Miguel Angel SOLER BASTIDA

Personal Data

Address:          Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia
                          Via Torino 155, 30170 Venezia Mestre - Italy
Phone:              +39 041 234 8427
email:                miguel.soler@unive
ResearcherID: J-2389-2013
ORCID:             0000-0002-5780-9949
Web:                 unive.it 

Present position

From August 2025
Term-contract Researcher (RTDb)
at University Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Venice, Italy

Education

Jun 2010
Ph.D. in Theoretical and Computational Chemistry,
University of Murcia, Spain
Thesis: “Study of the Vibrational Relaxation of N-methylacetamide in water solution”
Supervisors: Profs. Alberto Requena and Adolfo Bastida
Mark: Sobresaliente CUM LAUDE (highest honor)
Sept 2005
Degree in Chemistry, University of Murcia, Spain
Thesis: “Estudio Computacional del Comportamiento Electrófilo de Sales de 3-Metil-2metiltio-1,3,4-Tiadiazolio”
Supervisor: Arturo Espinosa
Mark: 8.65/10 | GPA: 3.65/4

Previous positions

2022 - 2025
Term-contract Researcher (RTDa) at University of Udine, Udine, Italy
2018 - 2021
Term-contract Researcher at IIT, Genoa, Italy
2016 - 2017
Postdoctoral Researcher at SISSA, Trieste, Italy
2014 - 2016
Postdoctoral Researcher at University of Udine, Italy
2011 - 2013
Postdoctoral Researcher at University of Lisbon, Portugal

Research Summary

My research has evolved through the study of vibrational dynamics of peptides (my PhD. in Murcia), the protein folding (my first 2-year postdoc in Lisbon), and protein-protein interaction (Italy). This background in computational chemistry and biophysics applied to biological systems offers me the unique skillset to cover a wide range of problems and applications in protein nanoscience. Therefore, in my current research my expertise in this intriguing triangular relationship among dynamics-structure-function that regulates the biological role of proteins is often exploited.

At the beginning of 2014, I came to Italy to work, first in the Prof. Scoles’ group in Udine and subsequently in the Prof. Laio’s group in SISSA (Trieste), in a multidisciplinary project for the design of peptides and single domain antibodies as probes for the molecular recognition of proteins and drugs. Since then, my research has been dedicated towards the development of computational tools for the optimization of protein binders.

I developed different computational protocols for evaluating with more accuracy and more efficiency the binding affinity of protein-protein complexes, as well as new approaches to predict the stability of the engineered single domain antibodies. I co-led a collaborative project for the in silico design of customized high-affinity antibody fragments for biomarker detection as an alternative approach of the traditional in vivo immunization methods for the selection of antibodies lead binders, as well as several computational projects. This research has required the strong collaboration with researchers of different fields, such as nanotechnology, molecular biology or
medicine.

The developed methodologies have resulted essential elements for carrying out the upgrade of the algorithm of binder design, capable to optimize the binding affinity of peptides or antibody fragments. Its last software version, called Locuaz, has just been released this year and supports parallel exploration of different mutation streams, enabling in silico high-throughput screening on HPC systems.