Background
Dr Abanades Lázaro obtained her PhD in Chemistry from the University of Glasgow (UK) in 2018 under the supervision of Prof. R. Forgan. After spending a significant part of her early research career abroad (2013–2018), gaining five years of international experience at Trinity College Dublin, the University of Glasgow, and the University of Cambridge, she was awarded a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship in 2019 at the Institute of Molecular Science (ICMol), University of Valencia, where she is currently a Ramón y Cajal Fellow and leads the “Defect Engineering of Responsive Advanced Materials (DREAM)” research group.
Her research focuses on the relationship between materials synthesis, structure, and function, targeting applications in catalysis, drug delivery, water remediation, and gas separation. During her PhD, she engineered MOF surfaces for enhanced drug delivery, developing click modulation and defect-assisted drug loading strategies. As a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow, she elucidated the defect chemistry and multivariate modulation of Ti-MOFs, significantly advancing their catalytic performance. During her Juan de la Cierva Incorporación Fellowship, she tailored MOFs’ pore size for gas separation, catalysis, and biomedical applications. In June 2023, supported by a Junior Leader “la Caixa” Fellowship, she established her independent research group dedicated to multifunctional porous materials for health and environmental sustainability. Since September 2024, she has consolidated this line of research as a Ramón y Cajal researcher through several competitive projects, including Proyecto Generación de Conocimiento, collaborative AVI projects with industry, a BBVA Leonardo Grant, and two MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships awarded to postdoctoral researchers joining her group.
Her scientific trajectory has been recognized with several distinctions, including the Science Young Talents Awards (2023 COPE Castilla-La Mancha and 2024 Comunidad Valenciana), the 2024 L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Award, the 2025 RSEQ-Lilly Early Career Researcher Award, and the 2026 Premio Popular Nueva Alcarria. She was also featured in Matter (Cell Press) as part of the “35 Challenges in Materials Science Being Tackled by PIs Under 35(ish) in 2024” and selected to attend the 70th and 71st Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings, which bring together emerging scientific leaders and Nobel Laureates for high-level scientific exchange.
Publications
Lázaro, IA; Anastasaki, A; Ardoña, HAM; Arguilla, MQ; Bati, ASR; Batmunkh, M; Besford, QA; Browne, MP; Batmunkh, M; Besford, QA; Browne, MP; Bryant, SJ; Carlotti, M; Contini, C; Delaney, C; Draper, ER; Elbourne, A; Evans, JD; Florea, L; Forner-Cuenca, A; Forse, AC; Gonzalez, MI; Krause, S; Lee, HK; Lerch, MM; Liu, S; López-Salas, N; Martin-Martinez, FJ; Pezzato, C; Protesescu, L; Schaufelberger, F; Pascual, PS; Fernández, AS; Tarpeh, WA; Vilé, G; von Krbek, LKS; Wang, HZ; Wu, TL; Wells, CJR; Cranford, SW
"
35 challenges in materials science being tackled by PIs under 35(ish) in 2024"
Matter 7 2024
| 10.1016/j.matt.2024.09.026
Lázaro, IA; Chen, X; Ding, ML; Eskandari, A; Fairen-Jimenez, D; Giménez-Marqués, M; Gref, R; Lin, WB; Luo, TK; Forgan, RS
"
Metal-organic frameworks for biological applications"
Nat. Rev. Method. Prim. 4 42 2024
| 10.1038/s43586-024-00320-8
Rosales-MartÃnez, C; Assis, M; Castillo-Blas, C; Lázaro, IA
"
Tuning the electronic properties of Zr UiO-66 through defect-functionalised multivariate modulation"
Chem. Commun. 60 2024
| 10.1039/d4cc02581d
Rosales-MartÃnez, C; Lázaro, IA
"
Unprecedented ultra-complex zeolite-like MOFS using small Magastick-like building blocks"
Matter 7 2024
| 10.1016/j.matt.2024.05.019
Rosales-Martínez, C; López-Alcalá, D; Assis, M; Castillo-Blas, C; Baldovi, JJ; Lázaro, IA
"
Promoting photoswitching in mismatching mixed-linker multivariate Zr6 MOFs"
RSC Adv. 14 2024
| 10.1039/d4ra07366e
Total: 5
