J.G. currently leads a research group at Universidad Católica de Valencia (2010-present), and previously at CIPF Valencia (2004-09), focused on nucleic acid structure and drug discovery. After completing his Ph.D. at Universidad de Alcalá in 1994, he worked as postdoc and research assistant professor at the University of Washington (Seattle USA; 1995-99) and the MRC LMB (Cambridge UK; 2000-03), and as research scientist in Medivir Ltd (Cambridge UK; 2003-04).

In the area of interactions between biomolecules and small ligands, we have designed and characterized terphenylene mimics of protein alpha-helices that inhibit the function of the HIV-1 protein Rev and block viral replication (González-Bulnes et al, Angew chem 2013; Gallego et al, WO2014128198; Medina et al, Sci Rep 2020), and identified additional inhibitors of HIV-1 RNA biogenesis through Rev-based screens (Prado et al, Biochem Pharmacol 2016; Biochem Pharmacol 2018; Gallego et al, WO2020002733). Presently, we are also involved in a project focused on the discovery of anti-SARS-CoV-2 small-molecule agents. Previously, the research group elucidated the binding mechanism of a family of antitumor bisnaphthalimides to DNA (González-Bulnes & Gallego JACS 2009; Biopolymers 2012) and participated with computational analyses in the study of the allosteric modulation of carbamyl phosphate synthethase by N-Ac-glutamate (Pekkala et al, Biochem J 2009; Díez-Fernández et al, J Genet Genomics 2015) and glutamate kinase by proline (Perez-Arellano et al, JMB 2010; FEBS J 2007). J. G. obtained previous experience in this area from his involvement in the design of human and viral protease inhibitors at Medivir Ltd, as well as from several theoretical (Gallego et al, J Med Chem 1993; J Med Chem 1994; JBSD 1994; JCAMD 1997; Pascual-Teresa et al, J Med Chem 1996) and experimental (Gallego & Reid, Biochemistry 1999; Gallego, NAR 2004) academic projects involving DNA-drug interactions.

In the area of nucleic acid structure, we are currently studying the structure and interactions of the essential 3’X and 5BSL3.2 RNA domains of hepatitis C virus (Cantero-Camacho & Gallego, NAR 2015; NAR 2018; Cantero-Camacho et al, RNA 2017; Castillo et al, RNA 2020) as well as conserved structures present in the genomic RNA of SARS-CoV-2 (Wacker et al. NAR 2020) and Chikungunya virus. We have also analyzed the influence of intron and exon RNA structures on the splicing and degradation of the pre-mRNA of Sus1, an essential protein involved in RNA biogenesis (AbuQattam et al, RNA 2016; AbuQattam et al, BBA GRM 2018). Previously, we studied the structure and catalytic mechanism of hammerhead ribozymes (de la Peña et al, RNA 2009; Dufour et al, NAR 2009), and characterized the structure and functional impact of an RNA hairpin that regulates discontinuous transcription in the transmissible gastroenteritis coronavirus (Dufour et al, J Virol 2011). In addition, we analyzed the structural impact of hydrophobic base analogues on double-stranded DNA (Gallego & Loakes NAR 2007; Loakes et al, JACS 2009). These projects were facilitated by previous postdoctoral experience in NMR analyses of HCV IRES domain IIIb (Collier et al, Nature Struct Biol 2002) and HIV-1 packaging signal (Greatorex et al, JMB 2002; Gallego et al, J Biol Chem 2003) as well as centromeric DNA sequences forming i-motif structures (Gallego et al, JMB 1997; JMB 1999).