Prof. Fernando López-Gallego earned his Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid in 2007. He then worked on metabolic engineering and biocatalysis in the group of Prof. Claudia Schmidt-Dannert in the USA as a Postdoctoral Fellow and later joined the Technology Laboratory at Repsol in 2013. 

After one year in industry, he started his independent research in biocatalysis in 2014, leading the Heterogeneous Biocatalysis Group at CIC biomaGUNE, first as an Ikerbasque Research Fellow, and since 2019 as a Professor. 

He has published over 170 peer-reviewed articles in internationally recognized journals, which have been cited almost 10,000 times, as well as 10 invited reviews, an edited book, and eight granted patents. He has also presented his work at more than 50 internationally recognized conferences. 

Prof. López-Gallego’s work has been recognized with the SEBIOT Young Research Award and the Young Research Award for the Castilla-La Mancha region in Spain. In 2020, he was elected as a member of the Young Spanish Academy. 

He is currently the coordinator of the Biocatalysis Section of the Spanish Biotechnology Society (SEBIOT), and a member of the Equality Committee of CIC biomaGUNE and the Young Spanish Academy. 

Prof. López-Gallego has obtained numerous European projects, including an ERC Consolidator Grant (METACELL), an ERC Proof of Concept Grant (NIBIOX), a FET-Open project (HOTZYMES), an EIC Pathfinder project (BMRex), and two Marie Curie Training Networks (INTERFACES, BiocatExpandCode), which range from the fundamental development of biocatalysts to their industrial applications.