researcher

UAB & IRTA, Barcelona

We designed antimicrobial proteins from scratch — cloning, recombinant production, functional assays. Two patents and four first-author papers, eight total.

2015 - 2016

Graduate Researcher

University of California, Irvine

We tracked estrogen receptor dynamics in living cells with single-molecule fluorescence microscopy and quantitative image analysis.

Contact

Code doesn't kill bacteria. But it tells me where to aim.

Bridging computation and biology. 20+ publications, 300+ citations, and 2 patents in antimicrobial drug discovery and protein engineering.

Research Officer, CMRI Sydney · 20+ publications · 300+ citations · 2 patents

© 2026 Ramon Roca Pinilla. All rights reserved.