Alejandro Ruiz

Universidad Complutense de Madrid / Marine Biotechnology

Advisor: Prof. Carmen Fernández

Alejandro Ruiz investigates the bioactive peptide inventory of macroalgae harvested from the Galician Rías Baixas, one of Europe's most productive coastal upwelling zones. At the Universidad Complutense de Madrid's Marine Biology unit, he combines enzymatic hydrolysis protocols with high-resolution LC-MS/MS to sequence novel peptides, then screens hits for ACE-inhibitory and antioxidant activity in cell-culture models. His thesis supervisor Prof. Carmen Fernández has positioned the group at the interface of food science and pharmaceutical discovery, and Alejandro's work has already yielded three peptides with sub-micromolar IC₅₀ values against angiotensin-converting enzyme — competitive with commercial nutraceuticals. He maintains a bioinformatics pipeline for de novo sequencing of algal proteomes and has contributed to an EU Horizon Bluegenics consortium studying coastal biomass valorisation. Alejandro has co-authored two peer-reviewed articles and is in active discussions with a Galician seaweed processing company about scaling his extraction protocol, signalling clear readiness for industry engagement around marine natural products chemistry.