María Antonia Herrero (born 1978) is a chemist who works in the faculty of

chemical sciences Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a physical science within the natural sciences that studies the chemical elements that make up matter and compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions: their com ...

at the

University of Castilla–La Mancha The University of Castilla–La Mancha () is a public Spanish university. It offers courses in the cities of Albacete, Ciudad Real, Cuenca, Toledo, Almadén and Talavera de la Reina. This university was recognised by law on 30 June 1982, and b ...

(UCLM) in

Ciudad Real Ciudad Real (, ) is a municipality of Spain located in the autonomous community of Castile–La Mancha, capital of the province of Ciudad Real. It is the 5th most populated municipality in the region. It was founded as Villa Real in 1255 as a ro ...

. Her work focuses on chemical

nanomaterials Nanomaterials describe, in principle, chemical substances or materials of which a single unit is sized (in at least one dimension) between 1 and 100 nm (the usual definition of nanoscale). Nanomaterials research takes a materials science ...

, with research undertaken at the same university.

Life

Herrero began her doctorate in 2000, on microwaves and Sustainable Chemistry Group of the University of Castilla–La Mancha, working in aided by organic reactions microwaves. Part of her thesis was done in Uppsala, Sweden after which she earned her doctorate in 2006.

Research

Her work centres on the study of the applications of

, specifically

nanotube A nanotube is a nanoscale cylindrical structure with a hollow core, typically composed of carbon atoms, though other materials can also form nanotubes. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are the most well-known and widely studied type, consisting of rolled- ...

s, that can be modified for distinct uses in such diverse fields as medicine (e.g. as conveyors of drugs to treat illnesses like

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...

Alzheimer's disease Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease and the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in remembering recent events. As the disease advances, symptoms can include problems wit ...

). After she joined the nano-chemistry group at UCLM, her research focused on

microwave radiation Microwave is a form of electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths shorter than other radio waves but longer than infrared waves. Its wavelength ranges from about one meter to one millimeter, corresponding to frequencies between 300 MHz an ...

for the activation of carbon

nanostructures A nanostructure is a structure of intermediate size between microscopic and molecular structure A structure is an arrangement and organization of interrelated elements in a material object or system, or the object or system so organized. Ma ...

solvent A solvent (from the Latin language, Latin ''wikt:solvo#Latin, solvō'', "loosen, untie, solve") is a substance that dissolves a solute, resulting in a Solution (chemistry), solution. A solvent is usually a liquid but can also be a solid, a gas ...

-free conditions, developing multifunctional synthetic materials to be used in science and biological applications. She has authored over 35 scientific publications, some book chapters and holds four scientific patents. In 2012, María Antonia Herrero obtained a grant from the Iberdrola Foundation to develop a project in the field of energy and the environment. The project, headed by Herrero, proposed the preparation of a device that uses solar energy to produce electricity and wastewater regeneration through integrated electrochemical processes fed by renewable energies, thus contributing to the fight against climate change. In July 2016 she published research on ''Design of Assembled Systems Based on Conjugated Polyphenylene Derivatives and Carbon Nanohorns.''

Recent publications

* Functional motor recovery from brain ischemic insult by carbon nanotube-mediated siRNA silencing, PNAS, 108, 10952–10957, 2011. * Chirality dependent charge transfer events in individual semiconducting single wall carbon nanotubes – (9,4), (8,6), (8,7), and (9,7), J. Am. Chem. Soc., 133, 18696–18706, 2011. * Few-Layer graphenes from ball-milling of graphite with melamine, ChemComm, 47, 10936–10938, 2011. * Carbon nanohorns functionalized with polyamidoamine dendrimers as efficient biocarrier materials for gene therapy. Carbon, 50, 2832–2844, (2012). * Enhanced docetaxel-mediated cytotoxicity in human prostate cancer cells through knockdown of cofilin-1 by carbon nanohorn delivered siRNA. Biomaterials, 33, 8152–8159, (2012). * Degree of Chemical Functionalization of Carbon Nanotubes Determines Tissue Distribution and Excretion Profile.Angewandte Chemie, 124, 6495–6499, (2012). * In vivo degradation of functionalized carbon nanotubes after stereotactic administration in the brain cortex. Nanomedicine, 10, 1485–1494, (2012). * Asbestos-like pathogenicity of long carbon nanotubes can be alleviated by chemical functionalization. Angewandte Chemie. DOI: 10.1002/anie.201207664

Book chapters

*Recent Advances in Covalent Functionalization and Characterization of Carbon Nanotubes, Chapter 9: Fundamentals and ApplicHandbook of Carbon Nano Materials, , 271–324, 2011. *Reproducibility and scalability of Microwave-Assisted Reactions, Chapter in Fundamentals and Microwave heating (2011), .

Awards

In November 2010, she was awarded, along with four other scientists ( Isabel Lastres Becker, Ana Briones Alonso,

Mercedes Vila Mercedes Vila Juárez (born 1975) is a Spanish material science researcher. She is the chief technology officer (CTO) and co-founder of BioTech Foods SL. Path Mercedes Vila Juárez Vila was born in Madrid, Spain. graduated in Physics from th ...

and Elena Ramírez Parra), the L'Oréal-UNESCO Awards for Women in Science, with an endowment of €15000 each. This award rewards the work of women scientists under 40. In 2011, she received the "Ibn Wafid of Toledo" Prize, named after 10th-century Toledo physician

Abenguefit ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Wāfid al-Lakhmī (; c. 1008 – 1074), known in Latin Europe as , was an Andalusian Arab pharmacologist and physician from Toledo. He was the vizier of Al-Mamun of Toledo. His main work is ''Kitāb al-adwiya al-mu ...

, for young researchers from Castile-La Mancha. In 2012, the Iberdrola Foundation granted her an important line of investigation with the main subject of integration of carbon nanomaterials into solar cells.

References