PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

César de la Fuente, Ph.D.
 

CURRENT POSITION

University of Pennsylvania, Presidential Assistant Professor

Cesar de la Fuente is a Presidential Assistant Professor at the University of Pennsylvania, where he leads the Machine Biology Group whose goal is to combine the power of machines and biology to help prevent, detect, and treat infectious diseases. Specifically, he pioneered the development of the first antibiotic designed by a computer with efficacy in animals, designed algorithms for antibiotic discovery, reprogrammed venoms into antimicrobials, created novel resistance-proof antimicrobial materials, and invented rapid low-cost diagnostics for COVID-19 and other infections. De la Fuente is an NIH MIRA investigator and has received recognition and research funding from numerous other groups. Prof. de la Fuente has received over 50 awards. He was recognized by MIT Technology Review as one of the world's top innovators for "digitizing evolution to make better antibiotics". He was selected as the inaugural recipient of the Langer Prize, an ACS Kavli Emerging Leader in Chemistry, and received the AIChE's 35 Under 35 Award and the ACS Infectious Diseases Young Investigator Award. In 2021, he received the Thermo Fisher Award, and the EMBS Academic Early Career Achievement Award "For the pioneering development of novel antibiotics designed using principles from computation, engineering and biology". Most recently, Prof. de la Fuente  was awarded the prestigious Princess of Girona Prize for Scientific Research, the ASM Award for Early Career Applied and Biotechnological Research and was named a Highly Cited Researcher by Clarivate. Prof. de la Fuente has given over 200 invited lectures and his scientific discoveries have yielded over 100 publications, including papers in Nature Biomedical Engineering, Nature Communications, PNAS, ACS Nano, Cell, Nature Chemical Biology, Advanced Materials, and multiple patents.
To request a Curriculum Vitae from Dr. de la Fuente, please contact Jillian Mallon (mallonj@upenn.edu).

 

AWARDS AND HONORS

Molecules 2022 Young Investigator Award, 2022
2022 Judith H. Greenberg Early Career Investigator Lecture, 2022
IJMS 2021 Young Investigator Award, 2022
Royal Spanish Society of Chemistry (RSEQ) Young Investigator Award, 2022
Forbes Top 50 Awarded Spaniards, 2021
Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher, 2021
Forbes top 100 most creative Spanish individuals, 2021
2022 ASM Award for Early Career Applied and Biotechnological Research, 2021
Antibiotics 2020 Young Investigator Award, 2021
IEEE EMBS Academic Early Career Achievement Award "For the pioneering development of novel antibiotics designed using principles from computation, engineering and biology.", 2021
Thermo Fisher Scientific Award, 2021
IADR Innovation in Oral Care Awards, 2021
Princess of Girona Prize for Scientific Research, 2021
Waksman Foundation Lecturer, 2021
ASM Distinguished Lecturer, 2021
Philadelphia Business Journal 40 Under 40, 2021
Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) CMBE Rising Star Award, 2021
AlChE's 35 Under 35 Award, 2020
Selected by the US National Academies to serve on the committee to " Exam long-term health and economic effects of antimicrobial resistance in the US", 2020
Selected as Chair of Panel in the World Laureate Forum, Computational Biology Summit, 2020
NIH MIRA Investigator, 2020
Brain & Behavior Research Foundation (BBRF) Young Investigator Award, 2020
Nemirovsky Prize, 2020
30 Rising Leaders In The Life Sciences, 2020
ACS Infectious Diseases Young Investigator Award, 2020
ACS 2020 Kavli Emerging Leader in Chemistry Lecture Award, 2020
Selected as Scialog Fellow by RCSA, the Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group and the Frederick Gardner Cottrell Foundation, 2020
Recipient of the Langer Prize, 2019
Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers Young Investigator Award, 2019
Elected Delegate. American Academy Achievement. 53rd International Achievement Summit, 2019
Named a Penn Presidential Professor, 2019
Named to the TR35 for “Top Young Innovators Under 35”MIT Technology Review, 2019
Named a GEN Top 10 Under 40, 2019
Elected Judge, MIT Technology Review Innovators Under 35 Europe, 2019
Named a 2018 Wunderkind by STAT News, 2018
Elected for MISTI MIT Global Seed Funds Scientific Review Committee, 2018
Elected Judge, MIT Technology Review Innovators Under 35 Europe, 2018
Elected Judge, MIT Technology Review Innovators Under 35 Europe, 2017
Junior Fellow, ACS Nano, 2017
Innovator Under 35 (Spain), MIT Technology Review, 2016
30 Under 30 Latino Boston, 2016
Ruth & William A. Silen Award for Microbiology, Immunology, Genetics or Molecular Biology, Harvard Medical School, 2016
“Ramón Areces” Postdoctoral Fellowship, Ramón Areces Foundation, 2015
Robert Emmanuel & Mary Day Endowment AwardUniversity of British Columbia, 2014
“la Caixa” Fellow, awarded by the King and Queen of Spain, 2012
Robert Emmanuel & Mary Day Endowment AwardUniversity of British Columbia, 2012