Dr. Antoni Planas
Group leader
Professor of Biochemistry
Bioengineering Department, IQS.
antoni.planas@iqs.url.edu.
Protein engineering. Biocatalysis. Glycobiology.
CURRICULUM VITAE (2021)
Antoni Planas, Laboratory of Biochemistry
Bioengineering Department, Institut Químic de Sarrià, Universitat Ramon Llull
Via Augusta 390, 08017 Barcelona, Spain
Tel: +34-932672000, e-mail: antoni.planas@iqs.url.edu
A. Education
Institut Químic de Sarrià (IQS) Chemistry B.S. 1981
Institut Químic de Sarrià (IQS) Chemistry MSc 1982
Univ Autónoma de Barcelona (UAB) Biochemistry B.S. 1987
Institut Químic de Sarrià- Univ. Ramon Llull (URL) Organic Chemistry Ph.D. 1987
B. Appointments
2020-present: EuChemS, Life Science Division, representing The Catalan Society of Chemistry
2015-present: Board member & Spanish representative, European Carbohydrate Organization
2017-2017: President European Carbohydrate Organization
2002-present: Professor of Biochemistry, Universitat Ramon Llull
1999-present: Coordinator Biological Chemistry and Biotechnology Group, URL (2017 SGR 727)
1993-present: Head research group Laboratory of Biochemistry, Bioengineering Department
2007-1018: Director of the Bioengineering Department, IQS, Univ. Ramon Llull, Barcelona
1993-2002: Associate Professor, Institut Químic de Sarrià
1990-1992: Research Scientist, Univ. Autónoma de Barcelona (UAB)
1988-1989: Postdoctoral fellow, University of California, Berkeley, USA
1983-1987: PhD fellow, IQS(Barcelona) and Max-Plank Institut (Mülheim, Germany)
C. Publications (full list Google Scholar Citations)
(i) Six recent relevant publications
C. Alsina, E. Sancho-Vaello, A. Aranda-Martínez, M. Faijes, A. Planas. Auxiliary active site mutations enhance the glycosynthase activity of a GH18 chitinase for polymerization of chitooligosaccharides. Carbohydr. Polym. 252, 117121 (2021)
N. Orive-Milla, T. Demulle, M. de Mey, M. Faijes, A Planas. Metabolic engineering for glycoglycerolipids production in E. coli: tuning phosphatidic acid and UDP-glucose pathways. Metabolic Eng. 61, 106-119 (2020)
L.Grifoll-Romero, M.A. Sainz-Polo, D. Albesa-Jové, M.E. Guerin, X. Biarnés, A. Planas. Structure-function relationships underlying the dual N-acetylmuramic and N-acetylglucosamine specificities of the peptidoglycan deacetylase PdaC from Bacillus subtilis. J. Biol. Chem. 294, 19066-80 (2019).
S. Pascual, A. Planas. Screening assay for directed evolution of chitin deacetylases. Application to Vibrio cholerae deacetylase mutant libraries for engineered specificity. Anal. Chem. 90,10654–10658 (2018)
V. Codera, K.J. Edgar, M. Faijes, A. Planas. Functionalized celluloses with regular substitution pattern by glycosynthase-catalyzed polymerization. Biomacromolecules, 17,1272-9 (2016).
E. Andrés, D. Albesa-Jové, X. Biarnés, B. M. Moerschbacher, M. E. Guerin, A. Planas. Structural basis of chitin oligosaccharide deacetylation. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 53, 6882–6887 (2014).
(ii) Six recent review publications
S. Pascual, A Planas. Carbohydrate de-N-acetylases acting on structural polysaccharides and glycoconjugates. Curr. Opin. Chem. Biol. 61, 9-18 (2021).
M. Faijes, M. Castejón, C.Val-Cid, A. Planas. Enzymatic and cell factory approaches to the production of human milk oligosaccharides. Biotechnol. Adv. 37, 667-697 (2019).
L. Grifoll, S. Pascual, H. Aragunde, X. Biarnés, A. Planas. Chitin deacetylases: structures, specificities, and biotech applications. Polymers 10, 352 (2018).
H. Aragunde, X.Biarnés, A.Planas. Substrate recognition and specificity of chitin deacetylases and related family 4 carbohydrate esterases. Int. J.Mol Sci. 19, 412 (2018).
