Team Leader

Dr Cesar S. Huertas

Email: cesar.sanchez.huertas@rmit.edu.au

Google scholar, ResearchGate, Linkedin

RMIT University

Office location: 14.12.07

Biography: Cesar S. Huertas obtained his PhD at the Autonomous University of Barcelona in March 2016. He worked for 6 years in a top research biosensor group, the Nanobiosensors and Bioanalytical Applications (NanoB2A) group, led by Prof. Laura M. Lechuga, and located at the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2), where he introduced and established during his postdoctoral position a novel research line for the analysis of genomic and epigenomic markers using nanophotonic biosensors. Currently, he holds an RMIT Vice-Chancellor's Research Fellowship and is the Leader of the Biomedical Applications Team at the Integrated Photonics and Applications Centre (InPAC), led by Prof. Arnan Mitchell, where he has a leading position in the development of diagnostics and prognostics applications for microfluidics-integrated optical biosensors.

Journal Publications

  • Huertas, C.S., Soler, M., Estévez, M.-Carmen, and Lechuga, L.M. "One-step immobilization of antibodies and DNA on gold sensor surfaces via poly-Adenine oligonucleotide approach", Analytical Chemistry, just published (2020). DOI: 10.1021/acs.analchem.0c02619

  • O. Calvo-Lozano, A. Aviñó, V. Friaza, A. Medina-Escuela, C. S. Huertas, E. J. Calderón, R. Eritja and L. M. Lechuga. "Fast and accurate pneumocystis pneumonia diagnosis in human samples using a label-free plasmonic sensor", Nanomaterials, 10, 1246 (2020). DOI: 10.3390/nano10061246

  • Huertas, C.S., Bonnal, S., Soler, M., Escuela, A. M., Valcárcel, J., Lechuga, L. M., "Site-Specific mRNA Cleavage for Selective and Quantitative Profiling of Alternative Splicing with Label-Free Optical Biosensors", Analytical Chemistry, 91, 23, 15138-15146, (2019). DOI:10.1021/acs.analchem.9b03898

  • Huertas, C.S., Calvo-Lozano, O., Mitchell, A., Lechuga, L.M., "Advanced Evanescent-Wave Optical Biosensors for the Detection of Nucleic Acids: An Analytic Perspective", Frontiers in Chemistry, 7:724, (2019). DOI:10.3389/fchem.2019.00724

  • Aviñó, A., Jorge, A.F., Huertas, C.S., Cova, T.F.G.G., Pais, A., Lechuga, L.M., Eritja, R., Fabrega, C.“Aptamer-peptide conjugates as a new strategy to modulate human α -thrombin binding affinity”. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta - General Subjects, 1863 (10), pp. 1619-1630 (2019). DOI:10.1016/j.bbagen.2019.06.014

  • Knoerzer, M., Szydzik, C., Ren, G., Huertas, C.S., Palmer, S., Tang, P., Nguyen, T.G., Bui, L., Boes, A., Mitchell, A."Optical frequency comb based system for photonic refractive index sensor interrogation", Optics Express, 27 (15), pp. 21532-21545 (2019). DOI: 10.1364/OE.27.021532

  • Ren, G., Zhang, B.Y., Yao, Q., Zavabeti, A., Huertas, C.S., Brkljača, R., Khan, M.W., Nili, H., Datta, R.S., Khan, H., Jannat, A., Walia, S., Haque, F., O'Dell, L.A., Wang, Y., Zhu, L., Mitchell, A., Ou, J.Z., “An Ultrasensitive Silicon Photonic Ion Sensor Enabled by 2D Plasmonic Molybdenum Oxide”, Small, 15 (9), art. no. 1805251, (2019). DOI: 10.1002/smll.201805251

  • Soler, M., Huertas, C.S., Lechuga, L.M., “Label-free plasmonic biosensors for point-of-care diagnostics: a review”, Expert Review of Molecular Diagnostics, 19 (1), pp. 71-81, (2019). DOI: 10.1080/14737159.2019.1554435

  • Huertas, C.S., Aviñó, A., Kurachi, C., Piqué, A., Sandoval, J., Eritja, R., Esteller, M., Lechuga, L.M., “Label-free DNA-methylation detection by direct ds-DNA fragment screening using poly-purine hairpins”, Biosensors and Bioelectronics, 120, pp. 47-54, (2018). DOI: 10.1016/j.bios.2018.08.027

  • Huertas, C.S., Domínguez-Zotes, S., Lechuga, L.M., “Analysis of alternative splicing events for cancer diagnosis using a multiplexing nanophotonic biosensor”, Scientific Reports, 7, art. no. 41368, (2017). DOI: 10.1038/srep41368

  • Huertas, C.S., Fariña, D., Lechuga, L.M., “Direct and Label-Free Quantification of Micro-RNA-181a at Attomolar Level in Complex Media Using a Nanophotonic Biosensor”, ACS Sensors, 1 (6), pp. 748-756, (2016). DOI: 10.1021/acssensors.6b00162

  • Huertas, C.S., Carrascosa, L.G., Bonnal, S., Valcárcel, J., Lechuga, L.M., “Quantitative evaluation of alternatively spliced mRNA isoforms by label-free real-time plasmonic sensing”, Biosensors and Bioelectronics, 78, pp. 118-125, (2016). DOI: 10.1016/j.bios.2015.11.023

  • Aviñó, A., Huertas, C.S., Lechuga, L.M., Eritja, R., “Sensitive and label-free detection of miRNA-145 by triplex formation”, Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry, 408 (3), pp. 885-893, (2016). DOI: 10.1007/s00216-015-9180-6

  • Carrascosa, L.G., Huertas, C.S., Lechuga, L.M., “Prospects of optical biosensors for emerging label-free RNA analysis”, TrAC - Trends in Analytical Chemistry, 80, pp. 177-189, (2016). DOI: 10.1016/j.trac.2016.02.018