Ms Lorena Diéguez
Contact Details
Tel: +61 8 8302 3688
Fax: +61 8 8302 3683
Email: lorena.dieguez@unisa.edu.au
Position
Research Associate
Qualifications
MBSc USC Santiago de Compostela, Spain MSc UB Barcelona, Spain PhD UB
Barcelona, Spain (under submission)
Background
Lorena Diéguez was educated in Spain, obtaining her degree in Physics and
Optoelectronics at the Universidade de Santiago de Compostela (USC). She
then moved to Barcelona to complete her Masters in Nanoscience and
Nanotechnology at the Universitat de Barcelona (UB). Lorena did her PhD in
Nanosciences (under submission) together in the Electronics Department at
the University of Barcelona and at the research group on Nanobioengineering
at the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia, Spain, under the
supervision of Dr Mauricio Moreno and Dr Elena Martínez. During her PhD
research, she worked mainly in the area of optical and electrochemical
biosensors, their design and biomedical applications. Lorena joined The Wark
in October 2010 under the supervision of A/Prof Benjamin Thierry.
Research Interests
Lorena is interested in understanding molecular and cellular processes at
bio(non-bio) interfaces. Towards this objective, she believes on the
development of novel biosensor techniques for diagnosis and drug discovery
in collaboration with academic and industrial partners. Her aim is to
develop her scientific carrier in the nanotechnology applied to the
biomedical science field. This is the reason why she joined The Wark, to
work on the design of capture systems able to provide fast and reliable
detection of target cells captured from biological samples, which aims to
better predict cancer outcomes. As a Research Associate, Lorena thinks that
the combination of nano-, micro- and biotechnologies presents high potential
towards long-sought solutions to biological and medical problems.
Funding
NH&MRC project grant 511303 (Griesser H. J., Thierry B., Brown M. B.,
Majewski P., Taylor, J. D.)
Supervision
MSc Sofia Azevedo, 'Development of Nanostructured Materials for Medical
Nanobiosensors' (University of Minho, October 2009)
Publications
Articles in Peer Reviewed Journals
Fabrication of optical gratings coated with Si3N4 for efficient
immunosensing monitored by OWLS, L. Diéguez, D. Caballero, J. Calderer, M.
Moreno, E. Martínez, J. Samitier, (under submission)
Effect of the Refractive Index of Buffer Solutions in Evanescent Optical
Biosensors, L. Diéguez, N. Darwish, M. Mir, E. Martínez, M. Moreno, J.
Samitier, Sensor Letters 7, 851-855, 2009
Electrochemically controlled deposition and dissolution of PLL/DNA
multilayers, L. Diéguez, N. Darwish, N. Graf, J. Vörös, T. Zambelli, Soft
Matter 5, 2415-2421, 2009
Second order effects of aspect ratio variations in high sensitivity grating
couplers, N. Darwish, L. Diéguez, M. Moreno, F. Muñoz, R. Mas, J. Mas, J.
Samitier, B. Nilsson, G. Petersson; Microelectronics Engineering 84,
1775-1778, 2007
Oral Communications in International Conferences
Fabrication of different optical gratings for efficient biosensing by
Optical Waveguide Spectroscopy (Oral Communication), L. Dieguez, S. Acevedo,
M. Moreno, E. Martínez, V. Teixeira, J. Samitier
MPA meeting 2010 - Materials, Processing and Applications of emerging
technologies. (Braga, Portugal)
Fabrication of optical gratings coated with Si3N4 for efficient
immunosensing monitored by Optical Waveguide Spectroscopy (Poster-flash
presentation), L. Diéguez, D. Caballero, J. Calderer, M. Moreno, E. Martínez,
J. Samitier, NanoSpain 2010 (Malaga, Spain)
Optical Waveguide Lightmode Spectroscopy for Detection of Olfactory Receptor
(Oral communication), L. Diéguez, M. Mir, S. Rodríguez-Seguí, A. Errachid,
E. Martínez, J. Samitier, MADICA 2008 (Rabat, Morocco)
Optical Waveguide Lightmode Spectroscopy for Detection of Olfactory Receptor
(Oral communication), L. Diéguez, M. Mir, S. Rodríguez-Seguí, A. Errachid,
E. Martínez, J. Samitier, XXIV Trobades Cientifiques de la Mediterrania: La
fisica a les ciencies de la vida. 2008 (Mao, Spain)
Teaching experience
Microfluidics laboratory -30 hours within the Master of Biomedical
Engineering (UB) and 30 hours within the Master of Nanoscience and
Nanotechnology (UB)
Basic Digital Design laboratory -60 hours within the Electronic
Telecommunications Engineering degree (UB)- and Commutation Basis laboratory
-120 hours within the Electronic Engineering degree (UB)