A. Planas, M. Faijes, V. Codera. When enzymes do it better: enzymatic glycosylation methods. In Carbohydrates Chemistry: State-of-the-art and challenges for drug development (L. Cipolla, Ed.), Imperial College Press, London, July 2015, ISBN: 9781783267194
G.J. Davies, A. Planas, C. Rovira. Conformational analyses of the reaction coordinate of glycosidases. Acc. Chem. Res. 45, 308-316 (2012)
D. Synergistic activities
1. Program coordinator: MS Program in Bioengineering (2007-2013). BS degree in Biotechnology (2014-2017). PhD Program in Bioengineering (2008-2017).
2. Member of Scientific societies: Spanish Royal Society of Chemistry. Active member of the Carbohydrate Group (1991-present). ACS (2016-). American Association of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB) (2011-present). Sociedad Española de Bioquímica y Biología Molecular (2001 – present). Societat Catalana de Química (2000 – present). Board member (2002-2008). Societat Catalana d’Historia de la Ciència i de la Tècnica (1993 – present). – Asociación de Químicos de l’Institut Químic de Sarrià (1982 – present).
3. Awards: Emil Fischer Award’2013 in Glycosciences by the European Carbohydrate Organization. Visiting Researcher Univ. Connecticut, CT, USA (1y sabbatical leave, 2017-18). Awarded visiting professorship at INSA Toulose. “Beatriu de Pinós”. Generalitat de Catalunya (2005). Visiting professorship, Univ. of Antioquia, Colombia. Program of International Cooperation. Spain (1997). Postdoctoral fellow at Autonomus University of Barcelona. MEC, Spain (1990-93). Juan March postdoctoral fellow for postdoctoral work at UC Berkeley. Fundación Juan March, Spain (1988-89). Salvador Gil Award. A-IQS (1983)
4. Organizer International Symposia, including:, Carbohydrate Bioengineering Meeting (CBM6), Barcelona 2005, Organizer and Chair. Member of the International Program Committee since 2005. Meeting on Industrial Applications of Enzymes, Member of the organizing committee, biannual conference organized by the Association of Chemists, addressed to industry and academia (1992-2010). EUROCARB2017 (European Carbohydrate Symposium), Barcelona 2017, Organizer and Chair.
5. Reviewer for leading journal including Biotechnol. Av., ACS Catal., J.Biol.Chem, Glycobiology, J.Am.Chem.Soc., ChemBioChem, Carbohydr. Res., Proteins, Appl. Microbiol., FEBS Lett , Biochim. Biophys.Acta, PLosOne, Nature, Aust.J.Chem.
6. Member of collaborative European projects: NANO3BIO (NanoBioEngineering of BioInspired BioPolymers, FP7, 2013-17); CHITOBIOENGINEERING (Metabolic and Enzyme Engineering for the Biotechnological Production of Partially Acetylated Chitosans, ERA-IB, 2011-14); EDEN (Enzyme discovery in hybrid aspen for fiber engineering, FP5, 2001-05); and National projects (MINECO, Spain) since 1993 (series of 3y projects)
7. Teaching: a) Chemistry Degree, IQS, URL: Biochemistry (3rd course),; b) Degree in Biotechnology, IQS, URL: Metabolism and regulation (2nd course), Protein Engineering (3rd course), Interdisciplinary Seminars (4th course), c) Masters in Bioengineering: Biomolecules (1st semester), Synthetic Biology (2nd semester).
E. Collaborators and other affiliations
(i) Collaborators (current): Dr. Kevin Edgar (Virginia Tech), Mark Peczuh (Univ. of Connecticut), Dr. Marjan DeMey (Univ. Ghent, Belgium), Dr. Regis Faure (INSA, Toulouse), Dr. Niels Reichardt, (CICbiomaGUNE, San Sebastián, Spain), Dr. Jesús Jiménez-Barbero, Dr. Oscar Millet (CICbioGUNE, Bilbao, Spain), Dr. Bruno Moerschbacher (Uni. Münster, Germany), Dr. Carme Rovira (Univ. of Barcelona), Dr. Ramón Hurtado (BIFI, Univ. Zaragoza, Spain).
(ii) PhD thesis advisor and other graduate student programs
30 PhD thesis (1995-2020). 7 PhD thesis on going. 112 Master thesis (1993-2018). 30 exchange students (from Europe, USA, and South America), and host of more than 23 visitors (PhD students, postdocs, sabbatical). Jury member PhD dissertations: 101 (national and international). Past postdoctoral fellows: C.Malet, E. Martínez, X.Biarnés, M.Palomo, E.Sancho, A.Aranda.