Under the supervision of Prof. Carme Rovira, Oriol Esquivias Bautista de Lisbona, a former visitor in the group of Bernd Ensing, has obtained his PhD from the University of Barcelona with the higher possible note, i.e., “excellent”.
During his stay in our group, Oriol worked on combining quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics modelling with path-metadynamics to elucidate final step of the UDP-D-glucuronic acid 4-Epimerase (UGAE) mechanism. He obtained remarkable results, sampling a complex proton shuttle mechanism and discovering an intermediate state missing in the initially proposed catalytic mechanism.
A. Pérez de Alba Ortíz was part of the committee. Current group member Lingshu Zhou and former group member Albert Solé were present at the ceremony.
Congratulations, Dr. Oriol!
