Researcher Olga Abian Franco, new academic at the Kingdom of Aragon Academy of Pharmacy.
On Thursday, October 26, Olga Abian Franco, Professor at University of Zaragoza and BIFI researcher, delivered her induction speech as a full academician of the Academia de Farmacia Reino de Aragón.
The event took place at the Colegio Oficial de Farmacéuticos of Zaragoza and was accessible both in person or online. It was attended by local political representatives, as well as a
significant number of academics, researcher and faculty colleagues and family.
The speech given by pharmacist Olga Abian was titled: “Academic research facing the challenge of discovering new drugs.”
In her address, she delved into various aspects of drug discovery within the academic sphere. She emphasized the significance of selecting protein targets of interest and how to alter their biological function and folding; the application of biophysical techniques for characterizing the structure and function of these targets; the mounting importance of Intrinsically Disordered Proteins ( IDPs ) as therapeutic targets; and the indispensable stages in identifying potential drugs in academic laboratories, ranging from recognizing unresolved health issues to preclinical testing of compounds.
Career Olga Abian Franco
Graduate in Pharmacy from the University of Navarra and PhD from the Autonomous University of Madrid. She is currently researcher at the Institute of Biocomputing and Physics of Complex Systems (BIFI) and Professor at the University of Zaragoza in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular and Cellular Biology, both at the University of Zaragoza. She is principal investigator of projects funded by the Carlos III Health Institute and collaborator in European collaboration projects and networks.
